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AC GEO Member Bio-Sketches

PHILIP BART

Dr. Philip Bart is a Professor of Marine Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University. His research focuses on reconstructing the past oscillations of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from the stratigraphy, sedimentology, and geomorphology of the continental shelves. The reconstructions aim to establish the timing, rate, duration, and progression of past oscillations in the extent and volume of the ice-sheets. Phil's recent work focuses on the retreat in eastern Ross Sea for the time that has elapsed since the last glacial maximum. These projects use high-resolution multibeam bathymetry, chirp, seismic reflection data that is ground truthed with sediment core. His group's current projects investigate how, when and why the Ross Ice Shelf unpinned from Ross Bank, a shallow submarine bank just north of the Ross Ice Shelf calving front. Understanding the paleo-record of unpinning history is important because at present, analogous ice-shelf pinnings (called ice rises and rumples) buttress the offshore flow of ice and hence help maintain the current extent and volume of the ice sheet. (Term Expires: 2025)

MARIA ANGELA CAPELLO

Maria Angela Capello is a renowned leader and author in the energy sector, expert in sustainability, corporate resilience, diversity and inclusion, and resources management. She is currently consulting for organizations in Latin-America and the United States to create and propel their corporate sustainability strategies. (Term expires: 2027)

ROBYN MIEKO DAHL

Robyn Dahl is a paleobiologist, science educator and Assistant Professor of Geology & Science Education at Western Washington University. At WWU, I am part of both the Geology Department and the Science Math & Technology Education (SMATE) Program. Her current paleontology research projects are focused on the paleoecology of Late Pleistocene nearshore marine ecosystems preserved in and around western Washington. She also conducts geoscience education research (GER). My GER interests generally center around increasing the recruitment and retention of minoritized geoscientists. At WWU, she is a member of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and participate in FOCUS (Faculty of Color United in STEM) and the Out in STEM club. In addition, Robyn currently serves as Chair of the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America, and am a member of the Geoscience Education Research Division of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and the Paleontological Society's Diversity & Inclusion Committee. (Term expires: 2024)

KUSALI GAMAGE

Kusali Gamage is an adjunct professor in the Department of Environemntal Science and Technology at Austin Community College. Before joining ACC, she was the Expedition Project Managager and Staff Scientist for the Integrated Ocean Discovery Program at College Station, Texas. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Geology from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in geology and hydrogeology from the University of Florida. (Term expires: 2024)

KRISTIN WILSON GRIMES

Kristin Wilson Grimes is a Research Assistant Professor of Watershed Ecology at the University of the Virgin Islands. Her work examines human impacts to nearshore environments, including coastal wetlands, focusing on management-relevant science. Her research actively engages communities in the U.S Virgin Islands on a wide range of topics, from water quality, to blue carbon, to marine debris, to disaster preparedness. She is deeply committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in the marine sciences, one of the least diverse of all Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields. (Term expires: 2024)

KAATJE KRAFT

Dr. Kraft teaches introductory geology classes at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, WA.  Her research interests are in student motivation and interest as it pertains to introductory science courses. (Term Expires: 2024)

VERA KUKLINA

Dr. Vera Kuklina is a Research Professor at the Geography Department, George Washington University. She received her PhD (kandidatskaya) in social, economic, political and recreational geography from the V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences in 2003. Vera was born and raised in a remote Buryat village, and has extensive experience of the field studies with indigenous people and other remote communities. Her research interests include urbanization of indigenous people, traditional land use, socio-ecological systems, cultural geographies of infrastructure and remoteness. The results have been published in Polar Geography, Geoforum, Sibirica, and numerous Russian journals. Dr. Kuklina currently leads a project, entitled "Informal Roads: The Impact of Unofficial Transportation Routes on Remote Arctic Communities." This project is aimed at detailed interdisciplinary analysis of the overall impact of informal roads on Arctic environment and economic, social, and cultural wellbeing of local communities. (Term Expires: 2024)

MEREDITH NETTLES

Dr. Meredith Nettles is a Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Her research includes studies of the earthquake source aimed at improving understanding of the tectonic deformation and evolution of plate boundaries, volcanic systems, and continental margins; geophysical investigations of glacier and ice-sheet dynamics focused on understanding interactions across the ice-ocean-atmosphere-solid Earth system; and tomographic studies of the structure of the Earth that provide constraints on models of the state and evolution of the crust and upper mantle. She is also interested in the development of modern seismic and geodetic instrumentation and observing networks, and quality assessment, archiving, and curation of the data and data products they generate. (Term Expires: 2024)

VERNON MORRIS

Vernon Morris joined Arizona State University as Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and Director of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences in July 2020. Dr. Morris' research focuses on the chemical evolution of atmospheric particulate during transport and residence times in the lower troposphere and the implications to aerobiology, climate, and cloud processes.  He has served as Chief Scientist for eleven trans-Atlantic science expeditions (the AERosols and Ocean Science Expeditions – AEROSE) aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) class-1 research vessel, the Ronald H. Brown. (Term Expires: 2026)

