Pranoti Asher

Advisory Board

Pranoti M. Asher, Ph.D. (she, her, hers) is the Assistant Director for Grants and Education Programs at the American Geophysical Union (AGU), a professional society of the Earth and space sciences. She is the Project Director for the AGU Bridge Program, a component of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored Inclusive Graduate Education Network. The AGU Bridge Program was initiated in 2019 to develop, adopt and share inclusive practices for recruiting, admitting, and retaining women and underrepresented students in STEM graduate programs. She also manages AGU’s mentoring programs including a cooperative agreement from NASA to expand the Mentoring365 program. Additionally, Pranoti is a co-PI for the AGU LANDInG and AGU LANDInG PRFP projects which strives to build a community of DEI champions in the geosciences. She has helped expand AGU’s engagement with its members and their science through many programs as well as assured the appropriate AGU voice and participation in STEM and Geoscience programs and reports at the national level. Pranoti is deeply interested in the intersection of education, outreach, DEI, and workforce development for the Earth and space sciences. She has also served as the inaugural scholar in residence at the American Geosciences Institute, a federation of geoscience societies.

Prior to joining AGU, Asher spent 18 years as a geoscience faculty member. In her last faculty position, she was a tenured member of the geology and geography department at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. She received Ph.D. in the geological sciences from the University of Connecticut.