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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Adriana E. Martinez, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Departments of Geography and Geographic Information Sciences and Environmental Sciences, is one of 12 nationwide members selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of a two-year fellowship by the AGU LANDInG Academy (Leadership Academy and Network for Diversity and Inclusion in the Geosciences).

“The geosciences is one of the least diverse disciplines within STEM at the student, faculty and professional levels,” Martinez said. “Learning about new techniques and strategies to improve DEI will help us recruit new students, train faculty and create a more diverse pool of faculty and practitioners.”

The AGU LANDInG Academy creates a community for networking and professional development among geoscience colleagues to address the need for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts within these fields.

“The program’s workshops create a Community of Practice Network for DEI champions where fellows will interact on a virtual platform as well as at in-person events at the yearly AGU meetings and workshops in Washington, D.C.,” stated Martinez. “We will network, share resources and participate in professional development. The project each fellow works on at their home institution depends on the needs of that specific institution and will be developed with fellow cohort members in consultation with DEI experts that the fellows learn from and interact with throughout the program.”

Fellows in the program will learn new strategies for creating inclusive classrooms, as well as ways to improve DEI efforts and involve underrepresented students in geoscience departments and research labs.

“I hope to learn strategies I can build into a project that can enact change at all levels, including in secondary education, where I interact with students via grants, at the undergraduate and master’s levels, where I advise and teach students, at the faculty level, where I hope to create a more inclusive environment for underrepresented faculty, and at SIUE as a whole, where we can enact change to improve DEI at all levels of the university structure.”

The program aims to not only make the geosciences community aware of the need for DEI efforts at all levels, but also ultimately increase representation within geosciences. According to Martinez, the field will be more welcoming to a diverse pool of students and practitioners as geoscientists better understand the importance of diversity and inclusion, learn how to create a better environment for students, and become more representative of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and identities.

“I’m proud to be representing SIUE, as it exemplifies the teacher-scholar model,” said Martinez. “So often the focus is on research universities, but at schools like SIUE, faculty have richer interactions with students both in the classroom and through the research we conduct with students. I can bring our perspective to the rest of the cohort while also enacting direct change to the student experience at SIUE because I, and the faculty in my departments, will directly benefit from new DEI skills and knowledge gained.”

Photo: Adriana Martinez, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Departments of Geography and Geographic Information Sciences and Environmental Sciences