PSECCO: A COMMUNITY OFFICE FOR SUPPORTING EARLY CAREER SCIENTISTS AND ADVANCING EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN THE POLAR SCIENCES

Since April 2022, the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) has been offering programming and funding programs to empower, elevate and give agency to the early career polar scientists who are leading the charge to make the polar sciences more welcoming, inclusive, and diverse. PSECCO has hosted 25 community career development events and nine socials since its launch, engaging and serving over 1000 people. At these events the office has focused on fostering community among polar early career researchers (ECRs), listening to their needs, and working to fill gaps in support. PSECCO has distributed over $17k in funding through travel and administrative grants as well as belonging, accessibility, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (DEI) micro-grants to the polar early career community. We have built partnerships with more than 10 polar early career and adjacent organizations doing incredible work aligned with the PSECCO mission. Engagement with the office has been very high, with over 500 subscribers to our monthly newsletter, over 360 ECRs on our PSECCO Community Slack, and more than 1100 subscribers on Twitter. PSECCO is excited to continue to grow our community, support leadership development, and to share opportunities, funding, and resources with the polar community. We aim to do so while working towards a more just, inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible polar science environment and we welcome you to join us!