Amy is an Assistant Professor of Science at Emerson College in Boston; a liberal arts school devoted to communication and the arts. Working closely with talented Emerson undergraduates and a local community of early career research scientists, Amy pursues a passion for addressing communication barriers between scientists, the media, and the public. She has established a Science Communication Collaborative that partners scientists and future artists and communicators for mutual communication training and has worked to build a foundation for the “Ask for Evidence” campaign in the US. To Amy’s great satisfaction, #askforevidence has been adopted in her household (by 3-year old, Jackson, and husband, Shane) as a verbal shorthand for expressing scientific skepticism.
Amy was the 2014 COPUS winner of the annual Paul Shin Award, honoring the unsung heroes of science communication and engagement. Morgan Thompson, PhD, Assistant Director at the Center for Biomedical Career Development, nominated Amy for the award, saying Amy is “shaping the foundational scientific understanding of future communicators – both conceptual knowledge as well as the process of science and ability to critically evaluate evidence.” The Emerson Science Communication Collaborative “pairs undergraduate students interested in science communication with local early career scientists in a semester-long series of exchanges to further the training and skills of both audiences. Scientists are provided a rare opportunity early in their careers to practice media skills and effective communication with lay audiences in a non-threatening, low-risk environment that utilizes the expertise of Emerson students. The undergraduates come to know the person behind the scientist, helping to dispel popular misconceptions about the process of science and providing more accurate, nuanced, and diverse portraits of who does science. Culminating projects range from children’s books to public service announcements to a musical composition based upon the genetic sequence of a strain of H1N1 flu virus.”
Three words that describe Amy:
Scientist-educator, Idea-collector, Evidence-lover.
The dots Amy connects:
She connects arts and communication students and the scientific community and she connects anyone who will listen to evidence.