Outreach Through Leadership
I currently serve as a leader in two organizations (PPR-GREN, VectorBiTE) in which I am a research group leader, coordinating international, multi-institutional research in livestock and vector-borne disease. In my past roles serving on the board of four organizations (CGSA, BDGSA, GWIS, SACS), I gained important leadership and organization skills by identifying gaps in programming and educational resources and taking the lead in creating products, workshops, and supporting policies to fill in the gaps for the organizations. To fill these gaps, I performed a variety of functions that provide scientific and professional development programming for graduate students and post-docs, but which were open to the entire Penn State University community. Please see more information on my Leadership page. |
Reaching Out to the Next Generation of Female Scientists
Expand Your Horizons STEM Career Day
From 2016-2019 I served as a mentor for four of the ENVISIONS STEM Career Day events (formerly Expand Your Horizons). This event targets young women, typically in middle and high school. They travel to the Penn State University Park Campus for a day of hands-on workshops, Q&A panel sessions and stimulating keynotes, and time to be excited and inspired by their fellow science loving peers. For me, it has been so rewarding to see some of the same girls return the next year and hear how their journey in science has progressed! Videos from the 2016-2019 events, detailing the impact of this outreach, are below. More information can be found here. I wrote about this event on my personal blog and the CGSA blog. In the 2018 video, I make an appearance in about 1:02 in a knitted brain hat. :-D
Expand Your Horizons STEM Career Day
From 2016-2019 I served as a mentor for four of the ENVISIONS STEM Career Day events (formerly Expand Your Horizons). This event targets young women, typically in middle and high school. They travel to the Penn State University Park Campus for a day of hands-on workshops, Q&A panel sessions and stimulating keynotes, and time to be excited and inspired by their fellow science loving peers. For me, it has been so rewarding to see some of the same girls return the next year and hear how their journey in science has progressed! Videos from the 2016-2019 events, detailing the impact of this outreach, are below. More information can be found here. I wrote about this event on my personal blog and the CGSA blog. In the 2018 video, I make an appearance in about 1:02 in a knitted brain hat. :-D
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Becoming stEMPOWERed in the State College Region
In April 2017 I had the pleasure of organizing and conducting an outreach visit on infectious disease at the Millennium Science Center for Bellefonte fifth grade girls with Olivia Perdew from Discovery Space, and fellow CIDD graduate students Mackenzie Shipley and Molly Rathbun. We carried out viral plaque counting and pipetting in the lab and epidemiology data plotting hands-on exercises. Press on the stEMPOWERed program can be found here.
One on One Outreach
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Letters to a Pre-Scientist I served as a pen pal to a 'pre-scientist' for five academic calendar years starting in January 2017. This program aims to give students in low income schools around the country more exposure to the world of science. I wrote several letters to my pen-pal about my life as a scientist and answered any questions in the letters I received. |
Skype a Scientist, Scientist
Starting in 2017, I began video calls with K-12 classrooms around the country - matched through the Skype a Scientist program. I contact and collaborate with the teacher to collect questions from the students and answer them during the call at an age-appropriate level. As of June 2021, have spoken to 9 classrooms across the country (2nd, 3rd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 12th grades).
Women in Science and Engineering Mentor
For the academic year 2016-2017, I served as a grad student mentor for a student in the Women in Science and Engineering program at Penn State. I met with my mentee, stayed in touch via email, and served as a resource for questions about graduate school, careers in science, and campus life.
Outreach in the Media
In coordination with colleague Megan Schilling, I have created, curated content, and maintained a website for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded Program for Enhancing the Health and Productivity of Livestock (PEHPL), which funds my dissertation research.
I have been featured as a Young Researcher and pinboard finalist on Spharro.com. There I created a pinboard related to peste des petits ruminants research. I have also been featured on my colleague's (NSF GRFP fellow Alexis Sullivan) blog as part of her series 'Sully Asks a Scientist'. In summer 2018, I was interviewed to talk about life as a graduate student at Penn State's Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. You can see my two appearances in the video (2:53-3:12 and 4:28-4:40) to the right featured on the website. |
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COVID-19 Science Communication: News & Social Media Outreach
Like many infectious disease researchers, I contributed my time and knowledge to helping those around me understand and process the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have engaged in science communication efforts during the COVID pandemic with the news media via interviews and on social media as an administrator of the Friendly Neighborhood Epidemiologist Facebook Group (established Feb 28, 2020, now ~8,000 members). I additionally answer COVID-19 questions during my Skype a Scientist outreach (above).
Past Outreach
University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History and Planetarium (2005-2010)
During my undergraduate and graduate work (master level), I worked as a planetarium operator and docent. In the planetarium I would regularly give night sky talks about what to look for in the current night sky and the science behind those objects. Additionally I would run astronomy program shows and answer audience questions. As a docent, I took students of all ages around the exhibits, specializing in prehistoric life tours including dinosaurs. The tours were highly interactive (touching deinonychus claws and mammoth teeth). More on the museum here. National Youth Science Camp (NYSC, 2008) I attended this camp as a graduating high school senior and returned as a 'staph' member the summer after graduating from undergraduate study. This ~3 week camp, started in 1963 is part of the National Youth Science Foundation and takes 2 students from each of the 50 states and several international students and immerses them in daily science lectures, hands on science workshops, a visit with their senators in Washington, DC, and outdoor adventures in the wild and wonderful wilderness of West Virginia. Since it's inception, nearly 6,000 students have been supported in the past 54 years. Coverage of the 2017 camp can be found here and here. Governor's School for Mathematics & Science (GSMS, 2008) I worked with senior instructors in the creation and execution of a radio astronomy based project with rising ninth graders at the government GreenBank Observatory in Greenbank, West Virginia. This facility is home to the largest, fully moveable radio telescope in the world - the disc is the size of two football fields! I also developed and presented seminars, supervised outdoor activities and assisted in special event planning (and dancing!) Grand Rapids Museum (formerly Van Andel Museum Center) & Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium (2002-2006) During my high school and early undergraduate work, I worked in the planetarium and mentored in a wide variety of day camps at the museum on science and history topics ranging from Ancient Egypt to the study of rocks to ecosystems. In the planetarium I would regularly give night sky talks about what to look for in the current night sky and the science behind those objects. Additionally I would run astronomy program shows and answer audience questions. Furthermore, I would design some laser light show entertainment programs. Blandford Nature Center (1997-2004) During my middle and high school years I mentored in a wide variety of day camps at Blandford on science and history such as insects, rocks, Native American history, log cabin days history, craft making, maple syrup making, and nature walks and appreciation. We spent most of our time outside in the nature center and its historic buildings whenever possible. |