Professor and Department Chair , University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 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.

Although my racial, ethnic, gender and national identities are very much in the traditional majority in the geosciences, I bring a depth of leadership experience in academic organizations as department chair and as associate dean. In both, I have navigated the challenges of academic units that were recently merged and reorganized. The need to develop and nurture a shared vision for how these units could thrive in the face of institutional and external pressures has helped me learn how to bring together diverse constituencies and work toward common goals. These experiences have shaped my strongly held belief that leadership is most effective when it is rooted in a vision of leadership as service, to the institution and to its constituents.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

I have worked for the surface processes and tectonics community as an editor for society journals (Tectonics; Lithosphere; GSA Bulletin; Geology), as a member of AGU committees (currently, Fellows committee for Earth and Planetary Surface Processes (EPSP) and previously, Chair of the Early Career Award Committee for Tectonophysics), as an advocate for broadening education and inclusion (Geological Society of America (GSA) Education Committee; Chair of GSA International Interest Group), and as an elected member of the GSA Council.

This role aims to catalyze community and build AGU as envisioned by the strategic plan. This leadership position is a dual role - helping to advance AGU’s strategic plan as a member of Council and leading your section. How would you support the Board, staff and other sections to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals? How will you engage with members of your section to execute AGU’s strategic plan?

The strength of the EPSP section lies in its members, their energy and engagement. The central goal of the leadership team should be to nurture this community of scholars by celebrating accomplishment and discovery, expanding access to a broad range of individuals and communities, and providing a platform of activities on which members can stretch the intellectual boundaries of their work. In many regards, particularly with engagement of early career scientists and on issues of equity and inclusiveness, the EPSP community leads sections across AGU. From my perspective, the immediate need is one of stewardship, ensuring that the remarkable growth of the section over the past decade and a half continues while maintaining a vibrant and engaged community.

Our society faces a twin crisis. On one hand, public trust in science and, indeed, in evidence-based decisions of all kinds, is waning, just as we face the many faceted problem of climate change. To help address this, I would facilitate and strengthen EPSP partnerships within AGU; sections such GeoHealth, Global Environmental Change, and Natural Hazards afford opportunities for new discovery and collaboration among AGU members. At the same time, I envision an enhanced effort in outreach and education. Revitalizing societal trust is a generational problem, one that requires efforts not just in our universities, but among communities on the front lines of environmental change. Finally, solving societal problems requires close collaboration with our colleagues in the social sciences to ensure community-based, ethical, and inclusive decisions. I will work toward these goals.

Section affiliations:

Earth and Planetary Surface Processes; Hydrology; Tectonophysics