Mariama Dryák-Vallies - Director
mariama.dryak@colorado.eduMariama Dryák-Vallies (she/her) is the Director for the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) hosted by CIRES at the University of Colorado Boulder. Mariama grew up on a farm in west-central Wisconsin before heading east to earn her B.A. in physical geography and archaeology at Durham University (UK)—where her passion for studying, researching, and teaching about glaciers, climate change, and the natural environment was born. She went on to complete her M.S. in Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, studying Antarctic glaciology and ice-ocean interactions. During graduate school she was actively involved in advocating for polar early career scientists as a board member and co-chair of the United States Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (USAPECS), and as a project group member and national committee representative for APECS international. Prior to her current position, she coordinated programming for and taught in informal environmental education spaces at non-profits across North America, centering place-based educational techniques. Mariama is passionate about working towards building accessible Earth and polar sciences spaces for all.
Bec Batchelor - Leadership Team
rebecca.batchelor@colorado.eduDr. Rebecca (Bec) Batchelor (co-PI) (she/her) is a polar atmospheric researcher by training, having spent several years in the Antarctic and Canadian Arctic, and has spent the last decade focused on early career scientist professional development and diversity. Her passions are building community, making connections, and empowering the next generation of diverse scientists. She is a co-lead of the GEO-REU network, a national network of leaders of research experiences for undergraduates and former director of the Significant Opportunities for Atmospheric Research Science (SOARS) program, one of the most established programs for increasing diversity in the geosciences, as well as a lead and collaborator on several projects focused on supporting leadership and career development for early career scientists and faculty. She works in the CIRES Education & Outreach group and is excited to bring together her interests in inclusion and community and her love of the polar regions in support of this office.
Anne Gold - Leadership Team
anne.u.gold@colorado.eduDr. Anne Gold (PI) (she/her) is a paleoclimatologist by training and Director of the Education and Outreach (E&O) Program at CIRES. Anne brings over a decade of experience in envisioning, developing and implementing education and outreach opportunities for scientists, educators, students and the public; much of her work has focused on polar regions. She is committed to supporting early career scientists, through professional training series and her leadership of the NSF-funded REU program. She co-leads the MOSAiC Coordinating Office and the Navigating the New Arctic Community Office.
Bradley Markle - Leadership Team
bradley.markle@colorado.eduDr. Bradley Markle (co-PI) (he/him) is an early career Assistant Professor in Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado and Fellow at INSTAAR. His research is in paleoclimate dynamics in the high latitudes, with a focus on geochemical records in ice sheets. He is the Associate Director of the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP), an expeditionary earth science summer school that introduces undergraduate students to polar field research. He was a co-founder of the early career development organization Ice Core Young Scientists (ICYS) and sat on the Executive Committee of International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS). He has been involved in Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion efforts for INSTAAR, the Department of Geological Sciences, and JIRP.
Michelle Guitard - Advisory Board
mguitard@ldeo.columbia.eduDr. Michelle Guitard (she/her) is currently transitioning from academia to industry. In April she will begin as an analytical chemist at Oregon's Wild Harvest, a family owned and operated herbal supplement company in Central Oregon. She is finishing up as a postdoctoral research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where she worked to reconstruct Southern Ocean temperature changes during the last 2.5 million years. Her project applied organic geochemical techniques to sediment records to extract and analyze biomarkers, which served as a paleotemperature proxy. Michelle obtained both her Masters and her PhD from the University of South Florida, where she focused on understanding ice-ocean interactions from marine sediment cores collected along Antarctica’s continental shelf. Michelle’s interest in PSECCO lies in providing adequate resources to underrepresented scientists so that they can thrive in their current and future careers.
Natasha Haycock-Chavez - Advisory Board
haycock-chavez@nceas.ucsb.eduNatasha (Tash) Haycock-Chavez (she/her) is the Network and Outreach Manager at the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA). In this role, Tash works with Indigenous partners and researchers to prioritize Indigenous research needs and Indigenous data sovereignty. Prior to this, she worked as the Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator for the Arctic Data Center, where she worked to connect researchers across a broad diversity of disciplines. Tash received an MA in Geography from Memorial University in Newfoundland, where her research focused on Indigenous-led conservation using GIS spatial analysis and a collaborative community-led approach. Part of her research emphasized how Indigenous research methodologies and self-determination can be integrated into conservation planning, as well Arctic research in general.
