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Paper No. 219-2
Presentation Time: 1:50 PM

INITIATION OF A DIVERSE MULTI-CAMPUS NETWORK TO UNDERSTAND CLIMATE AND ECOSYSTEM CHANGE


TRIPATI, Aradhna1, JOHNSON, Kathleen R.2, AARONS, Sarah M.3, ALUWIHARE, Lihini3, BERHE, Asmeret Asefaw4, HURTADO, Sylvia5, KIM, Sora L.6, MONTAÑEZ, Isabel P.7, RAVELO, Ana Christina8, SCHARTUP, Amina Traore3 and SPRIGGS, Rae9, (1)Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, 595 Charles Young Drive East, Box 951567, Los Angeles, CA 90095, (2)Dept. of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, 3206 Croul Hall, Irvine, CA 92697-3100, (3)Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, (4)Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA 95343, (5)Graduate School of Education and Information Systems, Los Angeles, CA 90095, (6)Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA 95343, (7)Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, One Shields Dr, Davis, CA 95616, (8)Ocean Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, (9)Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095

Climate change disproportionately affects low-income communities of color, who are poorly represented in the geosciences and environmental fields. This same demographic is bearing much of the burden of COVID-19 and the associated financial crisis. At the same time, climate change impacts are profound and complex, giving rise to uncertain consequences for water resources, ecosystems, and infrastructure. This reflects the sensitivity of different regions to a range of atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial processes, and their poorly constrained responses to changing climate forcing. This combination of issues forms a serious crisis in social justice, contributes to rising inequality, and stifles the creativity and innovation needed in our environmental and climate workforce to solve societally relevant problems. It is critical for our future to develop leaders who can address the lack of diversity in the geosciences. To address these challenges, we are developing a unique mentoring network composed of women of color geoscience faculty, and graduate and undergraduate student leadership fellows. Our training and mentoring program is designed to diversify the geosciences and environmental sciences, the least diverse of the STEM fields. Fellows will build community within and across each campus, be leadership facilitators with their peers, and engage in collaborative research and outreach activities. The network leadership team will comprise close to a dozen women of color geoscience faculty who are themselves from diverse backgrounds and have expertise in paleoclimatology, oceanography, soil and environmental science, sedimentary geology, geochemistry, and STEM education. We assert that participation in the mentoring network will forge a shared identity and foster relationship building and collaboration, contribute to the development of science identity and belonging for the student participants, and support leadership development and retention.

Session No. 219

T238. Incorporating Identities to Advance Diversity throughout Geoscience Disciplines III
Thursday, 29 October 2020: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol 52, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2020AM-359853
© Copyright 2020 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.
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