MU-ADVANCE Hires Dr. Tina Cartwright as MU-ADVANCE Program Director

A director has been chosen to lead the NSF-funded ADVANCE program at Marshall University. Dr. Tina Cartwright joined the ADVANCE team in January to develop new strategies to increase the participation of women in the sciences and engineering fields.  As a Goldwater Scholar, Cartwright earned her B.A. in Geography from West Virginia University and went on to obtain both a M.S. degree and a Ph.D. in Meteorology from Florida State University. During her Ph.D. program, she served as an assistant research staff member within the Weather Sensing Group for one year at the Lincoln Laboratory, the research facility for the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Returning to her native West Virginia, Cartwright became the Applied Meteorology Program Director at West Virginia State University. Operating with funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service (NOAA/NWS), she developed and implemented the first Meteorology degree program in the state. In June 2005, she was appointed as the West Virginia State Climatologist. In this role, Cartwright represented West Virginia at both the National Academics Convocation held in Washington, D.C. and at the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research’s (EPSCoR) workshop “Cyberinfrastructure for Earth Observing Systems” in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Dr. Cartwright has been instrumental in creating ways to better STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in the state. She served as a panel member for the Governor’s Commission on Graduate Studies in STEM. As a panel member, she worked closely with the Governor and the Legislature to address the barriers students in WV face, providing recommendations on how to improve graduate student support in the STEM disciplines. In fact, her own undergraduate experience in scientific research as a Goldwater Scholar proved to be an important first step for realizing her interest in obtaining a PhD.

 Furthermore, in 2005, Cartwright completed the Trainer Certification program for the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program. This certification authorizes her to conduct professional development workshops to train other teachers on the protocols of the program. She works in close collaboration with scientific educators, including Mr. Todd Ensign, Program Manager of NASA IV&V Educator Resource Center in Fairmont, WV and GLOBE State Partner. Dr. Cartwright has also collaborated with the WV Center for Professional Development in providing teaching workshops on scientific inquiry and incorporating GLOBE into the classroom.

In addition to garnering funds from the NOAA/NWS, Cartwright currently is the Principal Investigator of two NSF grants totaling close to $1 million. Both grants will give her the opportunity to work with, encourage and influence the next generation of scientists. She is working with students from the elementary grades to secondary, along with educators in formal and informal classrooms. Her ability to promote relevant scientific learning, particularly applied to our local environment, is impressive.

Along with her education, her experiences in higher education, and her knowledge with funding agencies, both with the submission process and administration of those funds, made Dr. Cartwright the best and most qualified person for the director position.                    

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