AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, National Science Foundation / American Association for the Advancement of Science, Alexandria, VA, 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.

I’m Boricua, and my Caribbean hydroclimate research is motivated by my Hispanic heritage. As a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I bring both my cultural background and my commitment to inclusivity into my work in Geosciences. Engaging with various communities and fostering inclusive leadership at AGU are core to my mission. I am a climate scientist who also subscribes to a faith. Over the years I have been so fortunate to have met many geoscientists and practitioners at AGU and across the Earth Sciences who subscribe to multiple ways of knowing. As an Early-Career Scientist, I am dedicated to advancing initiatives that support and elevate early-career voices, research, and professional development within the Geoscience Enterprise. These experiences and values guide my contributions and efforts on the AGU Council.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

I was an AGU Community Science Fellow under the Thriving Earth Exchange where I led cross-disciplinary community science projects on climate and resilience. I developed and chair the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Committee on Spirituality, Multifaith Outreach, and Science (COSMOS), seeking to promote inclusion and collaboration of Faith-based Understandings and Indigenous Knowledges in the Geoscience Enterprise. I am a board member of the AMS Board on Representation, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity (BRAID).

The student and early career voices on the Council are critical to the future of Earth and space sciences. Describe a time when you used your voice to inspire others to advance a cause, mission, or goal.

My passion for the atmosphere and our planet stems from my faith and the desire to be a good steward of our Common Home. Now that is a sentence I never thought I'd be ever able to type in the Geoscience Enterprise, let alone for the AGU Council. But over the years, I have found numerous professionals in our community who subscribe to multiple knowledges -- Western Science, and Indigenous or faith-based. However, there were no formalized spaces for professionals like me within scientific societies to form community, despite the synergies between these knowledge systems on environmental topics such as resilience, environmental justice, and mental health.

So, I made my voice heard. I inspired the American Meteorological Society to permit me to develop and lead a Multifaith and Science Committee that promotes inclusion and collaboration of faith-based understandings and Indigenous Knowledges in the Geoscience Enterprise, while fostering a space for spiritual and faith-based subscribed professionals to network, share ideas, and collaborate.

Through the Committee, I have had the joy of seeing so many professionals in our community, students and early-to-late career professionals feel welcomed and inspired to have a similar space for their professional institutions and organizations. I firmly believe use-inspired research is at its best when communities are at the table from start to finish weaving their local knowledge in science. I hope my voice on including these types of communities at AGU can foster inclusivity and promote a multi-knowledge Geoscience Enterprise.

Section affiliations:

Atmospheric Sciences; Global Environmental Change; Ocean Sciences; Science and Society