Allyson Anderson was selected to be the 2006-2007 American Geological Institute Congressional Science Fellow. She worked for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on many issues, including carbon sequestration and geothermal energy resources.

 

Before coming to DC, Allyson was a petrophysicist in the Formation Evaluation Core Group of ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas and a researcher at the Kansas Geological Survey. She earned a Master's degree in Geology from the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis in 2000. She is the Past-President of the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG) and the Vice-Chair, Professional Women in the Geoscience Professions Ad Hoc Committee of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). Allyson is enthusiastic about continuing her volunteer work on public outreach, education and career opportunities in the geosciences, while meeting the challenges of public policy development in Washington DC.

 

Allyson worked for five years as Professional Staff for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and in 2012 joined the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Director.

 

Anderson and the other 2006-2007 geoscience fellows are profiled in the December 2006 issue of Geotimes.

 

Allyson has written the following articles for Geotimes:

Bryan Mignone was selected to be the 2007-2008 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow. He worked as a professional staff member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, mainly in the area of climate change.

 

Prior to his selection, Bryan was a MacArthur Science and Technology Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he launched and maintained an active, interdisciplinary research program at the intersection of climate, energy and technology policy. The author of numerous academic articles and op-eds, he has also contributed to several education and policy outreach activities. Bryan was awarded a Ph.D. in geosciences from Princeton University, a graduate certificate in science, technology and environmental policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an A.B. in physics and philosophy from Cornell University. After the fellowship, Bryan returned to the Brookings Institution as Director of Research for their Energy Security Initiative.

Mignone and the other 2007-2008 geoscience fellows are profiled in the December 2007 issue of Geotimes.

Bryan has written the following articles for EARTH Magazine:

Bryan has written the following articles for Geotimes:

The 2008-2009 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow is Gabrielle Dreyfus. She worked in the office of Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, on energy issues. Gabrielle received her doctoral degree in Geosciences from Princeton University and the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris France. Her dissertation work involved reconstructing climate records and improving ice core chronology using geochemical information from air trapped in Antarctic ice over the past 800,000 years. Gabrielle received her Bachelor of Arts in Earth and Planetary Sciences with highest honors from Harvard University in 2001, a Diploma of Extended Studies, Oceanography, Meteorology, and Environment with honors from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris France in 2003 and a Masters degree in Geosciences from Princeton University in 2005. After her Congressional Science Fellowship, Dreyfus served as a AAAS Fellow in the Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Atmosphere and Oceans and Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Jane Lubchenco. In 2011, she began a Climate Change Policy and Technology Fellowship at the Department of Energy.

 

Gabrielle has written the following article for Earth Magazine:
"Learning to Speak to Your Representatives," April 2009

The 2009-2010 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow is Kathryn "Katie" Matthews. She worked in the office of Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, on nuclear issues. She was a postdoctoral geochemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group investigating the migration of uranium and its daughter products at a site analogous to the proposed radiological waste repository at Yucca Mountain. She also participated in a nuclear forensics program, measuring isotopic ratios of interest in air and soil samples. She received her Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. Her dissertation focused on deciphering marine and coral biogeochemistry to understand past climatic conditions. She received her Masters in Earth and Environmental Science from the University of Pennsylvania - examining the deposition of pesticides in Arctic ice cores. Her Bachelor degree in Geological Sciences is from Tufts University in Massachusetts. After her Congressional Science Fellowship, Matthews served as a Marine Science Officer at the U.S. State Department on a AAAS Fellowship. She now is Vice President of Policy Development and Outreach at the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 2010-2011 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow is Ursula Rick. Rick worked in the office of Senator Mark Udall of Colorado. Previously, Rick was a professional research associate at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder. She received her Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Colorado, her Masters in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and her Bachelor degree in Material Science and Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. Her doctoral dissertation focused on surface water runoff from the Greenland ice sheet. She continues to do fieldwork in Greenland and Antarctica and recently co-organized a Forum on Science Ethics and Policy at the University of Colorado. She is now the Regulatory Affairs Analyst at Western Energy Alliance.

The 2011-2012 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow is Aisha Morris who worked in the office of Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey. Aisha received her Bachelor’s of Science in Geology from Duke University and her Masters in Marine Geology and Geophysics from the University of Hawaii. She completed her Doctoral degree in Planetary Geology at the University of Hawaii under the tutelage of Peter Mouginis-Mark. The focus of her doctoral degree was “Topographic and geomorphologic studies of volcanic and impact-related landforms on Earth and Mars”. She recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) at Syracuse University. Aisha served as an instructor for undergraduate geology courses and for the Research Scholars High School STEP program. Dedicated to science education, Aisha also worked with Girls Eyes Only (GEO), a science enrichment program and Girls Get It!, a science camp; both for middle school girls in the Syracuse area.

 

The 2012-2013 William L. Fisher Congressional Geosciences Fellow is Anna Henderson. She worked on energy policy in the office of Senator Al Franken. Anna recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship using molecular fossils and compound specific isotopes to investigate the emergence of grassland ecosystems in Earth history.  In 2010 she completed a PhD in Geology from University of Minnesota focused on water resources and changes in seasonality of precipitation over the last 10,000 years in North America.  Anna has an undergraduate degree in Geology-Biology from Brown University.

 

The 2013-2014 William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellow is Kristen Mitchell. She worked in the office of Congressman Mike Honda of California. Mitchell graduated with her B.S. in Marine Chemistry from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2005. After graduation, Mitchell moved to Europe for a Fulbright Student Fellowship where she studied microbial sulfate reduction at the University of Southern Denmark. During the course of her Ph.D., Mitchell studied at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, Georgia Institute of Technology, and finally the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. She successfully defended her Ph.D. on the marine biogeochemical cycling of selenium isotopes at Utrecht University in 2012. Currently, Mitchell is a research associate in the Ecohydrology Research Group at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on assessing the utility of remote sensing to identify plastic debris in the Great Lakes and in oceans.