Mentors – USA
Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Martindale researches modern and ancient (Mesozoic and Cenozoic) ocean ecosystems and the evolutionary and environmental events that shaped them. Her research combines paleontology, sedimentology, ecology, biology, geochemistry, and oceanography leveraging both field and lab work, from large-scale reef mapping to water carbonate chemistry, to microscopic analysis of fossil communities. Her current research focuses on extinctions and environmental perturbations; marine (paleo)ecology and reef systems (modern and Jurassic-aged communities); conservation paleobiology; the evolution of reef builders (e.g., coral photosymbiosis); exceptionally preserved fossil deposits; and Geoscience Education (Virtual Field Trips and paleo-themed board games).
Assistant Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Kemp studies how biodiversity is altered by global change phenomena, such as human-mediated habitat loss and climate change. She integrates paleontological datasets with archaeological, historical, and modern records to identify patterns and causes of extinction and resiliency in Caribbean ecosystems. She is the founding director of the Negril Education and Environment Trust (NEET) Young Innovators Program, a STEM camp for school-aged children and their teachers in Jamaica.
Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Matheny seeks to better understand the role vegetation plays in land-atmosphere exchange. Her research focuses on measurement and modeling of the interactions and hydrologic feedbacks between the subsurface, the biosphere, and the atmosphere with a specific emphasis on the ways vegetation influences these fluxes. She studies the physical and mechanistic processes that govern water movement along the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum through a combination of field measurement campaigns and cutting-edge model development. Alongside her Jamaican collaborators, Dr. Matheny has been using novel instrumentation developed by her lab group to observe mangrove responses to environmental and aquatic pollution in two Jamaican research sites. Dr. Matheny’s education activities focus on experiential learning and place-based education.
Dr. Leah Turner
Program Director for GeoSTEM Career Exploration and Workforce Development, Jackson School of Geosciences
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Turner is a social scientist with a Ph.D. in higher education. Her primary academic interests involve research on the college choices of under-served and minoritized student populations to address prominent higher education issues such as access, retention, degree completion, student involvement, and satisfaction. Her portfolio includes positions in career development, K-12 outreach, student affairs, athletics, and academic affairs. At the Jackson School, she oversees the youth diversity outreach program called GeoFORCE Texas as well as many other programs.
Isaiah Bolden
Assistant Professor, School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Bolden is a marine biogeochemist. His research is primarily aimed at understanding the health of modern and ancient reef ecosystems as well as the impacts of climate change on these ecosystems. Dr. Bolden utilizes novel chemical proxies to reconstruct changes in the community structure of reef environments as a function of time and compounding stressors such as global warming and ocean acidification. He also is committed to community-engaged environmental research projects that promote community resilience and increase educational accessibility and diversity in the geosciences.