Nikki Lovenduski - Advisory Board
nicole.lovenduski@colorado.eduDr. Nikki Lovenduski (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences department and Senior Fellow in INSTAAR. She is INSTAAR’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Task Force lead, focusing on retention. She is a committed mentor of early career scientists from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. At INSTAAR she has developed an institute-wide mentoring program for underrepresented students and has been involved with several external mentorship programs focusing on underserved communities within STEM. Lovenduski has been awarded numerous awards for her service and science, including being named the Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, and awarded the AGU Ocean Sciences Early Career Award and citations for excellence in refereeing.
Twila Moon - Advisory Board
twila.moon@colorado.eduDr. Twila Moon (she/her) is Deputy Lead Scientist and Science Communication Liaison at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Moon is an expert in glaciology and related system science particularly focused on Greenland and the Arctic. She does extensive work in science communication, including connecting with policymakers, and examples of Moon’s experience include Congressional testimony and briefings, synthesis product development for nonscientists, and one of the lead editors for the annual Arctic Report Card.
Emma Robertson - Advisory Board
erobertson@psu.eduEmma Robertson (she/her) is a PhD student at Penn State University. Her research uses ice core records to study atmospheric rivers and ice sheet-climate interactions. She has a BS in Environmental Science and BA in Geography from UMass Amherst.
Matthew Shupe - Advisory Board
matthew.shupe@colorado.eduDr. Matthew Shupe (he/him) is a senior research scientist at CIRES and NOAA. He has been engaged in Arctic field-based research for 23 years, including projects in Alaska, Northern Canada, the Greenland Ice Sheet, and across the Arctic Ocean. These projects have involved extensive international cooperation and coordination concerning program planning, domain access, the use of facilities, defining stakeholder needs, managing data, developing products, building human capacity, communicating science, and conducting research. Most recently, he has been co-coordinator of the major international MOSAiC expedition, which has involved broad international interactions with the International Arctic Science Committee, the US Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, the World Meteorological Organization's Polar Prediction Project, and many others. He has served on many US national and international scientific committees and currently has a Mercator Fellowship as part of a large German trans-regional Arctic research effort.
Amanda Timmerman - Advisory Board
atimmerman3@gatech.eduAmanda Timmerman (she/her) is a research scientist at Georgia Tech. She earned her BS and MS at the University of Hawaii and her PhD at University of Victoria in Canada. Her research focuses on phytoplankton’s role in biogeochemical cycling and exploring what drives phytoplankton variability. She combines shipboard sampling, satellites and model output to help answer her research questions. She also compares primary production and carbon export methods as a tool to uncover method biases and better constrain the carbon cycle. Amanda has participated in research expeditions to both the Antarctic and the Canadian Arctic.
Aaron Toh - Advisory Board
tohmw@hawaii.eduAaron Toh (they/he) is a Zoology PhD candidate at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where their research focuses on the biology of Antarctic invertebrates. They are specifically interested in the effects of warming on the development of early life history stages, as well as the function and structure of the visual system of giant Antarctic sea spiders. Aaron has spent two field seasons (2019-20 and 2021-22) diving for samples and conducting field research at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. To ensure that polar research continues for decades to come, Aaron is committed to making the field more inclusive and accessible for all who wish to pursue rigorous polar science.
Christine Wiedinmyer - Advisory Board
christine.wiedinmyer@colorado.eduDr. Christine Wiedinmyer (she/her) is the Associate Director for Science at CIRES, overseeing the science portfolio of CU Boulder's largest research institute with 600+ scientists. Wiedinmyer is an expert in atmospheric pollutant emissions and their impacts, and has specific expertise on the emissions from fires. Wiedinmyer is a co-founder of the Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN) and still a member of the organization’s Board of Directors. She has been instrumental in growing this volunteer-led organization from a small circle of scientists into an international network of female geoscientists with more than 3000 members. She was awarded the UCAR Diversity Award in 2011 for her innovative and continuing activities to reduce obstacles and enhance opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups in the geosciences. She has mentored many early-career scientists and often speaks publicly about networking, leadership, and geoscience careers.