Julie Rathbun

Please share with planetary scientists you think would benefit from this workshop!

“Well organized and well-facilitated, great breadth and depth of topics, and good novel interactive components as well. The content was expertly curated and extremely well presented …” Participant, Nov. 2022

Entirely on-line. Visit website for more details and to fill out the indication of interest form.

Facilitators: Drs. Julie Rathbun (she/her/hers) and JA Grier (ee/em/eir)
Website: workforce.psi.edu/leadership/

Participants at all career stages and experience levels are welcome, as well as those who have previously attended past workshops. This offering (~25 people or less, to encourage interaction) provides the basic tools needed to enact positive change in personal and professional spheres.

If you are seeking expanded approaches to engage with colleagues, groups, teams, committees, etc. with understanding and ethics, this is your workshop. The content also includes specific strategies to meet present challenges, including additional resources, staying motivated, and avoiding burnout.

We invite planetary scientists to join us for our reinvigorated workshop. We offer best-practices to meet current challenges while uplifting potential in ourselves and that of our professional partners.

Flyer with text: Excellence in Science Leadership: Strategies for Unlocking Individual Potential Next Workshop - August 18-20, 2025 (entirely virtual) Indication of Interest - Now Open! https://workforce.psi.edu/leadership/ Workshop Facilitators – Dr. Julie Rathbun, Dr. JA Grier Feedback from past attendees: In our anonymous poll, 93% strongly agreed that the hosts created an environment where they felt valued. 100% found the workshop itself valuable and would recommend it to others. Our workshop is designed for people in leadership roles in space science, and our definition of leader is broad. Past attendees represented all career stages from graduate student to senior scientist, in positions including instrument PI, university faculty, spacecraft engineer, outreach professional and program officer. Participants hailed from industry, non-profits, colleges, small businesses, and governance institutions. Both the content of the workshop and the strategies for facilitation are models of best- practice for leaders in how to engage with their teams - their rising stars - to guide them towards individual and group success. We have substantially retooled our offering to empower leaders to meet the challenges of the present moment, and beyond. Topics include the basics of team building, science ethics, and feedback mechanisms; developing a personal support structure and finding resources to remain engaged and effective; and innovative strategies to find new funding, connections, and opportunities. Previous workshop participants are welcome to indicate their interest to attend so that they can access our new materials and so that we can strengthen our growing community with ongoing activities well after the workshop. The format of this workshop is different from that of others you may have taken. We will meet on-line for four hours each day (11 am – 1 pm and 2-4 pm Eastern) for 3 days and strongly encourage everyone to attend all sessions. Every session is interactive!

Announcing a NEW workshop from myself and @jagrier.bsky.social

EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE LEADERSHIP: A NEW WORKSHOP ON STRATEGIES FOR UNLOCKING INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL

August 18-20, 2025, 4 hours daily, 11am-1pm and 2pm-4pm EST (entirely virtual)

workforce.psi.edu/leadership/

Copaganda and Me Maris Kreizman writes about the way police are mythologized in popular culture in this excerpt from her book 'I Want to Burn This Place Down'

Rolling Stone has excerpted an essay from my forthcoming book. It's about what happens when you get all of your info about the world from the TV (cops are heroes!), and then go out into the world and see for yourself. www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...

Links to register to all our events!

www.blackinastro.com/black-space-...

A screen grab of the ROSES 2025 Table 2 of AOs and due dates, with 8 NOIs and Step 1 deadline marked as late, and 12 final submission/step 2's marked as less than 60 days until deadline.

This table was downloaded on Feb 21 when ROSES 2025 was published and public for a few hours before being taken down for revision of 'EO compliance'. Late items marked in red. Due dates less than 60 days off marked in yellow. This will be updated as more due dates are missed.

A background of ROSES with the overlaid text "April 22, 2025 67 Days Late" and the pirate NASA logo (NASA meatball with 2 crossed swords instead of the swoosh"

ROSES 2025 is now 67 days late. And counting.

I have air fried broccoli in a borrowed standard bucket air fryer, but all my other experience is with my counter top model, so YMMV.

What sort of air fryer? We've got the toaster oven version. I love pretty much all veggies air fried, but especially broccoli. I've also been doing lots of root veggies with homemade fry sauce (mayo, ketchup, +whatever). And air fried tofu is amazing.

