Consulting geologist and AAPG member Edith C. “Edie” Allison has been named director of the AAPG Geoscience and Energy Office in Washington, D.C. (GEO-DC), a position that has been vacant since David Curtiss became AAPG executive director in August 2011.
The GEO-DC office, established in 2005, is the focus for AAPG’s government affairs program, working actively with AAPG members, sister societies, Congress, and federal and international agencies to bring good science into the decision-making process of public policy. The office is located at the headquarters of the American Geosciences Institute in Alexandria, Va.
As GEO-DC director, Allison will:
- Represent government affairs interests of AAPG members.
- Provide information to federal state government officials and staff.
- Develop opportunities for AAPG members to engage in the policy process.
One of Allison's first activities was to join AAPG members in Geosciences Congressional Visits Day on Sept. 11-12, where scientists, engineers, researchers, teachers and executives visit Washington, D.C., and talk to Congress about the importance of science, engineering and technology.
“We are excited that Edie has agreed to lead GEO-DC into the future,” said GEO-DC Governance Board chair Peter MacKenzie, who also chaired the search committee to fill the position. “Her experience in industry and the federal government, combined with her long-standing dedication to AAPG, will serve her ably in this new role.”
An AAPG member since 1982, Allison has been active in AAPG affairs, including serving as a member of the House of Delegates, co-chair of the Professional Women in Earth Sciences Committee and was co-chair of the 2011 Eastern Section annual meeting.
She received the AAPG Distinguished Service Award in 2011.
She received a bachelor's degree in geology from West Texas State University and a master's from the University of Utah. She was exploration geologist for Argonaut Energy in Amarillo, Texas, and later joined Mesa Petroleum in Amarillo, Texas.
Allison was a consultant in Amarillo before becoming project manger for the U.S. Department of Energy in Bartlesville, Okla., and in 1996 became program manager for DOE in Washington, where among her duties she developed and communicated budgets and program objectives of the oil and natural gas program to the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.
As a consultant since 2010 in the Washington, D.C., area, she assisted the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board, Subcommittee on Natural Gas in developing its report on improving the safety and performance of hydraulic fracturing.