In a recent New York Times Magazine interview, Geophysicist and National Climate Assessment Report reviewer Robin Bell was asked if we are at a crossroads for geological climate change. Bell says that we are, but pessimism will not spur action. She takes a more optimistic view stating that, “People are starting to organize at the level at which they live, and that’s probably what gives me hope.”

Bell is also a research professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and president-elect of the American Geophysical Union. While she works to combat the negative effects of geological climate change, Bell sees a positive trend for women at the crossroads of campus climate change thanks in part to her participation in the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. She states that while, “We still don’t see women in as many leadership positions as I’d like”, during her five years with ADVANCE, “we managed to go from having both the teaching and research faculty at Lamont go from having single-digit numbers of women to having double digits.”

The NSF ADVANCE program helps universities “organize at the level at which they live” to improve the institutional climate for women and other underrepresented groups in the academy, with an emphasis on the STEM fields.

To learn more about the OREGON STATE ADVANCE program click here.