About ASPIRE

Daniel Aguirre is a son, father, brother, partner, and immigrant. His professional experience was earned through grassroots community organizing, working with and within cultural institutions, formative educational environments, and place based research and engagement efforts. He has supported the growth and development of STEM professionals, science communication professionals and institutional leaders, both in title and culture. He founded Pueblo Collab to partner with organizations and individuals who aim to put inclusion into practice and not linger in promise. We help organizations go beyond transactional outreach efforts into deep community relationships that center equity.

Karyl Askew, PhD, is a program evaluator with experience applying a collaborative and culturally responsive methodology examining STEM initiatives with a focus on organizational evaluation capacity building and authentic engagement of populations historically underrepresented and marginalized in the STEM enterprise since 2005. She has served as the lead evaluator for multiple federal, state, and local STEM innovative initiatives, working alongside scientific researchers and their partners. Dr. Askew has co-authored peer-reviewed publications and has been invited by several regional and national organizations to share her evaluation expertise to impact policy and practice.

Natalie Baloy, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Western Washington University. Dr. Baloy’s work is informed by scholarship in critical Indigenous studies, settler colonial studies, and interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary collaborations toward transformation in context and community. She collaborates with colleagues across disciplines and institutions to design interdisciplinary courses and research projects. She is the social science lead for ASPIRE, working with the team to examine and cultivate cultural change in the geosciences.

Monifa Beverly, PhD, has experience applying a collaborative and culturally responsive evaluation methodology toward supporting STEM initiatives, educational institutions, and communities since 2005. She has provided evaluation services to multiple federally funded programs and foundation grants, such as NSF and AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange. She brings expertise in qualitative evaluation design, qualitative data collection methods, group facilitation, and reporting that leverages data visualization. She uses the findings, in real-time, to help organizations take immediate action on salient issues. Dr. Beverly contributes to the evaluation team’s ability to develop authentic relationships and innovative evaluation products.

Cat Davis, PhD is a tenured researcher at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the Editor-in-Chief of the Citizen Science: Theory and Practice journal. She has over 20 years of experience designing, studying, and evaluating public engagement with science. This includes participatory science design and assessment, educator/scientist professional development, and integrating science practices and technology in learning environments.

Jane provides executive, administrative and project support to the ASPIRE Working Groups (AWGs) intervention leads Corey Garza and Julia Parrish.

Jamie Donatuto is an environmental social scientist who has had the honor to work with Indigenous communities for more than two decades. Currently she is a Clinical Associate Professor the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. The projects Jamie leads span a wide breath of community environmental health topics, including toxics in local traditional foods, tribal health-related impacts from climate change, informal environmental health education based on connections to traditional foods, and developing community-based Indigenous health indicators.

Corey Garza is the Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence at the College of the Environment, and Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. He has overseen National Science Foundation and NOAA programs focused on improving student diversity in ocean science and leadership training programs that aim to create inclusive training and work environments in the geosciences. He currently serves on the board of directors for the American Geophysical Union and previously served on the board of directors for the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.

Lora Harris is a professor and associate director of research at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory within the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES). She has applied field and modeling approaches to address climate, nutrient pollution, and management driven science questions in a range of estuarine ecosystems. She is committed to community engagement in her work, and takes just as much satisfaction in talking about water quality with a Board of County Commissioners, or listening to residents tired of pollution in their tidal creeks, as she does in giving a talk at a professional conference.

Marco Hatch is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science at the College of the Environment, Western Washington University. Marco is marine ecologist with a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a member of the Samish Indian Nation. Prior to WWU he directed the Salish Sea Research Center at Northwest Indian College. His research weaves traditional ecological knowledge and marine science through the exploration of food systems. In addition to ASPIRE he is currently co-PI for the NSF funded Native Food, Energy, Water Systems INCLUDES Alliance, PNW Hub lead for the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science and a Pew Marine Conservation Fellow. Hatch is on the Board of Trustees for the Washington Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Coast Salish Youth Coalition and the Clam Garden Network.

Rihana Mason, PhD, is an experimental psychologist with over 20 years of social science research experience, including eight years of program evaluation. Dr. Mason offers her experience in culturally relevant evaluation and the application of psychosocial theoretical frameworks to large-scale research investigations involving culturally diverse populations in a variety of learning environments.  She brings evaluation expertise related to the teaching of scientific concepts and research methods. Dr. Mason’s commitment to elevating minoritized voices in STEM is further demonstrated by her role as a founding member of the Academic Pipeline Project and her prior service as Chair of the Committee for Equality and Professional Opportunity (CEPO).  Dr. Mason’s activities through the Academic Pipeline Project include collaboration with the STEM Undergraduate Research Success Center, where she received training on how to interpret academic interventions using phenomenological variant of the ecological systems theory and has provided workshops on the hidden and second curricula.

