End of year "What's Update" 2023
Published on December 21, 2023 by Julia Lowndes
2023 was a big year: Ileana Fenwick launched the inaugural Pathways to Open Science Program! Pathways to Open Science is a remote event series for Black environmental & marine researchers to build community for the future of data intensive science. Led by Ileana Fenwick of Openscapes in partnership with Black in Marine Science (BIMS), Black Women in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Science (BWEEMS). Co-leads are Aneese Williams and Alex Davis. Further details in the prompts below.
1. What did you accomplish during 2023? How did you use money?
An excerpt from https://openscapes.org/blog/2023-04-26-pathways-report/:
The Pathways team is so excited to report that this series provided tangible skills that will accelerate the science of incredible Black researchers across the globe (we even had international participants!). While difficult to capture with numbers, the community, hope, and excitement within this space was invaluable. This program was a true labor of love for us as organizers who have often felt the burden of being one of few or the only Black researcher in the room. It is also a powerful testament to the powerful allyship of our organizers and funders in centering Black leadership in efforts to successfully serve our community as demonstrated here. It was an honor to create this space with our team and spearhead this effort, and we look forward to improving our approach to build even more community in the years to come.
2. What challenges did you face during 2023? What did your Collective learn? How did you change or grow?
An excerpt from https://openscapes.org/blog/2023-04-26-pathways-report/:
Our time-budgeting was correct, but the way we distributed it was not. Ileana had budgeted time/month to focus on Pathways, and it was much more front-loaded with all the engagement with HBCU 1:1s, meeting with BIMS and BWEEMS leadership to design the strategy and write about the liaison opportunities for their membership newsletter, and then meeting with BIMS and BWEEMS liaisons, graphics designer, and social media liaisons individually to establish relationships before we began meeting regularly as a team. Building these relationships was part of the original proposal and event design, and were key to the event series’ success. In the future we’ll have to think about how to make that more manageable.
3. What are your plans for 2024? Anything exciting coming up?
Yes! We are leading the Pathways program for the second year in 2024, registration is open!
https://openscapes.github.io/pathways-to-open-science/
We are also excited to announce new partners: PREreview. Funding partners to be announced in January, we appreciate Open Collective being our fiscal sponsor partner in this effort :heart.
1. What did you accomplish during 2023? How did you use money?
An excerpt from https://openscapes.org/blog/2023-04-26-pathways-report/:
The Pathways team is so excited to report that this series provided tangible skills that will accelerate the science of incredible Black researchers across the globe (we even had international participants!). While difficult to capture with numbers, the community, hope, and excitement within this space was invaluable. This program was a true labor of love for us as organizers who have often felt the burden of being one of few or the only Black researcher in the room. It is also a powerful testament to the powerful allyship of our organizers and funders in centering Black leadership in efforts to successfully serve our community as demonstrated here. It was an honor to create this space with our team and spearhead this effort, and we look forward to improving our approach to build even more community in the years to come.
2. What challenges did you face during 2023? What did your Collective learn? How did you change or grow?
An excerpt from https://openscapes.org/blog/2023-04-26-pathways-report/:
Our time-budgeting was correct, but the way we distributed it was not. Ileana had budgeted time/month to focus on Pathways, and it was much more front-loaded with all the engagement with HBCU 1:1s, meeting with BIMS and BWEEMS leadership to design the strategy and write about the liaison opportunities for their membership newsletter, and then meeting with BIMS and BWEEMS liaisons, graphics designer, and social media liaisons individually to establish relationships before we began meeting regularly as a team. Building these relationships was part of the original proposal and event design, and were key to the event series’ success. In the future we’ll have to think about how to make that more manageable.
3. What are your plans for 2024? Anything exciting coming up?
Yes! We are leading the Pathways program for the second year in 2024, registration is open!
https://openscapes.github.io/pathways-to-open-science/
We are also excited to announce new partners: PREreview. Funding partners to be announced in January, we appreciate Open Collective being our fiscal sponsor partner in this effort :heart.
👍️ 1