Alicia C.M. Kahn
Chevron Corporation

Christopher L. Atchison
University of Cincinnati

2021 GSA Distinguished Service Award

It is my pleasure and honor to present a citation for Alicia Kahn, recipient of a GSA 2021 Distinguished Service Award. Alicia is a Biostratigrapher with Chevron Energy Technology Company. In her role with Chevron she has interviewed students and volunteered countless hours of her time to GSA GeoCareers and Mentoring Programs. Since 2007, Alicia has mentored more than 3,500 students at GSA’s Meetings. Her hard work, dedication and lively personality have made these programs extremely popular. Alicia is a loving, working mother and her candid responses to students’ questions have been much appreciated. She has openly discussed the struggle of a working, breastfeeding mother. Taboo topics for many, yet important for students who will be in Alicia’s shoes one day. One student indicated “It was wonderful that Alicia discussed pumping in the workplace, a reality not often acknowledged” another said “I have a child and that held me back from applying to industry. I’m glad to know I can be considered”. These students and I thank Alicia for her service, excitement, and candid open responses.

Thank you. I am so honored that you would choose to give this award to me. Students who attend GSA hold a special place in my heart. They listen to me talk about my experiences as a working mother and understand when I tell them about a favorite older male colleague who used to ask me, Hey Alicia are you going to pump? They kept an open mind and told me that I was still okay because I carried a reusable water bottle even though I worked for an evil oil company. But seriously, it is a privilege to have the opportunity to explain to students the reality of doing science in the oil industry. The idea that a student might feel that they can be a parent, or an environmentalist, or gay, or a rigorous scientist in industry is one that is important to share. I would like to thank all the students for their participation and to Jennifer Nocerino for facilitating my mentoring at GSA since 2007. To be a working mother, bringing her children to meetings, has required a tribe of supportive women (and men), and I am touched to have that, particularly in Jennifer and Mimi Katz.

Thank you for holding my babies and creating a safe space for students and mentors to thrive.

The Distinguished Service Award for Christopher Atchison is in recognition of his tireless and unparalleled work to support inclusion of all people, regardless of apparent or non-apparent disabilities, in the Geosciences, and his efforts to make all aspects of the discipline accessible. Chris is the founder of the International Association for Geoscience Diversity, a group, very simply, dedicated to inclusion. Taken as a whole, the geosciences are a discipline that reveres field work that has often embraced an image of a rugged man with hammer, compass, and map board, with mountainous terrain as a backdrop. Chris and the IAGD have shown over and over that this image is but one possibility, and that a person may make an enormous contribution to our profession without ever setting foot in the field or, more preferably, by creating experiences in the field that draws upon the differing abilities of every scientist. This work continues to be critically important for workforce development and other timely issues in our discipline.

I am truly grateful to have been nominated to receive the Geological Society of America Distinguished Service Award. In 2008, a network was created to share the work so many amazing faculty were doing to support students with disabilities in their geoscience courses. I never imagined that this small grassroots idea would one day become a non-profit organization that provides accessible geology field trips and courses, inclusive and accessibly-focused pedagogical workshops, a teaching and research award for students and faculty doing amazing work to promote access, and scholarships for students to keep them on their path to geoscience careers. The IAGD community now includes students, scholars, and geoscience practitioners from as many as 40 countries around the world, and have a formal chapter in the UK.

I wish to thank to Nancy Riggs, Steve Whitmeyer, Anita Marshall, and Sean Thatcher, for this nomination, and so many more colleagues and students whom I have had the pleasure to work with and learn from during various research projects, accessible field trips, inclusive pedagogy workshops and informal conversations. Thanks also to GSA for continuing to partner with the IAGD and their commitment to working for an inclusive and accessible scientific community. We all function on a spectrum of ability, and we all have a role in inclusion. Innovative science comes from diversity of thought and ability, and by including all voices and perspectives of the world around us. Thank you.