Congratulations to the 2021 MSA Interchange Ambassadors!

Abeer Alqurashi¹, Anna Bazzicalupo², Sonya Erlandson³, Elizabeth Feliciano⁴, Brian Lovett⁵, Geromy Moore⁶

¹Assistant Professor, Biology Department, Taif University, Saudi Arabia; MSA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee; she/her/hers

²Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC; MSA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee; she/her/hers

³Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Ag., Hort., and Plant Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Oceti Sakowin; MSA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee; she/her/hers

⁴PhD student, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, on the traditional lands of the Timucua peoples; MSA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; she/her/hers

⁵Postdoctoral Researcher, Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, on the traditional lands of the Osage, Shawnee, and Massawomeck peoples; MSA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; he/him/his

⁶Researcher, US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Southern Regional Research Center, New Orleans, LA 70124, on the traditional lands of the Chahta Yakni (Choctaw) people; MSA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; he/him/his

We are delighted to announce and extend our congratulations to the inaugural MSA Interchange Ambassadors: Dr. Adriana L. Romero-Olivares and Nicole Colón-Carrión. Dr. Romero-Olivares is an assistant professor at New Mexico State University in the Department of Biology, and she studies how fungi respond and adapt to climate change. Nicole is a PhD Candidate at the University of Arizona in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences studying how fungal symbionts of tropical trees respond to hurricanes and climate change.

The MSA Interchange Ambassador Award supports two members who have proposed activities that aim to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in mycology and our Society. Specifically, these proposals will recruit mycologists from underrepresented communities for the MSA Interchange Invitee Award, which would support their attendance at the MSA annual meeting to present their research. MSA is excited to provide financial support for both of these MSA Interchange Awards, which strengthen our field by advancing the goals outlined in our diversity statement.

Dr. Romero-Olivares’ award will support a series of workshops at her institution using fungi to teach students about food, climate science, and inclusion. Nicole’s award will support Micología en Ruedas, a mycology outreach campaign for Puerto Rican high school and college students and, at the next in-person MSA annual meeting, she will organize a panel featuring Latinx mycologists called Latinx Mycelium.

As MSA Interchange Ambassadors, each distinguished colleague will create innovative opportunities to introduce students to our field. Their proposed projects will certainly inspire future mycologists, and we are looking forward to updating the Society on this important work moving forward.