GEOSCIENCE ALLIANCE: MOVING FORWARD TOWARDS RESILIENCY

Climate change is not a thing of the future. Indigenous peoples are being affected right now. American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawai’ian communities need to have their voices heard when climate change issues are discussed. One way for Native voices to be heard by the world community is for Native peoples to seek advanced degrees in Earth and environmental science. The Geoscience Alliance (GA) is a national alliance of individuals committed to broadening participation of Native Americans in the geosciences, broadly defined. Its members are faculty and staff from tribal colleges, universities, and research centers; native elders and community members; industry and corporate representatives; students (K12, undergraduate, and graduate); formal and informal educators; and others. The goals of the Geoscience Alliance are to 1) create collaborations in support of STEM education for Native American students, 2) establish a research agenda aimed at closing gaps in our knowledge on barriers and best practices related to Native American participation STEM, 3) increase participation by Native Americans in setting the national research agenda on issues that impact Native lands, 4) provide a forum to communicate educational opportunities for Native American students, and 5) to understand and respect indigenous traditional knowledge.

We will present the current state of the Geoscience Alliance, where we have been, and where we would like to go, including information on the upcoming Geoscience Alliance conference to be held in Portland, Oregon in March 2015.