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In center, Suzanne
O’Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, teaches
visiting 5th grade students about rocks. O'Connell was awarded a grant from the National
Science Foundation to support building a community of women geoscience
leaders. |
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| Posted 04.02.07 |
NSF Grant to Support Women's Advancement in the Geosciences
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A three-year, $488,367 grant from the National
Science Foundation (NSF) to Suzanne O’Connell, associate professor of earth
and environmental sciences, and Mary Anne Holmes, research associate
professor at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, will help women from all
academic levels take part in a community that stresses professional
development in the geosciences.
The project, titled, “Building a Community of Women Geoscience Leaders” is
funded by the NSF’s ADVANCE Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation and
Dissemination Award. Wesleyan’s portion of the grant is$259,593.
“We want to overcome isolation, a known factor in the non-retention of women
scientists, teach women skills to help them succeed in academia, and develop
strategies with female and male department chairs to develop an environment
that is more supportive of women,” O’Connell says.
The grant will fund a program designed to increase the retention of women in
geoscience programs. The program, called GANE, or Geoscience Academics in
New England, will target colleges and universities
located in the northeast region of the country.
O’Connell and Holmes hope to implement professional development workshops
and writing retreats to provide women necessary skills to reach their full
potential as academic and scientific leaders. Geoscience department chairs
will be offered special workshops, as well, with an emphasis on increasing
gender balance. These workshops will address strategies to increase
department diversity, while providing a productive environment for all
faculty.
A database of academic geoscientists will be created to measure progress.
Results may be shared with other regions across the country.
O’Connell and Holmes are both members of the Association for Women
Geoscientists, an international organization devoted to enhancing the
quality and level of participation of women in the geosciences. It also aims
to introduce girls and young women to geoscience careers. In 2000, O’Connell
was given the association’s Outstanding Educator Award.
O’Connell says it was a physician who inspired her to become a professional
woman. When O’Connell was 10, she fell off a fence and was taken to the
hospital. Lying for hours in a large green room, she saw many incredible
sights, but what amazed her most at the time was that the person who treated
her was a woman.
“A woman doctor! That was a revelation,” O’Connell recalls. “At that time, I
was planning to be a nun, but now it occurred to me that maybe I could be a
doctor. That woman, just by her presence, started me thinking. Like that
physician, we are all role models. Who knows what ideas we can implant in
young heads.”
O’Connell didn’t grow up to be a physician or nun, but she did receive a
Ph.D studying marine sediments, focusing on how large quantities of land
sediment get transported to the deep sea by turbidity currents. She teaches
Wesleyan students about sedimentology, marine geology, climate change and
oceanography, and researches past climate change by studying sediment cores
from the ocean.
“I don't think we can always know how we are influencing others,” O’Connell
says. “But I do think that we, as women geoscientists, help every young girl
to know that she has wider career options. It's often not easy, but it is
exciting.”
O’Connell was featured in the March 2007 issue of Nature, Volume 446
Number 7133, in an article titled, “Leaks in the pipeline: Why do women
remain curiously absent from the ranks of academia?” The article is online
at
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2007/070315/full/nj7133-346a.html.
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By Olivia Bartlett, The Wesleyan Connection
editor |
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