FRANCISCA OBOH-IKUENOBE

Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe is a professor and past interim chair in the Department of Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. She currently serves as interim associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering and Computing. Dr. Oboh-Ikuenobe obtained a PhD degree in Geology from the University of Cambridge through a Commonwealth Scholarship, and MS and BS (First Class) degrees from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. She teaches courses about the evolution of the earth, stratigraphy, basic and advanced paleontology, and paleoclimatology. She uses her training in sedimentology to conduct research in palynology, a sub-discipline of paleontology that uses organic-walled microfossils such as pollen, spores, dinoflagellates and acritarchs, to unravel the history of the Earth. Dr. Oboh-Ikuenobe is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Geological Society of America (GSA), and The Paleontological Society. (Term expires: 2024)

KRISTIN O'BRIEN

Dr. Kristin O'Brien is a Professor in the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, AK. She is an integrative comparative physiologist and biochemist who studies how fishes respond to abiotic stressors in the environment. Much of her work has focused on the thermal plasticity of Antarctic notothenioid fishes, including one of the most charismatic and fascinating members of the fish fauna, the Antarctic icefish. Using the temperate stickleback fish, her laboratory investigates how fish regulate metabolic remodeling in response to temperature to better understand the limits of thermal tolerance. An NSF CAREER award laid the foundation for her career integrating research and teaching, and fostered a deep respect and appreciation for rural Alaskan communities and indigenous knowledge. At UAF, Kristin leads efforts to increase diversity and inclusion, and enhance undergraduate and graduate training in science. She earned a B.S. in Zoology from Duke University, a PhD in Zoology from the University of Maine, and was an NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. (Term Expires: 2025)

JESSICA O'REILLY

Dr. Jessica O'Reilly, associate professor of International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, is an anthropologist who studies the science and politics of climate change, in Antarctica and among climate experts internationally. She is the author of The Technocratic Antarctic: an ethnography of scientific expertise and environmental governance (2017, Cornell University Press), and a co-author of Discerning Experts: understanding scientific assessments for public policy (2019, Chicago University Press). Her current research project, an interdisciplinary social science analysis of the production of knowledge in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is supported by the National Science Foundation. Dr. O’Reilly serves as an advisor to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) and the United States delegation to the Antarctic Treaty meetings, and regularly observes the conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). (Term Expires: 2025)

DAVE PARSONS

Dave Parsons is the President's Associates Presidential Professor and Director Emeritus in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. He holds a B.S. in meteorology from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington. (Term Expires: 2024)

TAMMI RICHARDSON

Tammi Richardson is Professor and Chair of the Biological Sciences Department at the University of South Carolina. Her research concentration is ecology and marine biology. She is specifically interested in how light, nutrients, and temperature influence phytoplankton growth and taxonomic composition, including the development of "red tides" (harmful algal blooms). (Term Expires: 2024)

BRITNEY SCHMIDT

Britney Schmidt is an American earth scientist and astrobiologist at Cornell University. She has conducted research on the melting of ice shelves in Antarctica and studied Jupiter's moon Europa. (Term Expires: 2025)

MARY-LOUISE TIMMERMANS

Dr. Mary-Louise Timmermans is the Damon Wells Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale University. Her research focus is polar oceanography and climate. She analyzes observations from icebreaker surveys and an ice-based network of drifting ocean-profiling instruments to understand how the ocean relates to Arctic sea ice and climate. This includes studies on the changing large-scale circulation of the Arctic Ocean, heat transport to and within the Arctic, sea ice-ocean interactions, and energy dissipation in the polar system. Prior to Yale, she was an assistant scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and is currently an adjunct scientist at WHOI. She earned her PhD in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University, UK. (Term Expires: 2025)

CATHY WHITLOCK

Cathy Whitlock a Professor at Montana State University. She is an Earth Scientist whose research interests include quaternary environmental change and quaternary paleoecology; vegetation, fire, and climate history of the western U.S. and southern South America; conservation applications of paleoecology; climatic variability through the Cenozoic; and data-model comparison of past climate change. She holds B.A. from Colorado College and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. (Term Expires: 2024)

DANIEL WILDCAT

Daniel Wildcat is a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and an accomplished scholar who writes on Indigenous knowledge, technology, environment, and education. He is also director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center, which he founded with colleagues from the Center for Hazardous Substance Research at Kansas State University. Wildcat helped design a four-part video series entitled All Things Are Connected: The Circle of Life (1997), which dealt with the land, air, water, biological, and policy issues facing Native nations. A Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, Wildcat recently formed the American Indian and Alaska Native Climate Change Working Group, a tribal-college-centered network of individuals and organizations working on climate change issues. (Term expires: 2024)