The JEDI Steering Committee is a new body formed to set goals and lead change at JIRP in the areas of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. The Committee is made of up of six program alumni and five current members of the JIRP Academic and Program Leadership. The Committee will meet regularly and often to set our initial agenda in the form of the JEDI Action Plan during the fall and early winter of 2020. The Committee will continue to meet throughout the winter, spring, and summer of 2021. At the end of this first year, the Committee will develop a process to relieve members as needed for the future.
For more information on the timeline for our first year of this focused effort, please see the Timeline and Overview.
Committee Members
Annie Chien
Student Alum
Annie is an environmental geologist from Bishop, California. After receiving a degree in geology and biology from Occidental College, she joined JIRP during the 2018 field season as a student, where she was inspired to pursue an MS in biogeochemistry. Her JIRP experience fundamentally changed her understanding of how complex earth systems interact, as well as her understanding of how vast the earth is and how ridiculously small she is. If Annie had to eat fried spam or baked beans for every dinner for a week, let the records show that Annie is a devout fried spam girl. Annie wants JIRP to be the catalyst for teaching science as a cornerstone of intersectional racial and social justice instead of a separate, objective entity. Students must be taught that science is deeply intertwined with diversity and social justice, that being a scientist also means actively speaking up for underprivileged communities and acknowledging that the land being studied was stolen and paid for by indigenous communities in blood.
Dr. Sarah Fortner
Academic Council Member
Sarah is an Earth advocate, on behalf of both people and nature, as well as an Associate Professor of Geology and Environmental Science at Wittenberg University. Mentoring is her favorite role, she works hard to decolonize climate science, train researchers, and empower students as scientists and agents of change. She collaborates with scientists, educators, community stakeholders and policy makers at the local to national level. Lately, she's been splitting her time writing about the biogeochemistry of cryoconite holes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys and developing a resilience toolkit in collaboration with GSA and AGI. She's watched glaciers retreat firsthand on the Juneau Icefield since 1995. This is both sad and fueling. Inclusive science, teaching, and advocacy are core to needed climate justice. #BlackLivesMatter
Sarah on working on the JEDI Steering Committee: “I'm excited by our more inclusive and diverse future supporting the culture change needed for scientific and social progress. I am excited about working with students and helping them reach their goal. I believe in the transformative power of JIRP.”
Scott Lakeram
Student Alum
Scott is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois. Originally from Queens, New York, Scott first participated in JIRP as a student in 2018. He reports his time at JIRP has broadened the way he approaches science education. Science is best learned in the field where it can be observed. Scott is excited to be apart of JIRP once again and to contribute to this ever-changing program. Given the choice to teleport himself to anywhere on the Icefield, Scott would go to Camp 10 so I could eat unlimited baked beans in the presence of the Taku Glacier.
Scott on working on the JEDI Steering Committee: “I strongly believe that science should an equal opportunity for all, particularly those coming from underrepresented groups.”
Dr. Brad Markle
Associate Director of Academics and Research
Brad is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Brad first participated in JIRP as a student in 2007 (with Seth and Allen!). Since 2011 Brad has been sampling all the various possible roles with JIRP: staff, staffulty, faculty, project lead, academic lead, wizard. On JIRP, Brad teaches about climate, paleoclimate, and geochemistry and has been helping to lead the isotope geochemistry project for the last few years. Brad studies climate variability and climate dynamics in the past using ice core records and climate models. He got his PhD from the University of Washington in 2017, went to New Zealand in 2011 on a Fulbright to get an MSc, and has a BA from Pomona College. He likes to climb, run, ski, drink coffee, and scheme boondoggles.
Brad on working on the JEDI Steering Committee: “On a personal level, JIRP impacted my academic and professional life profoundly. From a pedagogic perspective, JIRP is the most impactful thing I've ever been a part of. Maybe not in terms of reaching the most people, but definitely in having the biggest impact on the lives of those it does touch. In that regard it's unparalleled. I'd like it to reach more people and I'd like it to be more equally accessible to all types of people.”
