Leadership

I have been active in many activities outside of my research. I helped organize an advocacy group, shared my research with the public, taught courses at the University of Michigan, and served as a representative for the graduate students within the Department of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. In these roles, I've demonstrated my ability to work within a team, communicate complex ideas clearly, build relationships between different groups, and solve problems collaboratively.

I'll start with a quick summary of the things I've done, then have full descriptions of everything below.

Michigan Dark Skies

I served as a co-coordinator of the Michigan Dark Skies group, which raises public awareness of light pollution and advocates for dark sky friendly lighting at the local level. I helped organize the group and worked on several projects throughout the Ann Arbor Area.

The most impactful action was working with the University of Michigan Central Student Government to pass a resolution encouraging the University to reduce its light pollution. This resolution called on the University to replace old lighting that was contributing to light pollution and to voluntarily adhere to the local ordinances governing outdoor lighting (which they are legally exempt from). As part of this process I also met with various University leaders to discuss how to make this happen in practice. Change on this institutional level is slow, but leaders are now aware of the issue and how it should influence their future planning.

I also played a small role in the Dark Skies Group's work with the Ann Arbor City Council to develop a lighting ordinance that will reduce the light pollution generated by the City of Ann Arbor. I helped advocate for this ordinance at various City Council committees and helped organize public support for the ordinance. This ordinance was passed in September 2021.

I've also engaged with Ann Arbor City Council through their Student Advisory Council (SAC). This committee is composed of students that keep City Council informed on issues relevant to students. In particular, Ann Arbor City Council was considering adding streetlights in areas with a lot of student housing. I worked with SAC to conduct a lighting audit of these areas, and ensure that any additional streetlights provided light only where it was needed while causing as little light pollution as possible.

I also met with the developers and architects of an upcoming development in Ann Arbor to encourage them to use dark sky friendly lighting. While the project is still in the early stages, they have committed to use dark sky friendly light fixtures and light bulbs. This is an example of how dark sky friendly lighting can be easy to implement if decision-makers are aware of the issue. They were not initially aware that this is something they should consider when designing their buildings, but were more than happy to make the necessary changes once they knew the best practices.

Lastly, I've engaged in outreach to educate the public about light pollution and how to stop it. I've given two talks at local libraries, plus a talk at Ignite Ann Arbor. This event consisting of 5 minute talks with 20 slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds. I gave a quick overview of what causes light pollution, how we can reduce it, and why we should care about it.

Science Communication

Throughout my time at the University of Michigan, I was involved in science communication and outreach. In particular, I became a University of Michigan Museum of Natural History Science Communication Fellow. This involved training in how to effectively engage audiences of all knowledge levels, then the development of a hands-on activity that I set up at the Museum. I created a demo that illustrated the contents over the universe over cosmic time. After doing this hands-on activity, I also gave several talks at the Museum. These were talks where anyone at the Museum was free to stop by and listen, so they were designed to be accessible and fun for people of all ages. Here is an example of one of these talks.

I have also done science communication in many other forums. I've given talks at local libraries, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, and other events around Michigan. In particular, I helped organize an Astronomy on Tap chapter in Ann Arbor. Every month, we held an event in a local restaurant with two astronomy talks, trivia, and other fun activities. I gave a talk at one of these events. This final video shows one other talk I gave, at the meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society.

Teaching

I helped teach several classes at the University of Michigan. Most notably, I was the sole instructor for a summer course named "Naked Eye Astronomy." It was held in the university planetarium, and covered what can be seen in the night sky. I handled all aspects of the course, including planning the course content, selecting a textbook, writing the syllabus, and designing the homework assignments. I taught about 50 students in this course.

For three semesters, I was a graduate student instructor for introductory-level astronomy courses for non-STEM majors. For these courses, I led discussion sections, which were essentially short lab sections. I started each class with a short lecture on today's topic, then let the students work though whatever hands-on activity was planned, helping them where needed. I also ran the Angell Hall Observatory for student observing nights. I was responsible for roughly 100 students in each of these three courses. I also performed a very similar role in another course, which was the introductory course for astrophysics majors.

Finally, I served as a Graduate Student Mentor for four semesters. In this role, I helped mentor the other graduate student instructors. I gave them advice on running lab sessions, how to handle conflicts with students or instructors, and how to grade homework efficiently. I was also a substitute instructor in case of emergencies.

University of Michigan Department of Astronomy

I was involved in several leadership roles within the Department of Astronomy. The most important of these roles was where I represented the graduate students on a committee that overhauled the preliminary examination that determined whether students advanced to candidacy. This was a two year process that changed from a single high-stakes exam covering all of astronomy to a more holistic evaluation, one component of which is an exam covering areas related to the students research. As part of this process, I led a survey to quantify how stressful the old format was and what changes grad students supported. After many meetings and discussions with faculty, the department adopted a new format that is significantly less stressful for students while still encouraging a deep understanding of the relevant material and the ability to make connection between topics. In this role I built relationships with both the other graduate students, to understand what our needs were, and the faculty, which had the power to actually make the final decision. I effectively worked as the liaison between these groups to help solve a problem to the satisfaction of both parties.

I also filled several smaller roles in the department. I was the graduate student representative on the curriculum committee, which mainly focused on optimizing the undergraduate curriculum. I was the organizer for the Galaxy Group, which was a weekly journal club covering any topic related to galaxy formation. I recruited both internal and external speakers and organized the schedule. As the organizer of the weekly graduate student lunch with the colloquium speaker, I ordered food and generally made sure that lunch meeting with a visiting speaker went smoothly. I also helped organize the visit weekend for prospective graduate students in March 2020. I helped lead the transition from an in-person visit weekend to a totally virtual "visit" as COVID-19's outbreak forced us to change our plans.

Finally, I helped found an antiracism reading group within the department. As part of the leadership team for this group, I helped organize the meeting schedule, choose readings, and facilitate the discussion at these meetings. Along with the other members of the leadership team, I was awarded the 2021 UM Astronomy DEI Champion Award.