Outreach
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I believe that science should be more accessible and collaborative; I support this philosophy by promoting recruitment, retention, and persistence of diverse researchers in STEM and fostering collaborative, supportive, and equitable academic communities.
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During my undergraduate degrees at University of Idaho, I was involved in my local community through volunteer efforts with the Moscow Elementary science fair and the National Society of Black Engineers. I participated in events aimed at increasing interest in STEM fields in underrepresented minorities in Spokane, Washington, and also worked with NSBE’s tutoring program on campus.
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During my MSc and PhD at the University of New Mexico, I served as a secretary secretary for Advancing Women in Science, whose aim is to help recruit and retain women in all levels of science. This includes presentations in local schools and on campus, as well as hosting events with female scientists as speakers. I also served as a Co-President of the UNM Biology's Graduate Student Association for two years (2018–2020), a role in which I advocated for the needs of all >100 graduate students to our Department administrators.
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Presenting on how ornithologists use specimens to study color evolution with specimens for the MSB Open Collections event in Albuquerque, NM, June 2023.
I'm extremely passionate about science; I share this passion with students and the public via scientific education and outreach. I've spoken to local classrooms in both Boise, ID and Albuquerque, NM, about science careers and advice on how to engage themselves in STEM. During graduate school, I was active in the Birds and Genomic Resources Divisions at the Museum of Southwestern Biology, for which I regularly engage with students and the general public about natural history collections.
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For six years, I served as an instructor-of-record for a scientifc communication course, the UNM BioBlog (unm-bioblog.blogspot.com), which was geared at teaching undergraduate and graduate students how to break down complex scientiRic topics for a general audience. During my time as BioBlog co-instructor, we received >100K page views and our pieces have been published in the University's twice weekly student newspaper, the Daily Lobo.
I also engage in scientific outreach through print, audio, and web media. In 2020, I wrote a popular science article for the American Birding Association, titled “The data behind mysterious bird deaths in New Mexico,” and discussed explanations for a large avian mortality event in Colorado and New Mexico. By comparing museum records and recent mortalities, I was able to quickly demonstrate that starvation, not wildDire smoke in California, contributed to the mass mortality event. As a result of this work, I was interviewed by 15 outlets, including the Albuquerque Journal, Denver Post, New York Times, NPR, and CBS Saturday Morning.
In addition to teaching the BioBlog course and maintaining the blog site, I contributed my own blogs. Here are some of my favorites:
Predatory Songbirds: the case of the murderous tits
the lengths birds will go in the face of scarcity
Crabs, birds, and blue blood
how shorebirds and humans depend on a living fossil
Will history repeat itself?
two stories of declining bird populations, then & now