Bertie Miller
Student Alum
Bertie works at the British Antarctic Survey in the UK as a logistics operative. Originally from New York City, Bertie earned bachelor’s degrees in Geosciences and Studio Art from Williams College in 2018. In 2016, Bertie studied in Iceland and Greenland, where they found a passion for all things glaciology and ice. Bertie was a student and rookie icefield argonaut in 2018 with Scott and Annie Chien. If magic teleportation were possible, Bertie would instantly appear on the Matthes-Llewellyn Divide to eat beans and tow sleds for a whole week straight. At the British Antarctic Survey, Bertie helps to supply everything from crampons and ice drills to holiday party poppers and a pasta maker down south to Antarctic stations. JIRP teaches that an icefield is not just rock and ice, but the manifestation of myriad processes, events, materials, and elements over time. Likewise, JIRP is the embodiment of everything and everyone who has crossed its path. As a result, it is a program with the potential to be something its community sculpts it to be. As a genderqueer person and someone with learning disabilities, Bertie experienced this first hand. On the JEDI Steering Committee, she hopes to tap into that collective power and to help JIRP get to work creating real and actionable change in the scientific and outdoor communities.
Hannah Perrine Mode
Academic Council Member
Hannah is an artist and educator working at the intersection of visual art, community storytelling and climate science. She first came to the Icefield in 2017 as an Artist-in-Residence, and has since continued to work with JIRP as Sci Comm Faculty, Art Program Coordinator, and Academic Council member. She loves teaching art as a tool for creative thinking, public outreach, and empathy. In addition to field sketching and illustration, she uses abstract art to deepen our connection to geologic forces and foster an intersectional approach to climate justice. Hannah has worked with science and outdoor education programs around the world, such as the International Arctic Science Committee in Iceland, Chulengo Expeditions in Patagonia, and the the US National Park Service in Alaska. She has a BS in Art from Skidmore College and an MFA in Art from Mills College in Oakland.
Molly Peek
Student and Staff Alum
Molly is a graduate student in Environmental Science at Western Washington University, studying black carbon in the snowpack of the North Cascades. She participated in JIRP as a student in 2016 and worked as Lead Logistician in 2018, which led to a deep love of glaciers, biogeochemistry, and bulk buying from Costco. The unconditionally loving and curious JIRP community is what keeps Molly coming back to the Icefield. In her spare time, you can find Molly mountain biking, knitting, and dreaming about eating pilot bread on the Camp 10 porch.
Molly on working on the JEDI Steering Committee: “I firmly believe JIRP can be a more financially inclusive, comfortable, and just place for students from under-represented backgrounds. I’m motivated to make that happen!”
Liz Perera
Student Alum
Liz was a student at JIRP in 2015, fresh from the flat Midwest with no skiing or camping background, so JIRP was really made for newbies like her! Liz’s experience with JIRP influenced her life afterwards by solidifying a newly rediscovered obsession with water and pushed her to focus on Arctic water resources. After participating, Liz wanted to follow in some of the footsteps of the staff and faculty she met during the program. What excites Liz about JIRP is the passion of the community, where people have come together to explore nature and science in a unique way. Liz reports that if she could teleport herself to anywhere on the Icefield, it would be to Camps 18 and 26. There, she could experience the program freely and take in the natural beauty of the glaciers, icefalls, and her favorite: all the amazing surface processes in the ablation zone.
Liz on working on the JEDI Steering Committee: As such a transformative experience, I want to help the program flourish and continue to give others this new outlook.
Dr. Catharine White
Academic Council Member
Catharine joined JIRP as a guest faculty member in the 2016 field season and has been hooked ever since. Her primary research background is in microbiology and plant-microbe interactions. She currently teaches at Northwest Community College in Terrace, British Columbia, where she most enjoys working on field projects with students. With JIRP, her science contributions have been in geobotany, soils, nutrient cycling, and overall life processes on the nunataks and the icefield. When not at the College or JIRP, she prefers to be out exploring in the mountains or on the ocean. Catharine has a PhD in Microbiology from Cornell University.
Annie Boucher
Director of Operations
Annie has been working continuously with JIRP for the past eight years. After growing up in Brooklyn, NY and coming up to the Icefield first as a “non-trad” student, she’s filled every role from junior field staff to Assistant Operations Manager and as an early faculty lead for the (then infant) Science Communication curriculum. Annie is finishing up her M.Sc. at the University of Maine using computer modeling to answer questions about glacial erosion in coastal Alaska. Before graduate school, Annie worked as a middle school science teacher, a field assistant on a research ship, and a trip leader in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. She earned a B.A. in Geology from Carleton College in 2011. When she's not keeping JIRP running and working on her thesis, Annie spends most of her time in the Adirondacks, running, hiking, and skiing.
Annie on the working on the JEDI Steering Committee: “I am beyond thrilled to have this group of perspectives focused on this thread of challenges that winds through every corner of our program. I’ve always loved been impressed with JIRPer’s motivation to improve the work we do on the Icefield. I’m ecstatic we’re pulling up more chairs at the decision making table.”