What Membership Means to Me
Mark Little

Mark Little, GSA President Elect (2021)

I first became aware of GSA when I was in graduate school at Rice University. My advisor identified GSA as a possible source of funding for my research, so I became a member, applied for some grants, and then attended two GSA conferences.

I have a lot of different interests. Rice has a public policy institute that I was involved with in grad school, so when I finished my post doc, I applied for a number of different opportunities, including a Congressional Science Fellowship. I won the GSA-sponsored position, which really began my substantive relationship with the Society. It was a very good experience, and I remain friends with some of those contacts to this day.

It was also the point in my career when I stopped doing geoscience as my work and started moving in other directions. It’s interesting that when I got more involved with GSA, I got less involved in doing geoscience!

I currently lead an economic development center at the Kenan Institute of the University of North Carolina. We work for the benefit and on behalf of economically distressed communities—primarily in North and South Carolina. Although we work with students and faculty, we don’t do formal teaching or research. We host conferences and support some academic research related to economic development, but our core mission is “on the ground” projects with local governments and businesses that will transform communities.

My career has allowed me to bring a scientific perspective to various non-scientific endeavors, and to bring business experience to my leadership role at GSA. Volunteer and committee work with GSA has been very helpful in understanding how large, complex organizations work—how different people experience a given situation depending on their unique backgrounds and perspectives.

I’ve stayed engaged with GSA because I want to stay connected with the science. I go to the annual meetings to hear details about the things I went to school for. I could go to conferences without being involved as a volunteer, but I don’t think I would. Being involved is very motivating and then the scientific content is a bonus.

Different career stages will dictate how and how much people can and should be involved in their professional organizations. Someone who is seeking tenure will likely have their hands full with publishing and presenting at the annual meeting. Later on, one might find value in the committee opportunities that GSA provides for leadership development. For me, the year after my Congressional Science Fellowship ended, I was automatically enrolled into the Geology and Public Policy Committee. It was my “payback” for the opportunity on Capitol Hill, and a nice bridge to the next chapter of my relationship with GSA.

There are a lot of ways that people who value science can contribute. From someone in industry, or a tenured professor, to someone with an undergraduate geoscience degree who may not be working in the field, GSA provides context for many different kinds of opportunities. One thing I wished I’d known about earlier in my life are the summer GeoCorps opportunities—they look amazing!

My advice: Just take 20 minutes one day and go through the GSA website—there is a lot on there!

Mark Gabriel Little
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill