Auriel Fournier: Nomination for 2018 Steering Committee

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

2018 Election: Auriel Fournier

I am excited for the opportunity to stand for election for the 2018 Steering Committee of The Carpentries.

About Me

I am currently a postdoctoral research associate at Mississippi State University, based out of the Coastal Research and Extension Office in Biloxi, MS on the Gulf Coast. I am part of the leadership of a large (>45 partner, 200 person) cooperative network which is using structured decision making to inform decision making about bird conservation in response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. I received my PhD in Biology from the University of Arkansas in May 2017 and before that received a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Management from Michigan Technological University. I’m an avid gardener, crochet/knitter and lover of dogs.

Previous Experience With The Carpentries

• certified Software Carpentry instructor since Spring 2015
• certified Data Carpentry instructor since Spring 2016
• I’ve hosted one workshop
• I’ve taught four workshops, with another coming up in December 2017
• I’ve been a maintainer for the Data Carpentry R Ecology Lessons for about a year.

I started to be involved with the Carpentries as a graduate student, seeking a community that could help me grow in my reproducible science and programming skills, and I have been amazed again and again how this community has welcomed and supported me and I am excited for a chance to take a more formal role in its leadership.

Looking forward for The Carpentries

I’m excited about The Carpentries merger and the opportunity it brings us. We have a strong community, and a large part of my goal on the board would be continuing community efforts to make our membership and our work more accessible and diverse to everyone. Accessibility would include making our lessons and materials accessible to those with disabilities, including those who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Blind. In addition I hope to help make being part of the instructor community more accessible to those without large financial resources to either bring a workshop to their group, or to be a instructor, which often requires being able to front several hundred to a thousand dollars a workshop waiting for reimbursements. This is a large burden on many members of our community, especially those who are students or early career scientists. I want to work to ensure that this is not a barrier to anyone’s participation in our community

I am also eager to bring the perspective of a recent student and still early career scientist to the committee, with the hopes of growing the student membership in the community. I know what a powerful force the community support can be for a student, and I want that to be available to all interested students.

In short I am passionate about making open reproducible science truly accessible to all. I love The Carpentry community and would work to ensure that the entire membership of that community is heard, respected and included.