Leadership
Friends and Alumni Network Board 2022-2023
Christian Dohse, B.S. ’07
President
Waxwing Energy, LLC
christian.dohse@gmail.com
Christian is President and Owner of Waxwing Energy, LLC., an independent oil and gas exploration company headquartered in Austin, TX focusing on onshore oil and gas exploration and development along the onshore Texas Gulf Coast. He started his career at Amerada Hess in deepwater Gulf of Mexico and offshore Brazil exploration, but has spent most of his career as a prospect generator working with independent operators in South-Central Texas before starting his own exploration company in 2021.
Christian served as the President of the Austin Geological Society (AGS) from 2018-19, and is currently the Field Trip Chair for AGS. Christian serves as Chairman for the National Eagle Scout Association (NESA) and Scholarship Committee for the Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Nysha Chaderton, M.S. ’05, Ph.D. ’09
President – Elect
ExxonMobil
nysha.a.chaderton@exxonmobil.com
Nysha joined ExxonMobil in 2008 and is currently working as the Payara Development Geoscience Supervisor. She has held several positions across the Upstream, including Stratigraphy Supervisor, Technical Team Lead, Commercial Advisor, Exploration Geologist, Development Geologist, and Production Operations Geologist. Prior to joining ExxonMobil, Nysha spent two years working as a Geologist for the Government of Barbados. She received her academic training at The University of The West Indies, Jamaica (BSc Geology, 2002) and Geoscience degrees from the Jackson School at The University of Texas at Austin (MS, 2005; PhD, 2009).
Lauren Martin, B.S. ’07
Past President
Geosciences volunteer
lauren.greene.martin@gmail.com
Bio coming soon!
Laura Pommer, M.S. ’13
Networking Director
EnergyFunders
laura@energyfunders.com
Laura is the CEO of EnergyFunders, the world’s first digital platform for investing in oil and gas. She is passionate about democratizing energy investing and bringing returns from oil and gas to everyday investors. Prior to her role at EnergyFunders, she served as the CEO and lead geologist of Century Natural Resources, which she founded with her partners in October 2018 with $75M in private equity sponsorship. In this position, she guided the company’s development and management of approximately 150,000 acres in the Powder River Basin, which included organic development of both conventional and unconventional assets, ranging from PDP to exploration plays. Laura has also worked for Anadarko Petroleum’s U.S. onshore assets and various private equity-backed companies on regional and asset level mapping, log interpretation, risk analysis, and deal evaluation. She is a geologist by training, earning her masters in Geology from The University of Texas at Austin and her bachelor’s in Geology from The University of Colorado. She is also helping lead the emerging movement towards ESG-principled investing and is passionate about mentoring and recruiting more young women into the industry.
Alison Mote, M.S. ’04
Outreach Director
UT Austin, UT OnRamps Program
alison.mote@austin.utexas.edu
Alison is the Geoscience Course Manager for OnRamps Earth, Wind, and Fire, a dual enrollment geoscience course offered to high school students across the state of Texas through UT Austin. In her current role, she designs and implements curriculum to introduce students to the geosciences and designs and facilitates professional learning for OnRamps Geoscience High School Instructors. She is proud to serve as the FANs Board Outreach Director to help advance the mission of the Jackson School and engage others in the fascinating world of geosciences.
Max Daniller-Varghese, Ph.D. ’19
Austin Chapter Director
CVS Health
maxdv@utexas.edu
Max is currently a Senior Data Scientist at CVS. He used to wrangle large-scale point-clouds of the Earth’s surface, forecast weather at the seasonal scale, and study how the Earth’s surface changes its shape through time by moving sediment in rivers, coastlines, and marine environments.
Emilie Gentry, B.S. ’15
Colorado Chapter Director
TEVERRA
emilie.gentry@teverra.com
Emilie Gentry is a Senior Geothermal Geoscientist with TEVERRA providing geological mapping, resource assessment, and geothermal conceptual model development. Her technical expertise is structural and subsurface geology with experience in geologic research and oil and gas development, exploration, reservoir characterization, and regulatory affairs management. Emilie uses her knowledge in faults and structural geology and her experience in oil and gas to address major challenges in the geothermal industry and bring opportunity to the larger energy industry. She earned her B.Sc. in Geological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and her M.Sc. in Geology at Colorado School of Mines. Emilie is an active member of Women In Geothermal (WING) and was part of the WING Future Leaders Cohort.