Raj Pandya is a Professor of Practice in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and the Executive Director of the Global Futures Education Alliance at Arizona State University. Before that he served as Vice-President of Community Science and founding Director of Thriving Earth Exchange at AGU. Raj invites everyone to work together to build safe, resilient, and sustainable futures while advancing personal, community, and planetary well-being. His work focuses on making the sciences more participatory, exploring how community participation advances scientific innovation and societal relevance, and helping sciences and universities be good community partners. 

Julia K. Parrish is the Lowell A. and Frankie L. Wakefield Professor of Ocean Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, where she also serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of the Environment.  She is a marine biologist, a conservation biologist, and a specialist in citizen science. Within ASPIRE, Julia is lead of the Changemakers programmatic offering aimed at distilling tangible and cross-institutional mechanisms to affirm and reward reciprocal, in-community, geoscience partnerships.

Mia is an Upper Skagit Indian Tribal member born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She received her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Western Washington University and is currently a first year graduate Student in the Anthropology department at WWU. Mia provides research and administrative support to Natalie Baloy, the social science lead for ASPIRE and Marco Hatch, with whom Mia works closely. Mia’s research interest is aimed towards working with local communities and scholars to understand the impacts of academic research and to understand the level of engagement communities have within geoscience.  She is dedicated to community engaged work in which she aims to support and create a more inclusive path for community members and Indigenous students.

Anastasia serves as the Inclusive Excellence Program Specialist at the College of the Environment, University of Washington. She develops and manages programs and funding opportunities that support student, staff, and faculty academic and professional development and actionable initiatives that broaden access and enrich learning, teaching, and research at the College. In ASPIRE, Anastasia provides project management and support to the Innovation Incubator for senior institutional leaders (a.k.a. Changemakers).

Fred Tutman is a grassroots community advocate for clean water in Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate waterway and holds the title of Patuxent Riverkeeper, an organization that he founded in 2004. Prior to Riverkeeping, Fred spent nearly 25 years working as a media producer and consultant on telecommunications assignments all over the globe, including a long stint working with and advising traditional healers in West Africa and coverage of the Falkands conflict in Argentina on assignment by the BBC. After a late life sojourn into law school, in addition to his duties as a Waterkeeper, Fred has also taught classes in Environmental Law and Policy at various Colleges in Maryland. In his spare time he does trail maintenance on the Appalachian Trail when not exploring the Patuxent River by kayak. Fred is the recipient of numerous regional and state awards for his various environmental works on behalf of communities. He is the longest serving Waterkeeper in the Chesapeake region and the sole African-American Waterkeeper in the nation.

Dr. Karyl Askew is a capable educational program evaluator vibrantly engaging your partners in evaluation to promote organizational change and drive innovation in STEM. Dr. Askew’s mission is to invite multicultural perspectives into educational program development and evaluation to promote inclusion. Using a collaborative and culturally responsive approach, Dr. Askew delivers connection and understanding through evaluative conversation.

Our mission is to protect, conserve and replenish Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate waterway. Through strategic advocacy, restoration and education our goal is long term sustainability for the ecosystem of the entire Patuxent River basin and the people who rely on its future.

Organizations can realize a culture that is inclusive in practice, not in promise. Pueblo partners with organizations and individuals who are on a journey to go beyond outreach, into effective, responsive, and relevant engagement that leads to meaningful change and relationships. To serve with purpose and intentionality, we must begin by looking inward at the existing culture and systems that shape an organization. 

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science leads the way toward better management of Maryland’s natural resources and the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. From a network of laboratories located across the state, our scientists provide sound advice to help state and national leaders manage the environment and prepare future scientists to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.

The issues we face today demand a combination of discovery, leadership and an impactful connection with our communities. UW Environment works at this intersection, bridging the divide between scientific disciplines, stakeholders and societies, policymakers and the public. With courage and conviction, we have the audacity to delve deeper into the workings of our planet. Together, we can move the world forward.

Explore your full potential at Western Washington University. We are committed to delivering our students a rigorous, world-class academic curriculum, impactful hands-on learning, and a unique community that fosters creativity, community engagement and inclusive success.