2024 South Central Section Elections

Officer Candidates

President: Sabrina Ewald

How have you been engaged with NAGT already?

I have been a member of NAGT since 2016 as a K-12 educator. I am currently the interim president for the newly formed South Central Section and I am one of the founding members of the K-12 Ad Hoc Committee. In addition, I have been a presenter and attendee of Earth Educators' Rendezvous and I am a contributor to Teach the Earth. As the interim president for the newly formed South Central Section, I consistently engage with the NAGT Council and other leaders to help establish the section.

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

As president of the South Central section, I want to create a solid foundation for the section and engage with its members to build an active and thriving community. To achieve this, I will work with the executive leadership and state representatives to organize state and section events where members can attend and interact with each other to work towards building this community of geoscience educators. This community will help grow membership, increase attendance and participation at EER and GSA conferences, and help increase nominations for the OEST award. Another priority is to increase K-12 membership and to attract more K-12 educators to NAGT. I want to utilize the expertise and knowledge of section members to increase section membership and find effective ways of connecting with K-12 educators. My mission is to help geoscience educators elevate their knowledge and provide quality resources for their classrooms.

Participating in various NAGT activities and groups has allowed me to learn and grow as a member and leader. I am gaining insight and perspective into the fundamental goals of NAGT so that I can work to help the South Central Section be part of this journey. As a former K-12 geoscience educator with 23 years of experience in the classroom, I have acquired the expertise and knowledge to understand the needs and struggles of other K-12 educators. I also served in different leadership positions on my campus and in the districts where I worked. While in the classroom, I spent 10 years as a program manager responsible for building an athletic training program for a private business in my community. I was responsible for developing the training curriculum, reviewing and handling budgets, and being part of the executive leadership of the company. These experiences have been crucial in helping me develop the skills required to be an effective leader. Skills I will use to fulfill the duties of president of the South Central section. I will use my extensive experience and background to help the South Central Section flourish and be an asset to NAGT.

Vice-President: Dawn Chegwidden

How have you been engaged with NAGT already?

An active member of the K-12 Ad Hoc committee.

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

NAGT helps me to be informed and keeps me updated on Earth Science resources that support my teaching. As a leader, I plan to provide support to other geoscience educators and help grow a community in the South Central Section. Participating on the K-12 Ad Hoc committee keeps me informed of the missions and goals of NAGT and I can communicate these goals to section members. Being a veteran K-12 educator, I can use my expertise to assist other educators looking for guidance when teaching earth science content. In addition, being a department chair on my campus and managing the responsibilities of my teachers and their needs, has given me the leadership skills necessary for fulfilling the duties of the Vice President and Treasurer.

Secretary/Treasurer: Liane M. Stevens

How have you been engaged with NAGT already?

I first joined NAGT in 2003, shortly after starting my first faculty position as a lecturer. Since then, I have attended NAGT section meetings, workshops, and webinars, both as a graduate student and as an early-career faculty member. It is always a pleasure to be surrounded by like-minded colleagues who are dedicated to and passionate about geoscience education, and I am grateful to the leaders and colleagues who have inspired and guided me along the way. Since moving to Texas in 2016, I have been inquiring about reenergizing the Texas section, and I look forward to getting involved and helping the new South Central section get off to a great start.

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

To me, NAGT is a very positive community, with sharing, collegiality, and leadership among its strengths. Without a working section in recent years, however, geoscience educators in Texas have not received the full benefit of this community. In my roles as faculty and undergraduate program coordinator, and from talking with colleagues, I see our greatest challenges as educating the public about geoscience's significance to society and increasing undergraduate enrollment: we need more students and more geoscientists. My objectives are to support NAGT's vision, mission, and goals by building our South Central community so that we can face these challenges by benefiting from the greater NAGT community, supporting our geoscience educators in the work we all love to do, and energizing and encouraging K-12 and college students to explore geoscience education and careers.