Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

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Dr. Adrienne Oakley Brings #VoicesForScience to Kutztown University

Kutztown, PA (06/13/2019) — Kutztown University's Dr. Adrienne Oakley, associate professor of geology and marine science, department of physical sciences, has been selected from a highly-competitive national pool as a 2019 Advocate in the Media/Communications track in the American Geophysical Union (AGU)'s national science communication program, Voices for Science.

The Class of 2019 Voices for Science Advocates is a network that includes 35 skilled and dedicated scientists from 29 institutions that will engage in outreach and actively share their science with a variety of important audiences across 16 states. Once selected, Advocates are flown to Washington, D.C. for an interactive, two-day workshop during which they meet their cohort and AGU staff liaisons for the year.

After the workshop, Advocates receive help in tailoring a personalized plan of communication or policy actions to take all year, as well as regular contact and one-on-one assistance from AGU staff to help them achieve their goals. They may also receive program-specific grants to help them with their outreach or policy efforts. Other benefits include having their actions and successes widely promoted by fellow advocates and the AGU, as well as membership within a strong and supportive community of other scientists who share their goals.

"In several of my classes at Kutztown I teach students who are not science majors. These classes are my opportunity to share my excitement and passion for science while helping to prepare the next generation to meet many of the challenges that face our global society in light of climate change and resource shortages. For the general education students, I try to relate the science in the classroom to the audience and do my best to remove the distrust so often associated with scientists and academics. I truly believe that communicating the value of Earth and space science to non-scientists is critically important. Voices for Science will help me increase my science communication efforts outside of the classroom as well," Oakley said.

Voices for Science supports and fosters a network of exceptional science-communication and science-policy advocates based in the U.S. to amplify the voice of science and build valuable dialogues and relationships with communities, journalists, and stakeholders. The purpose of the AGU is to promote discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity by welcoming all in academic, government, industry and other venues who share their interests in understanding the Earth, planets and their space environment, in addition to those who seek to apply this knowledge to solving problems facing society.

For more information about #VoicesForScience, please visit https://sharingscience.agu.org/voices-for-science/.

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