TOS Council Election Results

Hilary Palevsky

Dr. Hilary Palevsky is a marine biogeochemist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College. Her research combines seagoing fieldwork, laboratory measurements, autonomous sensor data, and global climate model simulations to investigate the interactions between biological, physical, and chemical processes in the marine carbon cycle. Her research group’s current projects span from the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean to a coastal salt marsh in New Jersey. Prior to her current position at Boston College, Dr. Palevsky earned her PhD in Oceanography and a Graduate Certificate in Climate Science at the University of Washington, completed a Postdoctoral Scholarship in Marine Chemistry at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and taught at Wellesley College and The Evergreen State College.

Though her career path landed her in a faculty position in a PhD-granting department, Dr. Palevsky started graduate school without aspirations to end up in academia, concluded her PhD with aspirations to teach at a primarily undergraduate institution, and spent multiple years navigating a dual-career job search together with her spouse. Along the way, she sought out leadership roles aimed at supporting early career scientists, including helping organize the Graduate Climate Conference as a PhD student, serving as president of the WHOI Postdoctoral Association, co-organizing the 2017 Chemical Oceanography Gordon Research Seminar, and serving on the steering committee of the Society for Women in Marine Science. In her current position as a pre-tenure faculty member, she has co-led the OOI Biogeochemical Sensor Data Working Group and mentors a group of early career women through MPOWIR (Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention), in addition teaching and mentoring early career scientists in her own classes and research group. Dr. Palevsky would welcome the opportunity to work with the TOS council to support early career scientists across a range of career paths within oceanography, and to improve equity and inclusion and reduce barriers facing minoritized groups across all career stages.

Jeremy Werdell

I resolved to become a marine scientist in 1988 upon returning from an eighth grade science trip to the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. After a quick stint in high school, I received a B.A. in Biology and in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia in 1996 and a M.S. in Oceanography from the University of Connecticut in 1998.  In 1999, I joined NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as a research scientist, where I’ve remained ever since, as all oceanographers with a penchant for motion sickness should. When the stars properly aligned in 2014, I received a Ph.D. from the University of Maine. Today, I currently serve as the Project Scientist for the upcoming NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission, scheduled for launch in February 2024.

My primary interest focuses on improving our understanding of the ocean’s biological responses to Earth’s changing climate – namely, how the spatial distributions of phytoplankton communities evolve over time. If one cares about breathing and eating and aquatic recreation, then one cares about phytoplankton. Given that I wear a NASA badge, my mandatory secondary interests extend to the more challenging aspects of satellite remote sensing, including the on-orbit calibration of ocean color instruments, the development of remote-sensing algorithms, and the validation of satellite-derived data products. These, in combination with my subject matter living in a three-dimensional fluid on a rotating ellipsoid, create a research environment packed with opportunities to contribute to NASA’s pursuit of better understanding our home planet.

Broadly speaking, I hope to offer the Council expertise on oceanographic data utility and accessibility, visualization, and analysis. In my two-decade career, I’ve gained hands-on experience with all aspects of oceanographic data, from the top-of-the-atmosphere to the seafloor and everything in between. My tenure includes dataset development, analysis and assimilation of in situ and satellite time-series, algorithm development, measurement protocols maintenance, data processing, and mission formulation. I can offer a deep and frank perspective on the opportunities for diverse datasets to support community needs. I’ve accumulated insight into the inner workings of data accumulation and accessibility services from an agency perspective to that of an end-user.

My CV lists experiences that are professionally relevant to the work of this Council, such as maintenance of large datasets, teaching about data accessibility, visualization, and analysis, and participation in groups related to the above. What I also can contribute to the core values of the Council is my enthusiasm for cheerleading and supporting my team, particularly the early career crew, and interest in ensuring representation of underrepresented groups in STEM in hiring practices, acceptance into classes and opportunities, and mentoring activities (details available by request). I’m also actively working on a first-of-its-kind Inclusion Plan for my lab that defines tracking protocols, trainings, conflict resolution strategies, and feedback mechanisms, with attention to accessibility and accountability.

Outside of NASA, but also perhaps relevant qualities for a potential Council member, is that I’ve recently begun (perhaps not recently enough) journeys of self-reflection and-improvement. As a professional example, the experience of PACE pushed me into a position of leadership and management that I was unquestionably ill-prepared to accept. It was humbling. To that end, after several years of stumbling and bumbling, I recently sought out and completed an 18-month program in management and leadership offered by Harvard Business School online. This was a transformative experience – and also humbling, particularly those exercises where my subordinates, peers, and supervisors provided 360-deg feedback. I’m currently working with senior staff in my lab to put new processes in place.  Finally, beyond being identified as the PACE Project Scientist, I also serve as a husband, father, son, friend, wannabe cook, former musician, avid music-lover, runner, beginner meditation practitioner, and future cookbook author.

Emily Lemagie

Emily Lemagie is a sea-going research physical oceanographer at NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and English with honors as well as a minor in Mathematics from the University of Washington (UW) in 2006. She also holds a Master’s of Science in Marine Resource Management (2011) and a Doctor of Philosophy (2018), both from Oregon State University (OSU). She trained as a postdoctoral scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and at Scripps Institute of Oceanography before returning to Seattle to study ocean dynamics and the impacts on marine ecosystems in the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and U.S. Arctic.

She is currently a PI for the EcoFOCI program leading research of the dynamic relationships among climate, fisheries, and the marine environment with projects that range from local to regional and large scale and leverage a combination of satellite, autonomous platform, and ship-based observing approaches as well as high-resolution model output. She is editor for the PICES Press newsletter report The Bering Sea: Current Status and Recent Trends, and a contributor for the annual NOAA Ecosystem Status Reports For The Gulf Of Alaska, Bering Sea And Aleutian Islands, and for the NOAA Fisheries Regional Action Plan to guide implementation of the NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy in the Gulf of Alaska.

Service to the oceanography community to support open sharing of ideas and information, early career professional development, and integration of JEDI principles into every aspect of the scientific enterprise have been fundamental tenets throughout her career. She volunteered with student mentoring programs at OSU and WHOI, and UW and co-chaired the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar on Coastal Ocean Dynamics, including fundraising to support travel costs for every student in need. She has almost a decade of experience as a board and committee member serving marine science organizations, such as: Pacific Estuarine Research Society (PERS, 2014 – 2018); Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF, 2014 – 2018); Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention (MPOWIR, 2021 – present); North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) Advisory Panel for the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science (2022 – present). These experiences have exposed her to a broad range of challenges and solutions from institutional, regional, national, and international perspectives.

It would be an honor and a privilege to join The Oceanography Society Council to assist with maintaining the high level of excellence within existing programs as well as with development and implementation of new initiatives. Dr. Lemagie has been engaged with TOS since her early career; as a student member she was selected to participate in the first trial mentorship program. It is the support and community afforded her by such opportunities that inspires her to want to give back.