In six years, Ariana Sutton-Grier gained two fellowships, led four campus organizations and resurrected a research society, all while earning a doctorate in ecology.
Sutton-Grier, Grad '08 from the Nicholas School of the Environment, is one of three finalists for the graduate and professional student Young Trustee position. Her work within numerous organizations, particularly the Duke Graduate and Professional Women's Network, the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society and Duke Women in Science and Engineering, make her well-qualified to represent the graduate community, she said.
Sutton-Grier said the best preparation to be a successful Young Trustee is to be involved in a diverse variety of activities both in the graduate school and within the campus community in general.
"The Young Trustee needs to be someone who's very excited about Duke and who is very involved in the community and is invested in Duke's future," she said. "I want to represent to the best of my abilities the entire graduate and professional community."
If selected to be Young Trustee, Sutton-Grier said she would work to bring more interdisciplinary research and coursework for graduate students. This would include opportunities for students to excel in areas other than research, particularly full teacher training, not just teacher-assistant training.
Graduate programs now train more doctorate students than there are professorship positions in universities, she said. Another of her initiatives as Young Trustee would be to create more outreach opportunities for students to improve their communication skills with professionals outside the world of academia.
"It is absolutely key that we train our students to come out with a wider skill set in order to be successful in an academic setting or not," she said.
Sutton-Grier is now a Smithsonian Fellow working at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md.
Being able to evaluate Duke from an outside prospective and see how the broader national community views the University and how peer institutions function are some of Sutton-Grier's advantages as a candidate, said Yi-Hsin Erica Tsai, a member of Duke Women in Science and Engineering and a graduate student in biology.
"Ariana is just one of those truly rare leaders," said Melissa Kenney, former president of the Sigma Xi Research Society and Grad '07 from the Nicholas School. "She's one of those people who just about anyone who meets her really looks up to her and really seeks her advice or her role as a representative for a group of people."
Kenney said the mission of the Sigma Xi Research Society, which works to make connections between students and faculty interested in science-related fields, was shaped and made beneficial for the Duke community largely through Sutton-Grier's work. The resurrection of the Duke chapter of the society exemplified Sutton-Grier's skills in a leadership role as the group's events coordinator, Kenney said.
"If she takes up a leadership role, she gets it done and gets it done for the betterment of everyone and doesn't seek the glory, which is a rare attribute in someone who takes leadership roles," Kenney said.
During her graduate studies, Sutton-Grier, along with Kenney, was awarded funding to develop and teach the undergraduate course "Feminism and Ecology." The class was cross-listed in the women's studies and ecology departments and examined the relationship between gender and the environment. Creating from scratch and teaching a course for the first time, was one of her most valuable leadership experiences at Duke, said Sutton-Grier.
Her wide range of leadership roles and many connections inside and outside the walls of Duke would help Sutton-Grier to represent diverse groups in the Duke community in Board of Trustees meetings, Kenney said.
"Ariana is very good at building alliances," Tsai said. "Once she identifies a problem she can identify the right people to change that problem."
Sutton-Grier said she considers her scientific background to be an advantage in vying for the Young Trustee position. Her problem-solving skills and extensive research, largely based on the scientific method, help her to solve challenging issues, she said.
"I have found that on committees my abilities to see a situation and then gather information and present it to the committee has been a very powerful and valuable skill," Sutton-Grier said.
Sutton-Grier said it would be an honor to take on a leadership role in the Duke community as Young Trustee.
Students are eligible to run for the position if they had graduated the Spring and summer prior, in addition to current graduate and professional students.
The graduate and professional student Young Trustee will be selected Feb. 17 at the GPSC General Assembly.
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