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Women in geoscience. What are we all about? What are some of our barriers to progress? How do these issues affect those working in academia vs. industry or office vs. field? What can we solve now and what may take time? If you want to know more, especially about the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Women’s Network, listen to the first-ever episode of the Seismic Soundoff podcast. Women In Geophysics is hosted by SEG’s Andrew Geary and me, and features a conversation with Klaas Koster, former SEG president who helped launch the SEG women’s network and all-around cool dude, a Q&A with Sally Zinke, the first female president of the SEG and fellow Wisconsin graduate, and inspiring stories from geophysicists all over the world.

There’s a whole host of women’s events coming up at the various applied geophysical society meetings this year. These events are open to all interested from any facet of the applied geophysics profession. I invite you to attend and help me spread the word among your colleagues, especially students. In fact, my challenge to you is to invite at least 10 geoscientists in your network to the following events.

Women in Geosciences Forum at ICE 2016: How To Divesify and Take Control of Your Career In The Industry Downturn A special forum featuring a diverse, interactive panel, will be offered by the AAPG Professional Women in Geosciences (PROWESS) Committee and the SEG Women’s Network Committee (WNC) at ICE Cancun 2016. I will be a part of this panel with Sylvia Anjos, Victor Ramirez, Elena Centeno, Robbie Gries and Susan Morrice.

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Women’s Network events at the SEG Annual Meeting in Dallas

SEG’s Women’s Network Committee will offer four events at this year“s SEG annual meeting!

  1. Evening networking event A brief welcome and introduction to the SEG Women’s Network by WNC Chair (me) will immediately precede the featured Pioneers in Geophysics posters that highlight a few pioneering women in geophysics.
  2. Women’s Network Committee business meeting Join us to discuss strategy and make plans for the coming year that include development of short, mid-term, and long term plans and goals. The WNC is actively soliciting new members to represent South America, Europe/Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
  3. Sixth Annual Women’s Network Breakfast The breakfast features keynote speaker Patricia E. Walker, Chief Geoscientist of ExxonMobil followed by a breakout session on what the Women’s Network Committee can do for SEG members during trying times?
  4. WNC“s Inaugural Post-Conference Workshop Workplace Navigating: How to Recognize and Avoid Bias and Bullying facilitated by Dr. Sheryl Skaggs, professor of sociology at University of Texas Dallas, will focus on discussing and providing tips for navigating the workplace when there is bias and bullying.

Both the evening networking event and breakfast are only $20 a ticket and half-price for students if they bring a friend. No excuses, folks!

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If you’re in Houston on November 10th, please plan on attending a Diversity and Women’s Network happy hour, brought to you by Geophysical Society of Houston and SEG Women’s Network. More information coming soon.

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What are some of the women in geoscience events you are attending?

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Earth rocks, rock ‘n’ roll, on the rocks. All Rock Spoken Here.

Matt Hall and Graham Ganssle had me on as their guest on Episode 17 of Undersampled Radio. In Rock Women Rock!, we talked about the future of energy and the exploration industry, women in geophysics and public domain publishing. Next month, I will be on a podcast on women in applied geophysics with Andrew Geary of the SEG.

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The Society of Exploration Geophysicists 2017 Election is underway with two accomplished female presidential candidates: Anna Shaughnessy and Nancy House. But, wait, there’s more: Manika Prasad is running for vice president! Anna, Manika and Nancy are my friends, mentors and advisors on the SEG Women’s Network Committee. SEG members, please don’t forget to vote before July 31st!

A good year for women in the leadership of the Geophysical Society of Houston as well. The wonderful Amy Rhodes is now President, with Lisa Buckner as 1st vice president, Neda Bundolo as Secretary, Edith Miller as Treasurer and Katherine Pittman as 2nd Vice President Elect. I’ve known Lisa and Edith for years in various SEG capacities and glad they now have an opportunity to lead in the societies they helped build. Good luck to all!

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Friday Rocks

The aforementioned surgery and recovery went well, and I am now part-cyborg (Achievement Unlocked). It’s slowly starting to sink in that arthritis and I are friends for life, and we’re trying to figure out the right combination of anti-inflammatory, corticosteroid and natural treatment, which will change in time. What a drag, I know. Life’s not short, as my new favorite show says, but so long. “The only way to go is to just go on.”

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The work of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Women’s Network has been progressing nicely. Here are a couple of The Leading Edge articles I’ve recently authored, highlighting the value of inclusiveness and intra-society collaboration.

Our committee also answered the call to create an anti-harassment policy applicable to SEG members, which was just adopted by the SEG Board. The policy will soon be available on our network page. We encourage other scientific and technical societies to create such a policy and use ours as a resource.

Another effort in the works is to simplify SEG membership levels to ensure that more than 29% of all members and 37% of paid members can vote in Society elections and assume leadership roles. Changing times and demographics call for changing rules. As I say in support of simpler membership requirements, “SEG is rapidly changing into a younger, more global, and more vocationally diverse organization with responsibilities being taken on and decisions being made earlier in career and internationally. The best way for us as a Society to capture long-term interest and memberships is through encouraging and rewarding this level of participation with voting rights.” Read more about it here.

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And for something completely non-geoscientific, Pooja Makhijani interviewed me for her article on the term “Third Culture Kid” for the Wall Street Journal’s Expat blog. While Pooja and some others dislike the term given its connotations, I have always been a proponent of taking language back and redefining it to reflect the truths present in different contexts and realities. My “third culture” is a personal space that rejects little and instead encompasses the belonging I feel to where my parents came from, where they moved to and whom and what I interacted with growing up. It is ultimately the intersection of the people, cultures and experiences that shaped me. There I go again with the whole inclusiveness thing.
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Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series

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