MP Statement

I am pleased to be nominated for the ESIP Board. I have been involved with ESIP since the early days, and I am excited by its recent reinvigoration. I would be honored to contribute to the future development and organizational health of ESIP as an at-large member of the Foundation for Earth Science Board.

Critical issues for ESIP in the next few years will be sustainability of the organisation (financially, socially, and organizationally), active engagement with myriad Federal agencies and other funders while maintaining strong connections to NASA and NOAA, building connections with new research, data, and user communities, and evolving strategic partnerships with like-minded organisations in the US and internationally. I believe my professional background and experience as the first Secretary General of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) could bring some valuable perspective on these issues. RDA and ESIP have related missions but different organizational and governance models that could inform each other. I believe I could also foster appropriate strategic connections with other initiatives and organizations including the International Council for Science, GEO, Force11, NIH’s Big Data to Knowledge initiative, etc.

Over the last 20 years, I have been involved in data management practice, planning, and policy for multiple government agencies (in the US and abroad) and private foundations. I have actively managed many different types of data from remote sensing and field observations of geological and ecological data to Indigenous knowledge of environmental change. I think this broad and diverse perspective could strengthen ESIP’s engagement with new communities and revenue sources. I look forward to the privilege of serving.

More details of my funding and publications at http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7723-0950