Outreach and Service

Clear communication is a tenet of my research

Science should be accessible to all. There is a growing lack of scientific literacy and it is our job as scientists to ensure our findings are not relegated to a pay-walled PDF. I use my talents in communication, art, and graphic design to not only help scientists communicate to other scientists, but also help translate scientific jargon and complexities to public understanding and improve our teaching methods across the collegiate curriculum. My work in outreach and service largely falls under the umbrella of improving access and understanding of science across the population.

Highlighted Recent Outreach and Service Activities

Journal of Emerging Investigators

JEI's mission is to provide an opportunity for middle and high school level students doing original, hypothesis-driven research to actually publish their findings in an open-access, peer-reviewed journal. I "discovered" this journal by-chance and now serve as an ad hoc reviewer handling between 5-10 submissions each year. I also encourage all my graduate student trainees to sign on as reviewers to get a better understanding of the ins-and-outs of scientific publishing.

Letters to a Pre-Scientist

As a product of rural America, I had few "scientists" to look up to, largely thinking they only existed in the CSI prime time dramas. Letters to a Pre-Scientist is an amazing organization that seeks to correct this course by providing real-life examples of scientists to underserved student communities across the country. I have served as a "STEM professional" with LPS since 2021 and excitedly await the correspondence from my pre-scientist penpal each semester.

Science-on-Tap

In 2023, I coordinated as series of public-facing scientific seminars at Burlington Beer Company as part of the larger Science-on-Tap community. This included speakers from a wide diversity of topics, including barley and beer (fitting!), functional foods, muscle physiology, genomics of Indigenous crops, and viral ecology. On hiatus for Spring 2024, I'm hoping to bring in a co-coordinator for the series and revamp in the Summer!

Professional Development

As part of the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Disease, I serve on the Professional Development committee. Here, alongside graduate students and early career faculty, we coordinate events and seminar series to enhance our members' professional development. Notably, we coordinated a series of in-person and virtual lectures centered on pedagogical methods in higher education with topics spanning "Finding your teaching personality" to "Integrating inclusivity in the STEM classroom."

SciComm Training for Scientists

Now more than ever, scientists must be able to clearly, concisely, and correctly communicate their work to not just their peers, but also the public and policymakers. At the onset of the COVID pandemic, I worked to communicate the latest scientific findings widely (see the Portfolio below for highlights) but also gained an appreciation for how difficult it is to communicate science well! After seeking out additional training in SciComm, I now help others find their communication niche and improve their storytelling. This has included facilitating several lectures as workshops, including an undergraduate research experience seminar on "How to write an abstract that actually tells a story" and half-day workshops around "Perfecting your elevator pitch." A key through-line I emphasize in these events is to tailor your writing, speaking, and data visualization to your audience.

UVM Postdoctoral Association

From 2021-2023 I served as the secretary on the UVM PDA Executive Committee. As part of our monthly meetings, we collectively organized both social and professional networking events for the postdoctoral community at the University of Vermont. This included a virtual panel of PhD-level scientists in industry, government and the non-profit space to discuss alternative-to-academic career paths as well as organizing a full-day research showcase for UVM postdocs.