NASA has closed its chief science office, its technology/policy/strategy office, and the DEI branch of its equal opportunity office. 23 people have been fired, per a HQ spokesperson.

I won't be at #LPSC2025, but other co-authors of the document will be. Go chat with them!

The value of EDIA To co-sign this letter, use this form. You may choose to sign anonymously.

There's an open letter about the value of EDIA to Planetary Science: sites.google.com/view/the-val... If you agree with this message, please co-sign it!

#LPSC2025 #PlanetaryScience

My goal is not to "save science". My personal fight is to make sure that any planetary science that moves forward moves forward with everyone and that we remake planetary science into a field even better, and more welcoming, than what we've had.

#LPSC2025 #PlanetaryScience

Or we can rally with marginalized groups. We can stop fighting for just "science" and fight for humanity. We can't save real science without saving EDIA. Without also saving our Black and Brown colleagues. Without saving our transgender friends.

We have a choice. We can pivot Planetary Science back to the Rockets and dudes sphere. We can remove anyone who isn't white, male, cis, het, able-bodied, etc., and hope that this will save "science". (P.S. - It won't.)

These actions have made us "woke" in the eyes of the current administration. Remember, they first removed EDIA from all NASA funded websites. They paused the AGs. They stopped Inclusion Plans. That was the first attack. Now they are attacking deeper into science.

But, recently, Planetary Science has become a more human endeavor. It has begun to notice that people treated like people end up doing better science. NASA has included "Inclusion" as one of it's core values. We've started encouraging more scientists of color and white women to participate.

Make no mistake that Planetary Science is seen, by these folks, as unimportant. They like rockets and manned (yes, manned only) spaceflight, but not science.

Planetary Science has historically been able to coexist with the rockets and men in space crowd.

#LPSC2025 #planetaryScience

Some folks are wondering WHY? Why are they cutting planetary when the dude making the cuts supposedly loves Mars.

He doesn't love Mars. He loves rockets. He loves being first. He loves himself and sending things to Mars on big rockets makes him feel like a big man.

#LPSC2015 #PlanetaryScience

Some folks (there and absent) are wondering if this will be the last LPSC meeting ever.

The US has been a leader in Planetary Science since the field was invented, just over 50 years ago. The actions of the current US executive branch are destroying Planetary Science.

#LPSC2025 #PlanetaryScience

There are lots of BIG emotions during this week of the annual LPSC meeting. Some folks are there and wondering if it will be their last time. Some are not there due to government regulations. Some are not there due to the dangerous actions of the Texas government. #LPSC2025 #PlanetaryScience

The value of EDIA To co-sign this letter, use this form. You may choose to sign anonymously.

A group of planetary scientists, who have served as co-chair of the former Cross-AG EDIA Working group, has written an open letter on "The value of EDIA to planetary science" sites.google.com/view/the-val....

Please co-sign the letter if you agree that EDIA efforts make for better science.

Invigorating the American Space Sector Requires Working With NASA, Not Against It | TechPolicy.Press When programs are cut to the bone, America loses much more than it gains, writes Janet Vertesi.

The US risks diminishing its hard-won advantages when it undermines its investment in national institutions and strips them of their people and resources, writes Janet Vertesi. As the moonshot teaches us, building up is much harder than tearing down. www.techpolicy.press/invigorating...

Fascinating and well-researched article about the interaction of money and knowledge at NASA.

Bottom line: You can loose knowledge if you cut NASA too much. (Example: we had to relearn how to get to the moon.)

I'd bet that this applies to other government agencies.

Documents Important Documents for Planetary Science   This is a collection of important repots in our field that are currently no longer publicly accessible. I am not an author nor do I claim own…

I started to do a back up of AG documents that have been purged here:

planettreky.com/documents/

I will also post other planetary documents and resources as I find them.

#PlanetaryScience

A poster for the CHOIR mutual aid support fund including a QR code to the GoFundMe link for donations

From the CHOIR collaboration: To stand with our community in physics, astronomy, & planetary science affected by the federal grant funding freeze we (choir, Black in Astro, Astro Poverty Survey, Movement Consulting) have organized a mutual aid initiative. www.choircollaboration.com/mutual-aid 🔭🧪