- Andrew I.L. Williams
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Diversity, Equality, Accessibility & Inclusion
During my PhD I helped organize the department’s first, student-led, DEI group. Some of the tasks included: collecting demographic data on student applicants to inform access efforts, setting up (and securing funding for) a community DEI library, arranging accessible coffee breaks and social events for the department and co-founding a mentoring scheme which matches incoming graduate students with senior PhDs or post-docs.
While a postdoc at GFDL, I was a member of their Diversity, Equality, Accessibility & Inclusion (DEIA) Committee, which aimed to develop and sustain a diverse, inclusive, and equitable academic environment and community. I was involved with outreach efforts with minority serving institutions, organizing community events, and promoting diversity in hiring practices.
One of my personal highlights so far has been co-organizing GFDL's Small Talk Community Forums. These events aimed to strengthen the sense of community at the lab by bringing people together to practice small talk in a fun, safe, supportive environment. We offered guidance on the importance of cultural awareness and sensitivity to the diverse nature of people’s interests and experiences. We also covered pointers for attendees that generally find it difficult to initiate informal chat with those they don’t know well. The events were a great success, and an effective tool for promoting communication across social barriers.
I have also been engaging with NOAA Cooperative Science Centers within Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). This is a NOAA program whose long-term goal is to support the training and increasing participation of students from traditionally underrepresented minority communities. I am working to build more robust partnerships with MSI Cooperative Science Centers through providing guest lectures at the City University of New York and mentoring Stephanie Ortiz Rosario, an undergraduate from The University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, who studied the response of extreme precipitation to CO2 changes.
Climate Science Outreach
I am actively involved in climate science outreach with my colleagues at Climate Up Close. We are committed to making the essentials of climate science accessible and allowing people to seeing the evidence for themselves and put their questions directly to climate scientists. For a glimpse into one of our events, see this excellent NHPR article.
Our presentations are nonpartisan, nonprescriptive, and nonjudgmental. We emphasize what climate scientists do and don’t know about climate change, focusing on extreme weather and what the future holds. We welcome audiences with diverse views, and by meeting people where they are (both literally and figuratively) and treating their questions with respect, we can have productive conversations that transcend political divisions.
I also co-organized was the Weather & Climate Livestream, a 100-hour continuous event featuring over 200 climate scientists and meteorologists from across the United States. We organized this in response to sweeping cuts to federal climate and weather research by the Trump administration. The livestream ran continuously from late May through June 1st, the first day of the Atlantic hurricane season, and covered an enormous range of topics: the health effects of extreme heat and humidity, tornado science, how wetlands store carbon, and the real-world consequences of research funding cuts on weather forecasting capabilities. The event, which was featured in The New York Times, drew more than 150,000 views and demonstrated that, despite everything, the public is behind climate science.