New AGU Senior Management Structure Will Support Better Program Integration
On Thursday, 18 January, we announced a restructuring of AGU’s senior staff team, which is responsible for working in partnership with volunteer leaders and members to advance AGU’s mission, vision and strategic goals. This new structure serves three strategic imperatives that have emerged from my extensive review of AGU’s needs, both now and in the future, as well as my in-depth conversations with the AGU Board:
1) Strengthen our science: AGU’s science-related programs have evolved greatly over the last decade, and we now have an opportunity to link them more directly. To create better synergies between these programs that serve the needs of our members, as well as Earth and space science as a whole, Brooks Hanson, formerly AGU’s senior vice president (SVP) of Publications, has been promoted to the role of Executive Vice President (EVP) of Science. In this new role, he will oversee AGU’s meetings, publications, ethics and data programs, as well as the Thriving Earth Exchange. A new VP of Publishing will be hired to work with Brooks and sustain focused leadership in AGU Publications
This change will allow us to: ensure collaboration and expansion across programs that are engaged in different dimensions of science; enlarge the role of the Council as scientific leaders; accelerate our leadership in the evolution of scientific data, and further emphasize science and scientific integrity across our organization.
2) Evolve our organizational capacity, culture and operations: Interactions and dependencies across strategies and programs is becoming the norm and to address that AGU must better collaborate and forge linkages across all AGU programs and ensure alignment between our strategic initiatives. Janice Lachance, who joined AGU in July 2017 as the interim chief operating officer (COO) following Frank Krause’s departure, has joined AGU as a permanent member of the senior team and will now serve as EVP of Strategic and Operational Excellence. In this new role, she will oversee AGU’s information services, project management, finance, human resources, membership, and governance, leadership, and executive office departments. She will lead AGU’s international strategy and the AGU headquarters renovation and coordinate our strategic initiatives. In addition, AGU’s Talent Pool programs will be aligned with our membership and affiliation and engagement programs, which now report to Janice.
These changes will enable us to more rapidly operationalize our affiliation and engagement vision, aligning programs to create a strong, active global network comprised of members, the larger Earth and space science community, authors, leaders, and other stakeholders; engage and provide value to members and other scientists at all career stages, especially students and early career; and coordinate our strategic initiatives and build close working relationships across AGU departments and staff teams at every level.
3) Focus on building external relationships and growing our influence on behalf of Earth and space science: By sharing executive oversight with Janice and Brooks, I will be in a stronger position to continue to expand and support building AGU’s visibility and collaboration with other scientific societies, external stakeholders, to engage potential corporate and individual donors, and to expand AGU’s influence on behalf of Earth and space science. I look forward to cultivating expanded and new connections with partners, funders, advocates and supporters, and to dedicating more attention to expanding our visibility, strengthen our voice in the media, and enlarging our impact on policy.
Given the challenges and opportunities presented by today’s scientific, political and social environments, I am confident that these changes will help us to continue to grow and improve as an organization…and most importantly, continue to meet the needs of you, our members.
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