Dr. Rania Eldam Pommer, B.S. ’13
Colorado Chapter Director
bpx Energy
Rania.pommer@bpx.com
Rania is a geoscientist with bpx Energy in Denver, CO. She is a champion of DE&I ambitions in STEM fields and works to drive equity at all levels in industry and academia. Rania was one of the co-founders of G.L.O.W., the Geosciences Leadership Organization for Women, in the Jackson School in 2011, and she published two STEM-focused children’s books while in graduate school. She currently lives in Golden, CO, with her husband Max, daughter Nailah, two dogs, one cat, and nine chickens.
April Duerson, B.S. ’07
Houston Chapter Director
Schlumberger
ADuerson@slb.com
Bio coming soon!
Lauren Eberhard, B.S. ’12, M.S. ’14
Houston Chapter Director
Lauren is an Integrated Geoscientist currently working on Carbon Sequestration on BP’s Global Subsurface Solutions team. Her graduate research at the Jackson School focused on quantitative modeling of the seismic response to fractured media. Since joining bp in 2014, she has enjoyed working with “real” (non-numerically generated) rocks in both the US and Mexican Gulf of Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, and now onshore US Gulf Coast. Lauren and her husband like to spend their free time outdoors on hikes with their young daughter, playing in an adult soccer league, and training their Lab puppy to hunt.
Matt Ramos, M.S. ’16, Ph.D. ’18
Houston Chapter Director
Chevron – CTC
MatthewRamos@chevron.com
Bio coming soon!
Marcus Chroback, B.S. ’10
Midland Chapter Director
EOG Resources
marcus_chroback@eogresources.com
Marcus is currently the Exploration Manager in EOG’s Midland division, where he joined through their college recruiting program in 2013. He holds a B.S. Degree in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.S. Degree in Geology from the University of Houston, and an MBA from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.
Malcolm Ferris, M.A. ’93
San Antonio Chapter Director
Bio coming soon!
Bobby Reece, Ph.D. ’12
College Station Chapter Director
Bobby is a technical advisor for cloud migration and modernization and the associated business transformation at AWS. He was previously a geophysics professor at Texas A&M and is interested in helping students map their skills and education to non-traditional career pathways, as well as early career or seasoned professionals with career field transitions. Bobby currently lives in College Station with his wife, Julia, and their two children, Luca and Maike.
Cristopher Marshall, B.S. ’97
Dallas Chapter Director
Earth/Space Science Teacher
Frisco Heritage High School
MarshaCr@friscoisd.org
Christopher graduated in 1997 with a BS in Geophysics and worked briefly for Unocal (Sugarland) in their potential fields group. He got certified to teach HS Earth Science in 1999 and is now in his 25th year of education. Christopher worked 10 years at The Colony High School and 15 years in Frisco ISD, currently at Heritage HS. He has two sons, both in HS, and they participate in marching band so that takes up a lot of their time during the fall semester. Christopher and his wife recently celebrated 20 years of marriage. She is a HS counselor also in Frisco ISD. He loves to travel, hike, scuba, trek, and run. Christopher has climbed several of Colorado’s 14ers, and in the summer of 2021, he achieved a dream he’s had since his days back at UT in the Geology department—he summited Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, elevation 19,341 feet!
Gabe Garcia, B.S. ’08
Corpus Christi Chapter Director
Colson Properties, Ltd.
ggarcia@colpropltd.com
Gabriel was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, and graduated from the Jackson School of Geosciences with a B.S. in General Geology in 2008. After graduation, he worked as a consulting geologist alongside operators and independent exploration companies in South Texas, putting together drilling prospects in the Gulf Coast Basin. He started working at Colson Properties, Ltd in 2016 with a focus on evaluating outside prospects for non-op working interest participation.