Crosspost: #BlackInAstro Unsung Heroes: Crystal Tinch

This post is part of our series #BlackInAstro. For our cornerstone post, see here. The “Unsung Heroes” series aims to highlight the work of folks who are not professional astronomers, but whose work is crucial to the astronomical community!

In this installment, we are publishing an interview with Crystal Tinch, a staff member at the American Astronomical Society.

Eighteen years ago, Crystal Tinch was hired to work at the American Astronomical Society, or AAS.

Crystal Tinch, Communications
and Engagement Coordinator for
the AAS, works to forge stronger
bonds between members of the 
astronomical community.

"It's funny because when I started, my friends were like, what do you know about astronomy?" she laughs. But I'm involved in everything that communicates to our membership, like the social media, the directory, and all of the emails that go out.” 

Tinch has a degree in English with a photography minor, and originally worked at an art gallery in Buffalo, New York, before relocating to Washington, D.C. “I really just moved on a whim,” she says. Soon after, she found her current position at the AAS.

As Communications and Engagement Coordinator, Tinch is the glue that holds the astronomical community together. She has helped with the biannual AAS Meetings, facilitated elections for AAS leadership, maintained a list of obituaries to honor members who have passed away, assisted with the production of AAS educational content, and more.

Read more about Crystal Tinch at

https://astrobites.org/2021/04/16/blackinastro-unsung-heroes-crystal-tinch/

Career Profile: Astronomer to STEM Inclusion and Outreach Specialist

 The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is compiling interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Regina Barber DeGraaff. Regina is a Mexican-Taiwanese-American, pop-culture-obsessed, astrophysicist, who teaches physics, astronomy, and science communication at WWU. Regina completed her PhD in physics at Washington State University in 2011, studying distant extragalactic globular clusters using the Hubble Space Telescope. Over five years ago Regina co-created and began to host the radio show (KMRE) & WWU podcast Spark Science. This talk show strives to humanize the scientist and make Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) accessible. She also created the position of the STEM Inclusion and Outreach Specialist at WWU devoted to the retention and support of underrepresented students and faculty in STEM. Through all her efforts, Regina’s goal is to break apart the scientist stereotype so that anyone can see themselves in science.

To access our previous Career Profiles, please go to http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/career%20profiles

Career Profile: Astronomer to Anthropometry Engineer

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is compiling interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Liliana Keats. Liliana was born in Mexico City and immigrated to the United States when she was almost 10 years old. She was the first person in her family to graduate from a 4-year institution and the only one to hold an advanced degree. She earned a BA in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley and a MS in Physics from SFSU. Her astronomy research experience includes discovering new and unforeseen characteristics of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes coming off the Earth’s surface (published in Science, 2005) and discovering over two dozen binary candidates in one of the closest globular clusters to Earth, NCG 6397. One of her most rewarding professional experiences was teaching high school physics and physiology for a low-income, predominantly African-American and Latina all-female student body in San Francisco for 3 years. Leveraging her analytical training, teaching experience and moving forward with a driven sense of adventure, she made a career change and is now an applied anthropometry engineer, contributing to design products that fit a diverse demographic on a global scale. She lives in California with her loving and supportive husband, Jason Keats and their 13-year old Pit-Lab mix puppy.

To access our previous Career Profiles, please go to http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/career%20profiles

Career Profiles: Geochemist to Planetary Scientist

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is compiling interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Dr. Amy Riches, a freelance scientist whose work has the goal of unmasking the magmatic and interior compositions, origins, and evolutionary chapters of asteroids formed over 4.5 billion years ago, as well as Mars and the Earth-Moon system. As a broad-based petrologist and isotope cosmo/geochemist her studies generate coordinated mineral and 'bulk rock' data sets via frontline investigative approaches. The findings arising from these examinations of rocks from space are needed to resolve long-standing controversies concerning the origins of our habitable home world, as well as the search for habitable bodies elsewhere in the cosmos.

As part of her wider contributions to the scientific community, Amy enjoys driving inclusive activities such as scientific meetings and edited volumes that have advocated for and stimulated new multidisciplinary directions of study at international levels. In addition, she has led a number of public talks, articles with international media reaching many millions of readers, online showcases, and interactive outreach activities designed to enhance the engagement of global societies with planetary science themes. You can reach out to Amy at her email ajvriches AT gmail.com and catch up on her work at her website https://amyriches.org.

To access our previous Career Profiles, please go to http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/career%20profiles

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Communications and Stewardship Staff Writer

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is compiling interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Dr. JoEllen McBride, an astronomer who left astronomy to become a science writer. While a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she recognized her interest in outreach and education and developed her experience in these areas. After receiving her PhD, Dr. McBride was awarded an AAAS Mass Media Fellowship to be a science journalist at Voice of America. By day she is a Communications and Stewardship Staff Writer for Penn Medicine Development and Alumni Relations. The rest of her time is split between being with her family of two daughters, Carina and Alessa; two kitties, Thelma and Louise; and her partner, Ed, who is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Math at Thomas Jefferson University East Falls. She also still gives public talks about astronomy and teaches 4th-grade girls about astronomy ten Saturdays out of the year. You can follow her on Twitter at @astrophyspunkin or on Instagram at @astropunkin.

