2024 Geo2YC Elections
published Jun 3, 2024 10:45amOfficer Candidates
Vice-President: Beth Johnson
How have you been engaged with NAGT already?
I have participated in a number of NAGT short courses and workshops to learn more about new pedagogies and to help make progress through the various stages of my career. I am then able to take what I have learned and not only apply it in the classroom, but use it with fellow colleagues and with various committees I serve on, regardless of academic discipline. In fact, one of the state-wide university committees I serve on has a member who constantly praises NAGT workshops and content to other members of the committee. Additionally, I served as a section officer for the Central Section of NAGT (now North-Central Section) from 2015-2018. Even though I have not been an officer for several years, I still make sure to talk to people in the geoscience community about these opportunities.
How does your engagement in NAGT and other professional experience/expertise inform your goals as a leader in NAGT?
Earlier in my academic career, I served as an officer in the then-Central Section (now North-Central Section) of NAGT, going from vice-president to president and eventually past-president. I was blessed to be able to learn from and consult a number of section leaders and past officers to try to do the best for continuing the mission of NAGT. One thing that I wanted was to make sure that everyone in the section had the information they needed about important NAGT events. I reached out to section members to advertise upcoming conference sessions that the NAGT or the Central Section was sponsoring, to encourage them to submit outstanding educators for the Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award, and to inform them about upcoming field conferences. More than anything, I just wanted to make sure people knew about these great opportunities so they could engage or get students to engage in them.