Dr. Vernon Morris is responsible for producing over 50% of the African American and 30% of the Latina Ph.D.s in atmospheric sciences in the U.S. between 2006 and 2018 by designing, implementing and leading the Howard University Atmospheric Sciences Program. He has personally mentored over 200 students and other geoscientists of color. His development of partnerships in the federal, public and private sectors has created opportunities for an additional 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Dr. Morris has also designed numerous experiential learning programs in atmospheric sciences for middle and high school students who might otherwise not have had access to these opportunities. For example, between 2002 and 2018 the Channeling Atmospheric Research into Educational Experiences Reaching Students (CAREERS) camps provided learning opportunities to nearly 1,000 students, nearly 40% of whom subsequently entered college-level STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) degree programs in the geosciences.

In 2020 Dr. Morris assembled a group of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) scientists and allies to publish No Time for Silence, a call to action for the equitable inclusion of scholars of color as necessary participants in the geoscience community. The statement included actionable recommendations for professional societies and federal agencies that have since guided meaningful changes within them.

Since transitioning to his current position as foundation professor and associate dean at Arizona State University (ASU) in 2020, Dr. Morris has helped build the Presidential Graduate Fellows and Presidential Postdoctoral Fellows programs. Over the past 3 years, these programs have created opportunities for over 100 underrepresented scholars at ASU. The postdoctoral fellows program tracks participants into faculty positions; five fellows have already made this transition, while another 30 postdocs are on pathways to become ASU faculty soon. Both programs are aimed at transformational impact on faculty diversity both at ASU and nationally.

Dr. Morris recently led the creation of the Future Leaders and Geoscience High-Road Internship Program (FLAGSHIP). Since 2021, FLAGSHIP has brought students who live in the cities that host the annual AGU meetings together with other students from around the country, AGU members, community organizations and infrastructure workforce professionals. The experience is designed to provide students with a network that facilitates their access to careers and advanced education at the interface of environment, climate and infrastructure. It has since been institutionalized at ASU with a long-term funding model in place.

Dr. Morris continues to advocate passionately for equitable inclusion, justice and anti-elitism in the STEM community through his leadership, public lectures, consulting and publications.

— Drew Lehman
Environment and Education
Napa, California

I am humbled to receive the AGU Lifetime Achievement Award for Diversity and Inclusion. I rarely stop and reflect on my accomplishments in diversity and inclusion. My John Henryism inhibits the luxury. Moreover, it is always a team effort. I offer my heartfelt thanks to Drew Lehman for leading the nomination and to my colleagues who wrote letters of support. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have accompanied so many wonderful students, colleagues and collaborators along their professional and personal journeys. Thank you, my brothers and sisters. I’ve been blessed to be a primary mentor to over 200 students/learners. It’s a joy to see the success of former mentees, including many that I have known as teenagers, wielding expertise, leading, serving and inspiring positive change across all sectors of the geosciences. I feel enriched because of you. I offer you my sincere thanks as well.The commitment to expanding access to opportunity and success has been a core value throughout my personal journey as a scientist. This has demanded a dedication to seeing the unseen, listening to the unheard, giving voice to the silenced and creating space for the excluded. I’ve aimed to not just raise my voice to challenge misperceptions, biases, unearned privilege and systems of exclusion head-on, but to put action behind the words. It has demanded the creation of programs and opportunities where there were none and to not just dream some impossible dreams, but to implement and sustain them. It has never been an easy path. It is fraught with personal and professional risk and is often unrewarded in traditional systems of merit. But this is no time for silence or inaction.A lifetime award might imply that my work is done. Not so. The geosciences community has a long way to go to achieve equitable inclusion and the necessary adoption of a justice-centered paradigm. But I believe that it is entirely achievable. I am currently implementing programs that I hope will transform the academy in ways similar to how a small program at an HBCU (historically Black college or university) inspired changes in the atmospheric sciences. After all, who could imagine that a program started by four upstart assistant professors would produce 60% of the African American Ph.D.s and 30% of the Latina Ph.D.s in atmospheric sciences between 2006 and 2018 and become a leading producer of diverse Ph.D. talent for the National Weather Service? It always starts with imagining a different future.— Vernon R. Morris, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

The teams who created the “Call for a Robust Anti-Racism Plan for the Geosciences,” led by Dr. Hendratta Ali and “No Time for Silence,” led by Dr. Vernon Morris. These two teams created an important dialogue and a framework for being anti-racist in geosciences that is being used by organizations around the world to make our community more diverse and inclusive. Their work served as the foundation to AGU’s eight deliberate steps that we committed to taking to support our Black and Brown family, friends, colleagues and students.