Dear SML Community,
January always brings the excitement of new opportunities and plans for the new year, while also providing an opportunity to reflect on the past. This year, I am thrilled to start the year thinking about my new role as Executive Director of the Shoals Marine Lab, beginning next month. The Shoals team is working to prepare for my arrival and onboarding, as well as to develop a fantastic 2024 field season. Although we are still in mid-winter and we must still contend with much winter weather, the days are already beginning to get longer and the summer will be here before we know it.
I am honored to be following in the footsteps of previous Shoals directors. More than thirty years ago, I met J.B. Heiser, who was guest lecturing for a mammalogy class I took as a first-year graduate student at Cornell. Initially, I was intimidated by his booming voice and encyclopedic knowledge of marine mammals. However, his welcoming manner, easy smile, twinkling eyes, and scientific curiosity put me at ease in our first meeting and were part of why so many of us who got to know him on Appledore are grateful for his leadership, guidance, mentoring, and friendship. While I will never be able to summon all of the island to a food run line by calling from the deck of Kiggins Commons, I aspire to emulate J.B.’s curiosity, engagement, and cultivation of community among students, faculty, staff and visitors to the Shoals Marine Lab that I experienced from my first trip to Appledore.
I wish you all a wonderful 2024! I look forward to seeing many of you this year, ideally on Appledore.
