I am deeply committed to fostering the growth of younger students and scientists. The geomechanics, rock mechanics, and geo-storage field requires increased representation of women and individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, with a particular emphasis on women of color. I am dedicated to actively participating in mentoring, teaching, and outreach initiatives to inspire and support emerging scientists, especially those currently underrepresented in the scientific community. I've included details of my previous outreach efforts below. 

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion:

I was formally exposed to inclusive work during my bachelor’s studies by participating in the Blind Person’s Association activities. This association provides education, community-based rehabilitation, and employment opportunities to people with sight disabilities. My main tasks were coordinating weekly social events for blind men and women to make community buildup and match-making efforts possible. I also facilitated fundraising to educate economically vulnerable blind children and support blind women with loans to start small businesses. Communicating with blind men, women, and children early in my career taught me that the current language for blind people in the community is both whitewashed and outdated. 

I am one of the founding members of the first Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (JEDI) committee in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The drive of grad students to address issues related to Black Lives Matter, diversity, and climate both in the college and in the department led to the creation of this committee. Since then, I have served on the leadership team. We organized community meetings for undergraduate and graduate students, documenting the concerns in the student community and working out actionable items. In this process, we encouraged the involvement of graduate students in the faculty recruitment process, fostered JEDI-related discussions in courses and research groups, raised the issue of JEDI training for faculty and staff (including cases of microaggression), and encouraged the habit of adding pronouns after names. 

I faced additional challenges. One crucial issue that remains unaddressed is the sense of isolation created by the pandemic. A lack of community adversely affected mental health and the debate and discussion of college culture. This situation was especially acute among international students because of travel restrictions. Furthermore, it also emerged that there had been a lack of inter-group connections between graduate students even before the pandemic.  I worked with the JEDI committee to improve inclusion and a sense of community by initiating new graduate student organizations, planning gaming events, and creating student lounges in the department to foster inter-group graduate students’ interactions. We started CoffeeAtTheLab mornings, where we would switch laboratories every other Thursday to discuss community building and networking.

I have acquired teaching and mentoring skills by serving as Teaching Assistant and Guest Lecturer and participating in mentoring programs. These experiences have been highly rewarding and are listed below.

Teaching:

Guest Lecturer, Rock Mechanics GLE 474, 2019

Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor, Rock Mechanics GLE 474, 2019

Guest Lecturer, Rock Mechanics GLE 474, 2018

Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor, Rock Mechanics GLE 474, 2018

Teaching Assistant, Advanced Structural Geology, ES654A, 2016

Mentorship:

Marcel Schulz, Ph.D. Student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Marco Fuchs, Ph.D. Student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Chinmaya Behera, M.S. Student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Trust Emma Abajuo, M.S. Student, University of Texas San Antonio

Manusreehasa Gangavamsam, B.S. Student, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur

Ishaan Pandey, B.S. Student, Indian Institute of Technology 

Jay Goyal, B.S. Student, Indian Institute of Technology 

Kevin R. Cashman, B.S. Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison