2024 GER Elections

Officer Candidates

Past President: Chris Mead

How have you been engaged with NAGT already?

I was vice president and present of the GER Division in the preceding two years.

How does your engagement in NAGT and other professional experience/expertise inform your goals as a leader in NAGT?

Much of my work as a science education researcher falls outside of geology. There's also a great deal that we in the GER community can learn from our peers in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, or other discipline-specific education research communities. That's something I hope the division will be able to encourage in the future.

President: Caitlin Callahan

How have you been engaged with NAGT already?

As a member of NAGT, I have benefited from regularly attending the Earth Educators' Rendezvous as well as other in-person and online professional development workshops. Additionally, I have previously served NAGT in a few different roles. These have included being an associate editor of the Journal of Geoscience Education and being on the planning committee for the Earth Educators' Rendezvous, as a committee member and co-chair.

How does your engagement in NAGT and other professional experience/expertise inform your goals as a leader in NAGT?

One of the things I value about being in a community such as NAGT is the opportunity for what I call collective courage. At earlier points in my life, I have been a member of different concert bands and orchestras. What I cherished about playing in ensembles was that any performance was an experience in a shared effort with each person having a different role. Each person, each musical part relied on everyone else. No one person would succeed without the success of others. I approach leadership roles with an aim to create and foster similar cultures of collective courage. In practice, I see this as encouraging and recognizing different perspectives and needs. In the Geoscience Education Research Division, these perspectives and needs can include scholars addressing a diversity of questions, scholars using a range of methodologies to pursue those questions, and scholars bringing different experiences and expertise to the community. I am keen to be of service to promote and advocate on behalf of these collective efforts.

Vice President: Larry Collins

How have you been engaged with NAGT already?

In the past, I have engaged with NAGT by being a member of the GER Division for several years. As a member of this Division, I previously served on the GER leadership as Media Director where my primary responsibility was preparing and sending out Division newsletters.  Furthermore, I have also conducted a webinar for graduate students on running effective workshops with other co-presenters.  Lastly, I have also presented my work at the EER in the capacity of teaching demonstrations, workshops, and research presentations.  My research has also been presented in the NAGT-GER session at GSA several times over the past few years in "Making Sense of Methodologies and Theoretical Frameworks in Geoscience Education Research."

How does your engagement in NAGT and other professional experience/expertise inform your goals as a leader in NAGT?

Seeing the Geoscience Education Research community continue to grow and thrive is the reason behind my interest in wanting to continue service with national-level organizations such as NAGT.  In addition to those stated above, my past experiences have also included several roles with the Geological Society of America including the Education Committee (Graduate Student Representative and 4-Year Colleges Representative) and the Geoscience Education Division (Graduate Student Representative, 1st Vice Chair, and Division Chair).  Given the number of service opportunities that I have engaged in with the geoscience education community, I think that I have a wealth of experiences to draw upon in this position and expertise to further serve our Division and NAGT broadly.