Posts in: Leadership in Action

Science can have the greatest impact when scientists engage beyond the lab and field and build meaningful connections with the people who can most benefit from their work. But the path to connection isn't always clear or straightforward. What if there are existing challenges and tensions between different groups? How do we keep conversations from becoming polarized...

It is routinely said that the head wearing the crown is uneasy, heavy. While I do not think Shakespeare had my curly Afro in mind, I know its meaning well. The weight of this crown regularly threatens to drown me. My trajectory to becoming an emergent leader in STEM fighting for change has been nothing short of amazing. My timing may be one of the luckier ones beca...

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...

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 ...

The deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others at the hands of police are a reminder of what Black people have known for some time; Black lives are not valued. In the United States, being a visible descendent of Africans automatically comes with excess baggage. Remnants of slavery and Jim-Crow era segregation are visible in almost every facet ...

The 2020 Presidential election is occurring within a context unlike any other. Over the past few months, the U.S. has experienced unprecedented wildfire and hurricane seasons, threatening communities and ecosystems across the country. And, looming over this election is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that predominantly impacts communities of color. As the current adm...