Posts by: Sarah Sunu

Tools & Resources
Giving Better Feedback
It is a truth universally acknowledged that constructive feedback is valuable for learning and improving. At COMPASS, we think it’s so important that it’s a core part of our workshops. But like a lot of things, it's not always easy to know how to give good feedback.
That’s why, before we ask people to give each other feedback, we take some time to talk a...

Bridging Communities
The Landscape of Inclusive SciComm
Science can have the greatest impact in the world when scientists work in partnership with community leaders and policymakers - and those partnerships require effective, inclusive science communication. But what characterizes inclusive science communication, and who is practicing it?
Hosted by the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute and organized ...

Leadership in Action
You Can Do This: An Interview with Shanice Bailey
Shanice Bailey is a third-year graduate student at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the Ocean Transport Group, where she studies Antarctic bottom water, the deepest and oldest water mass in the world. Shanice also is collaborating with others to develop an afterschool curriculum for high school students that teaches them how to code using...

Leadership in Action
Diversity and Destiny with Deepsea Dawn
Dr. Dawn Wright is Chief Scientist at Esri, and a former COMPASS board member. Dawn is a globally recognized expert in marine geographic information systems and is also known as ‘Deepsea Dawn’ for her adventures underwater. Dawn is also the first Black woman to explore the ocean floor in the submersible ALVIN. After a major career transition, Dawn wrote ‘The ...

Reflections
Candles For Dark Days
“I can't be a pessimist because I am alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter. So, I am forced to be an optimist.” —James Baldwin
We have had many dark days this year. There have been days when it has, both figuratively and literally (on the West Coast at least), been hard to see any light at all.
Humans di...