THE ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN GEOSCIENTISTS’ GIP PROGRAM – WHY IT IS NEEDED AND HOW THE GEOSCIENCE COMMUNITY AND NPS CAN WORK TOGETHER

The Association for Women Geoscientists' (AWG) Geoscientist in the Parks (GIP) program is a continuing program (since 1999). By supporting the GIP Program, we satisfy AWG’s mandate to provide compelling opportunities for women geoscientists and showcase their work, as well as filling the NPS’s need for professional-level GIP researchers not available to them from student-based programs. AWG chooses GIP opportunities that require previous scientific, technical, research, and project-specific expertise. We provide up to four stipends per fiscal year, program administration (candidate screening, project tracking and stipend disbursement), and publication of the GIPs’ project summaries in our bi-monthly newsletter (Gaea). AWG’s Foundation (AWGF) funds three of these positions, and will accept proposals from AWG’s GIPs to create educational materials for Park uses. To date AWG and AWGF have funded thirteen GIPs dealing with (but not limited to) paleontology, stratigraphy, coastal processes, vegetation mapping, fluvial processes and historical watershed studies, wetlands delineation, caves inventory and petrified tree stabilization.

AWG’s GIPs and their NPS colleagues are highly satisfied with this partnership; GIPs appreciate the unique opportunities to work in the parks, and to contribute knowledge concerning the geologic resources, physical processes, paleontologic and historical preservation, and educational outreach that cannot be addressed by limited management staff at the parks. AWG is committed to maintaining this program, expanding flexibility options for scheduling, finding opportunities for sabbatical activities or graduate research, and increasing the outreach components of the GIP program.