Note from Mark Parsons, Interim Executive Director
I’ve been in post as Interim Executive Director for a few weeks now, and I think I’m starting to get the hang of it 🙂. I’m continually impressed by the commitment, effectiveness, and professional competence of the ESIP staff. And the ESIP Community never ceases to amaze me with its drive to go beyond great.
My basic goals during this brief tenure are to keep operations running smoothly, ensure procedures are clear, and support the Board and committees as they advance strategic planning and adaptation. That way our new director can jump right into the deeper challenges. The plan is to have that person in place early in 2026.
I think my first ESIP meeting was in Tucson in 2001 when I was at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (a founding ESIP Partner). It took me a while to engage, but eventually I helped launch the Preservation and Stewardship Cluster/Committee, where I’ve been most active. One of our first projects was writing ESIP’s Data Citation Guidelines (updated 2019). Over the years, I’ve also served as an at-large Board member, cluster chair, and advisor. When I led the Research Data Alliance, I worked to strengthen international collaboration with ESIP.
A theme throughout my career as a data manager, community leader, and informatics researcher is that it’s all about relationships. Recognizing, describing, and strengthening connections—between people, data, software, machines, and institutions—is what makes data durable and impactful. ESIP is where that happens.
So I’ve been around. I’m a fan. Even so, I was surprised and jazzed by the July Meeting this year. There was clear motivation to develop new infrastructure models while strengthening the value we’ve already got, and a deep desire to achieve ESIP’s mission of making “data actionable by all who need them anytime, anywhere.” Data and the community will outlast any broad sociopolitical changes.
I’m privileged, and also duty bound, to help ESIP through this transition. I hope you feel the same. It is the work of individuals, in concert, that makes a community strong. That collaborative individual action is where change happens.
I’d love to hear from you—your crazy ideas, your worries, your visions... You can find me on ESIP Slack and at markp...@esipfed.org.
Let’s make data matter!