To access our previous Career Profiles, please go to http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/search/label/career%20profiles

AASWOMEN Newsletter for August 24, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of August 24, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Career Profile: Associate Teaching Professor

2. Our Science Heroes

3. NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing

4. AAAS Leshner Fellows Letter on AAAS Harassment Policy

5. YouTube’s Women of STEM Make Learning About Science Fun

6. Girls Deterred from Science at a Young Age But Green Girls Can Fix That

7. Science’s Bullying Problem

8. NASA Intern Loses Gig After Profanity-Laden Twitter Spat with Space Council’s Homer Hickam

9. Job Opportunities

10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Career Profile: Astronomer to STEM Program Evaluator

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Dr. Ann Martin, an astronomer who left astronomy to become a STEM program evaluator working with NASA.  While a PhD student at Cornell, she recognized her interest in outreach and education and developed her experience in these areas with the support of her PhD advisor, Professor Martha Haynes and Ricardo Giovanelli.  After receiving her PhD, Dr. Martin became the first NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow funded through the NASA Office of Education at Langley Research Center. She now works for a mid-sized government contractor as an evaluator supporting NASA-funded Earth science education programs, working with STEM educators who bring NASA data into classrooms, and encouraging students to think like scientists.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. New Career Profiles are posted approximately every month.

Astronomer to Museum Project Director

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Dr. Isabel Hawkins, an astronomer who directs projects and creates materials for the renowned Exploratorium and Smithsonian museums.  She was awarded the Klumpke-Roberts Award by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2009 for her contributions to "public understanding of astronomy."  Dr. Hawkins is also a world expert on Maya astronomy and indigenous astronomy.  Examples of her work include websites on Maya astronomy and the Maya calendar (http://maya.nmai.si.edu and Calendar in the Sky).  She also created the show Maya Skies at Chabot Space and Science Center last year, and also this site on Polynesian/Hawaiian astronomy:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost (on Hawaiian traditional navigation using the stars).

Aparna Venkatesan (Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of San Francisco) comments that "Isabel gives wonderful guest lectures with a Maya elder, and she visited a class I taught last year on ancient and indigenous astronomy. In addition to an unforgettable class on the role of corn harvest cycles in Maya society and calendaring, she brought along a stove with corn masa and cheese and made all my students fresh corn quesadillas which were better than anything out of a restaurant."

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. New Career Profiles are posted approximately every month.

AASWomen Newsletter for July 8, 2016

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of July 8, 2016

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, Heather Flewelling, and Christina Thomas

This week's issues:

1. Black Lives Matter - In Solidarity 

2. Astronomer to Health Care Data Scientist        

3. People Deem Feminine Women Less Likely to Be Scientists

4. Men cite themselves more than women do

5. “We Got This”

6. Gender Summit Europe 2016

7. UK risks losing over 33,000 much-needed female scientists each year, research shows 

8. Tips for Getting Girls Involved in STEM  

9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

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Astronomer to Health Care Data Scientist

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Kimberly Scott, an astronomer turned health care data scientist.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. New Career Profiles are posted approximately every month.

Mentoring Minoritized* Students

A fundamental part of our role in academia, formally or informally, is mentorship. Although rarely trained in what that means (either as a mentee or a mentor) it is a crucial piece of how we move through academia. With increasing recognition about the role of mentorship in our careers I’d like to share some starting points for improving your mentoring of minoritized students. For those of us who find themselves minoritized in some ways but not others - these are still incredibly important.  

There is an ongoing conversation about how we can do better in roles as mentors. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has written very clearly on the consequences of the failings of appropriate leadership and mentorship. In particular, I’d love for you to take this on as your mentor-theme: “Advising is about helping people get to their dream life”. What an incredible task, no? I asked on Twitter for people to share with me some of their experiences where things had gone wrong (and right too). 

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Philanthropic Program Officer

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Ashley Zauderer, an astronomer turned program officer for a philanthropic organization.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. New Career Profiles are posted approximately every month.

Career Profiles: Petrologist to Planetary Scientist

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Harold C. Connolly Jr, a geologist turned planetary scientist. He describes his career as a professor and mission scientist for OSIRIS-REx. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.

Career Profiles: Spectroscopist to Technology Solutions Scientist to Astronomy Professor

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Jessica Sunshine, a spectroscopist turned industry scientist turned astronomy professor. After receiving her PhD in geological sciences, she chose to enter industry in the technology solutions sector and later returned to academia as a professor.  She describes some of the differences between in working environment between the technology and academic sectors.  If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.

AASWOMEN Newsletter for November 20, 2015

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of November 20, 2015
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer

This week's issues:

1. On Becoming a Woman Astronomer   
2. Accessible Astronomy   
3. Childcare and Dependent Care at the AAS Meeting in Florida
4. Dr. Beatrice Mueller: Find a great advisor, a great support system, and passions outside of science
5. L'Oreal USA For Women in Science Fellowship
6. When women are missing from peer review 
7. Distractingly Sexist      
8. FACT SHEET: Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color
9. Job Opportunities
10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
12. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Astronomer to Defense R&D Technical Staff

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Lisa Wei, an astronomer turned defense industry R&D Technical Staff.   She likes the challenges of exciting new projects, the work environment, and the ability to leave work behind evenings and weekends.  If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. 

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Tenured Full Professor

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Joan Schmelz, an astronomer turned faculty. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every first and third Thursday of the month.

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Data Visualization Specialist and Adjunct Associate Professor

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Doug Roberts, an astronomer turned Data Visualization Specialist for Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope and Adjunct Associate Professor at Northwestern University. He spends 75% of his time on research and content creation for WorldWide Telescope and 25% of his time on his astronomy research. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Defense Researcher

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with an astronomer turned researcher in defense. S/he notes that the job is quite similar to the type of work one would do in a theory postdoc. With a 40 hour work week and a flexible schedule, s/he finds personal life pretty well balanced with work life. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office at the US Naval Observatory

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Below is our interview with Sethanne Howard, an astronomer turned Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office at the US Naval Observatory. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.