Outreach
Undergraduate Outreach: As someone who has been greatly encouraged and inspired by female mentors in science, I have a strong commitment to facilitate and encourage women and other underrepresented groups in science. I plan to continue to recruit and facilitate talented students from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in the sciences. This involves a lifetime commitment to dismantling racist and sexist institutions, which has been and will continue to be a central value in my career.
Elementary Education:
In my time as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota I created several outreach units for kids of all ages. We watch (fake) blood coagulate, unlock and lock nicotinic acetylcholine receptors with real locks and keys, and win prizes playing coevolution poker. I've hosted events for the Bell Museum of Natural History, as well as the Market Science outreach program and several others. The unit has even traveled to Brazil, and is now a part of outreach efforts at Instituto Butantan, Brazil. If science outreach is your passion and you would like to know more, please get in touch!
In my time as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota I created several outreach units for kids of all ages. We watch (fake) blood coagulate, unlock and lock nicotinic acetylcholine receptors with real locks and keys, and win prizes playing coevolution poker. I've hosted events for the Bell Museum of Natural History, as well as the Market Science outreach program and several others. The unit has even traveled to Brazil, and is now a part of outreach efforts at Instituto Butantan, Brazil. If science outreach is your passion and you would like to know more, please get in touch!
Public Outreach:
Community outreach has always been and will continue to be an important part of my career. At Tulane University in New Orleans my research centered around working with local fisherman and land managers to locate and capture marsh reptiles. I also hope to continue to participate in public talks, podcasts, and interviews as I am passionate about communicating science to non- scientist adults. Though elementary outreach has been a focus of many programs in STEM in the last ten years, I believe that reaching out to policy makers, corporate stake holders, drug developers, physicians, and voters is an important but undervalued goal. To listen to my Cafe Scientifique about natural toxins go here, and to hear an about our honey badger work on Take Two (NPR) click here, here to read about it in Slate, or here to read about it in The Atlantic.
Community outreach has always been and will continue to be an important part of my career. At Tulane University in New Orleans my research centered around working with local fisherman and land managers to locate and capture marsh reptiles. I also hope to continue to participate in public talks, podcasts, and interviews as I am passionate about communicating science to non- scientist adults. Though elementary outreach has been a focus of many programs in STEM in the last ten years, I believe that reaching out to policy makers, corporate stake holders, drug developers, physicians, and voters is an important but undervalued goal. To listen to my Cafe Scientifique about natural toxins go here, and to hear an about our honey badger work on Take Two (NPR) click here, here to read about it in Slate, or here to read about it in The Atlantic.
Photo Credit: Dan Keyler
Biomedical Application:
The key to integrating evolutionary insights into biomedical application lies in forming strong communication and collaborations between these fields.
My postdoctoral work is centered around using evolutionary insights to uncover the basis of important traits that are associated with human disease. Traits known to be phenotypically convergent in cave-dwelling animals are biomedically important and include eye degeneration, analogs of fatty liver disease, type II diabetes and obesity, analogs of autism and insomnia, and slower senescence.
The key to integrating evolutionary insights into biomedical application lies in forming strong communication and collaborations between these fields.
My postdoctoral work is centered around using evolutionary insights to uncover the basis of important traits that are associated with human disease. Traits known to be phenotypically convergent in cave-dwelling animals are biomedically important and include eye degeneration, analogs of fatty liver disease, type II diabetes and obesity, analogs of autism and insomnia, and slower senescence.
