SERC Director Transition

Initial Publication Date: June 10, 2021

Friends and colleagues,

We have news from SERC! After two decades of fearless leadership, Cathy Manduca will be stepping down as Director on July 1st. SERC will continue under the direction of a Leadership Team led by Ellen Iverson as the new Director and including Cailin Huyck Orr (Associate Director), Amy Collette (Finance Director) and Sean Fox (Technical Director). While she is excited to explore new directions, Cathy is also planning on staying connected through this transition and beyond. She will remain at SERC as the Founding Director to continue current project work and complete long-contemplated writing projects. She anticipates a leave of absence in the fall to sort out her future.

We are all very excited about this transition. It opens up new leadership opportunities for SERC, which will undoubtedly lead to exciting new directions. It also opens up opportunities for Cathy to do new things. We have been planning for this change for several years and have chosen this new leadership model because of the extremely strong shared vision and working relationships that exist within the SERC team, as well as the strength of leadership and experience within the entire staff. Thus in addition to allowing for evolution and growth, we believe it will also sustain into the future the success and momentum developed together with you since our start in 2002.

This is an exciting time for SERC as it enters a new era. We hope you join with us in using the opportunities of this moment to bring new energy and creativity to work on improving undergraduate education, geoscience teaching and learning, and equity and inclusion.

Sincerely,

Cathy Manduca, Ellen Iverson, Sean Fox, Cailin Huyck Orr, Amy Collette