This week, we welcomed Alycia Crall to the CSCCE staff team as our new Director of Community. We’re thrilled that Alycia, a long time member of our community of practice and frequent collaborator, has decided to join us and bring her wealth of experience as a community manager in STEM to CSCCE! In this blog post, we introduce you to Alycia, and explain a little more about her newly-created role.
About Alycia
Alycia comes to us from an interim position at the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA), where she served as Director of Community. Prior to joining ADSA, she was Director of Community at The Carpentries, and was instrumental in developing a new strategic plan for the organization that centered around community engagement.
Alycia also worked for several years as a research scientist and evaluator for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), during which time she played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Environmental Data Science Inclusion Network (EDSIN). It was through her work at EDSIN that we were lucky enough to work with Alycia, on a member research study to get to know the needs of network members in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alycia’s research background is in citizen science and ecology, and in 2010 she received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She then took a postdoctoral position to continue her dissertation research, and subsequently became the Virginia Master Naturalist Director at Virginia Tech, managing a statewide network with more than 2,500 members.
“For many years, I found it difficult to clearly articulate what it is that I do. I graduated as a researcher in the field of citizen science, but my work quickly began extending into so many other areas: event planning, program development, communications, project management, evaluation, relationship building. The list continued to grow.
It was not until I came to the CSCCE community of practice that I began to identify as a “community manager,” which allowed me to better communicate my work and convey its importance. CSCCE provided the frameworks and tools required to bring structure to the chaos that is continuously present in this work and has introduced me to colleagues that have supported me in so many ways throughout my career. I’m so excited to be joining the team so I can continue to learn from and co-create with all of you.”
Alycia Crall
Director of Community – about this new role at CSCCE
Alycia will join CSCCE’s core leadership team, and will focus on strategic community engagement efforts both within the CSCCE community of practice and in partnership with our clients. She will also take the lead in developing new programming for CSCCE course alumni, as well as collaborate on organizational development initiatives that will support our sustainability over the next few years.
“We couldn’t be happier to welcome Alycia to the team” says Lou Woodley, CSCCE’s Founder and Director. “Her wealth of experience in creating connections and her deep care about being inclusive are perfectly aligned with the projects that she’ll be working on.”