Rolanda Jundt moves into the top communications role
In June 2020, Rolanda Jundt took a new role in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility as its communications lead and public information officer (PIO). Jundt leads the ARM communications team based at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington state.
She had been filling the role in an acting capacity since March 2020, when previous ARM Communications Lead and PIO Hanna Goss stepped down after five years to support her family business. Goss has since returned to PNNL to support a directorate, which includes many ARM PNNL staff.
“I am so excited for this opportunity to lead the ARM communications team and work with ARM users to share their science using ARM data,” says Jundt. “I am fortunate to have a strong communications team that will help me build on the strategies and successes our former PIO Hanna put in place.”
Jundt has been a part of the ARM communications team for the past 19 years—she joined ARM shortly after its 10th anniversary. She has played an integral role in directing and developing ARM’s internal and external communications materials, including the ARM website, almost from the beginning. Her work with ARM has taken her to two of the three fixed atmospheric observatories (Southern Great Plains and Eastern North Atlantic), as well as to many ARM meetings and conferences.
Digitally Driven
“I would love to hear that new users found ARM through their browsers. If we can increase ARM’s data usage through web searches, I would feel accomplished.”
In 2004, when ARM became a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national user facility, Jundt led the ARM website through its first significant overhaul, connecting arm.gov to its data archive, adc.arm.gov. Shortly after that, in 2005, Jundt began leading ARM’s exhibit strategy, which she still manages.
“It is safe to say that Rolanda knows the ARM website better than anyone,” says ARM Technical Director Jim Mather. “Many people may not know that the ARM website is driven by a number of databases with information about instruments, datastreams, field campaigns, and people. To become an expert of the website, Rolanda has also had to master the interconnectedness of all this information.”
Jundt plans to use her technical skills and communication abilities to extend ARM’s digital reach with improved search engine optimization for the ARM website.
“I would love to hear that new users found ARM through their browsers,” says Jundt. “If we can increase ARM’s data usage through web searches, I would feel accomplished.”
Helping ARM Tell Its Story
As one of the original architects of ARM’s content strategy, newsletter, and social media channels, Jundt looks forward to digging back into editorial planning and learning more about the field campaign communication side of ARM. She will work with lead scientists of ARM’s mobile and aerial campaigns to coordinate outreach efforts.
Jundt will also amplify other large campaigns and projects in ARM, such as the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) ARM Symbiotic Simulation and Observation (LASSO) activity and the move of the third ARM Mobile Facility from Oliktok Point, Alaska, to the Southeastern United States.
“One of the things that I am most proud of in my work with ARM was teaming with Lynne Roeder to push ARM communications channels into the digital, or information, age,” says Jundt. “We really helped ARM share its story of cutting-edge science and efforts made in climate change research.” Roeder was ARM’s PIO from 2005 to 2014.
Jundt also had the opportunity to work with the first communications lead for ARM, Nancy Burleigh. Burleigh was the lead editor on the original proposal to DOE for creating ARM and led ARM communications efforts from 1990 to 2009.
Bridging DOE Activities
“Rolanda brings extensive experience in communicating with ARM users across a range of platforms to her new role.”
In addition to her role with ARM, Jundt manages communications efforts for ARM’s DOE research partner Atmospheric System Research (ASR), as well as the activities for DOE’s Earth and Environmental System Modeling. There are synergies to working with the other DOE programs and being able to amplify messages across the three DOE websites.
“Rolanda brings extensive experience in communicating with ARM users across a range of platforms to her new role,” says Sally McFarlane, DOE ARM program manager. “I know that she will continue to develop new ideas and approaches both for ARM to better communicate with users and for ARM users to share their science with the community.”
Says Jundt: “It has been my pleasure to dedicate my career to ARM all these years. I truly believe in the work ARM does to collect atmospheric observations needed to improve earth system models. ARM is unlike any other organization I have participated in. It has been like family for me.”
Jundt has a B.A. in communications from Washington State University. You can connect with Jundt at Rolanda.Jundt@pnnl.gov or on LinkedIn.
# # #ARM is a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by nine DOE national laboratories, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.