Research Physical Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes leaders representing various identities, voices, and perspectives. List any identities, voices, and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and anything else you feel comfortable sharing.

As the daughter of Argentinians, I would contribute a unique perspective to the secretariat position that would inform AGU’s goal to define “associated competencies required of a scientist in the 21st century”. Among such “competencies” I rank multilingualism high on the list, particularly as Earth system science becomes more globally impactful. To this end, my Spanish fluency has enabled new collaborations with scientists in Spain, significantly augmenting my research scope. Second, as the only physical scientist at NASA GISS who is fluent in Spanish, I communicate emergent GISS results to the Spanish speaking public, i.e., reporting the annual release of the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis estimate of global surface temperature change on live RCN Radio Colombia (17 January 2020). I have also discussed the challenges of being a Latina researcher in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field through both a video interview (https ://www.nasa.gov/stem-content/nasa-stem-stars-atmospheric-science-espanol/) and written exchanges with NASA (https://www.nccs.nasa.gov/news-events/nccs-highlights/user-spotlight-orbe) and the Santa Fe Institute (https://santafe.edu/engage/learn/alumni/clara-orbe). On a more personal note, I have developed skills in communicating the exigency of the climate crisis to a non-science audience and have acquired new perspective on global climate change by learning about recent drought impacts on soy crop yields in Argentina from my (farmer) uncle.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

As volunteer Chair of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Middle Atmosphere Committee (https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/stac/committees/committee-on-middle-atmosphere/), I am responsible for organizing relevant meetings, developing the committee’s long-term strategic vision and organizing award nominations. I also serve on the steering committees for the Stratosphere-troposphere Process And their Role in Climate (SPARC) Quasi-Biennial Oscillation and Chemistry Climate Modeling Initiatives. At NASA I broadly work with senior management to refine Goddard's future integrative science strategy, while at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) I communicate all emergent results to the Spanish-speaking public (see “Identity Question” above).

As one of the elected leaders of your section, how will you partner with your president, president-elect, other leaders, and staff to communicate with and engage your members to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals?

When interacting with other section members, I will leverage my relationships with other professional organizations (e.g., AMS Middle Atmosphere Committee, SPARC Quasi-Biennial Oscillation and Chemistry Climate Modeling Initiatives) to develop a more robust vision for middle atmosphere research priorities in the atmospheric science section's long-term goals. In particular, I will work to increase research addressing middle atmosphere coupling to surface climate at the annual AGU Fall Meeting which, despite its breadth, has relatively poor representation of stratospheric science. Focus areas will include emerging results on the role of stratospheric initialization on subseasonal prediction and ozone recovery in the 21st century. These efforts will occur in the broader context of ongoing international efforts at SPARC oriented at rendering middle atmosphere science more actionable and relevant to surface climate.

In terms of contributing to specific AGU strategic goals I will support goal 1 by 1) critically addressing what "solution-based" science means across a spectrum of fields (i.e., theory vs. applied research); 2) leveraging my experience working on NASA’s “earth to action” strategy to provide insight on how government agencies are transitioning toward a more actionable science portfolio; and 3) lean on insight from the GISS climate impacts group to identify mechanisms for developing new stakeholders. To support goal 2, I will work with section members to enhance recruitment of early career scientists through promotion of early career mixers at AGU events and by speaking candidly about career paths in government (for which mechanisms to getting a permanent position are not always transparent).

Section affiliations:

Atmospheric Sciences