A veteran geologist from the Alaska Volcano Observatory has been chosen to run the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, the U.S. Geological Survey announced Friday.

Christina Neal will succeed Jim Kauahikaua as scientist-in-charge starting Sunday, becoming only the second woman to lead the Hawaii island observatory in its 103-year history.

"I’m anxious to apply the lessons learned and skills acquired in Alaska in Hawaii," Neal told reporters in a phone-in news conference Friday.

Neal said she doesn’t plan to make any major changes or redirect the focus of the observatory. Rather, she said, she plans to build on the work of her successor while searching out additional resources and staff and encouraging greater collaboration with outside scientists.

Tom Murray, director of the USGS Volcano Science Center, which oversees all five U.S. volcano observatories, said in a press release that Neal is ideal for the job because she has a strong scientific background, excellent communication skills and extensive experience responding to eruptions with communities at risk.

"I was thrilled when she accepted the position because I knew that both HVO and the communities that it serves will be in good hands going forward," Murray said.

While Neal spent nearly 25 years working in Alaska, she does have prior experience working on Hawaii island, having been stationed at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory from 1983 to 1989. Her work included monitoring Kilauea Volcano during the early years of its ongoing east rift zone eruption and Mauna Loa during its 1984 eruption.

As part of the Big Island Mapping Project, Neal mapped the summit and southwest rift zone of Kilauea for separate publications.

In 1990, Neal moved to Alaska to work at the newly created Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage, where she monitored and studied a number of volcanoes and their eruptions.

In 2012 she helped with HVO’s 100th-anniversary open house, and in October she spent two weeks there helping with volcano monitoring and community meetings as Kilauea’s lava moved toward Pahoa.

In 1996 geologist Margaret Mangan became the first woman to head the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.