Wayne Himelsein is President of Informed by Nature (http://informedbynature.org/), a non-profit with the goals of advancing the public understanding of science, and concurrently, the Senior Managing Partner of Logica Capital, a successful investment company. At Logica, Wayne heads the investment team and R&D, as well as engages with investors globally. Prior to Logica, Wayne built and managed several hedge funds that invested in his quantitative strategies. Wayne’s financial career began in 1995, when he traded securities and developed algorithms that were used to launch his first hedge fund. Wayne’s lifelong passion for science has served him well in his financial pursuits and in his personal quest to explore deep questions. An appreciation of the powerful tools of science led him to establish Informed by Nature in 2004. Wayne holds a BA from Berkeley and resides in Los Angeles.

Three words that describe Wayne:
Science lover, business builder, people person.

The dots that Wayne connects:
He connects anyone who has an internet connection to content demonstrating the amazing breadth of science. He connects students who have an interest in science to programs that help strengthen that interest.

Ben Wiehe is manager of the Science Festival Alliance. He grew up going to smallest public school system in Connecticut. He went to a liberal arts college in Maine: physics and philosophy major with time abroad for Tibetan studies. He then worked his way around North America (Chiapas to Aleutians) for a long while. (After grad school in Chicago for social science, he worked for natural parks, science centers, and public television). Three years of getting science cafes started around the US led into his current position at MIT managing the Science Festival Alliance. Ben has been a part of COPUS since the beginning!

Here’s Ben’s take on COPUS:
“COPUS has been important for me for a long time. I’ve always felt that I get more out of my involvement with it than I give. Of course over the years my needs have shifted. And this is the thing that is most important about COPUS to me — I’ll sum it up to folks that don’t know much about the group:

COPUS identifies emerging leaders with little institutional backing for their passion and provides them with a supportive network.

I’ve gone through that change to an extent, and so have many of the original members. Natalie has now launched a new nonprofit. Danielle is making waves in all kinds of directions. Darlene has sorted through several of her passions and figured out how to make them reality via I-­can’t-­count-how-many business models. etc…

So welcome! Stay involved, give back — one of the things an emerging leader needs to thrive is the opportunity to lead.”

Three words that describe Ben:
He is a a social creature, hack of all trades, scavenger.

The dots Ben connects:
He connects science festival organizers to each other, and to regional/national collaborators.

Sheri Potter, BS, is a social intrapreneur with a strong commitment to developing more effective strategies to connect people to science. Among other things, she has been the director of community and stakeholder engagement for the Association for Women in Science, the leading advocate for women in STEM. She has also been a project director for SciStarter implementing a collaborative program to bring citizen science to classrooms, hand-in-hand with NASA’s GLOBE initiative and National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools program.

Sheri’s personal mission is to build a scientific citizenry of people who understand how science works, why science matters, and what scientists do – and to help them connect that knowledge with their own lifelong journey as a citizen who benefits from, participates in, and uses science.

Sheri worked at the American Institute of Biological Sciences for over ten years in multiple capacities, including as director of membership and public programs. She helped launch the Leadership in Biology initiative, Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science, ActionBioscience.org and Year of Science 2009. Sheri earned an Executive Certificate in Social Impact Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania and has a bachelor’s degree in biology.

Three words that describe Sheri:
I’m with you.

The dots Sheri connects:
Sheri connects cool people to cool people to spread ideas and opportunities that promote people using and celebrating science.

Science writer and advisor

Bellingham, Washington

LinkedIn

Currently working on: Creating scripts and storyboards for educational science videos, advising for a new museum exhibition on nature-inspired design, and figuring out what’s next.

Talk with me about:

• Biology, Engineering
• Higher education (undergrad/postgrad), Public Outreach
• Natural history museums
• STEM festivals
• Grant writing

My STEM Story: My interest in STEM began when I was a kid, sparked by many family trips to a large city park in Vancouver, Canada. I loved that I could see so many different living things in one day–squirrels, birds, sea stars, seaweed, and enormous trees.

Associate Professor for Leadership in Public Science, North Carolina State University

Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Facebook | Twitter | publicscience.ncsu.edu | Website

Currently working on: Applying an evolutionary ecological understanding to help reconcile human development with biodiversity conservation, particularly in urban environments, both locally in several US cities, and globally with comparative studies.

Talk with me about:

• Biology, Ecology, Zoology, Public Science
• Higher education (undergrad/postgrad), public outreach
• Community-based public science engagement
• Indigenous knowledge and how to decolonize “western science” and build connections with indigenous science
• Citizen / public science projects to map the distribution of birds and other species in cities, and the impacts of climate-change driven disasters like hurricanes

My STEM Story:  Here’s an interview recounting some early experiences that helped start my STEM journey: http://yourwildlife.org/2014/03/before-they-were-scientists-madhu-katti/

Projects:
Podcast
trianglebirds.org
forestsafterflorence.reconciliationecology.org

Executive Director Proyecto Itzaes
Director of Education Centro de Educación Ambiental de la Peninsula Yucateca (CEAPY)
Retired 2019 Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve

Palo Alto, CA and Pto Chicxulub, Yucatán

[email protected] | Facebook | Proyecto Itzaes Website | Amigos del Centro del Educacion Ambiental de la Peninsula Yucateca

Currently working on: Projects that connect my work in California with my work in Yucatán.

Talk with me about:

• Anthropology, Biology, Earth Science, Ecology, Health
• K-12 Education, higher education (undergrad/postgrad)
• Public Outreach
• Non-profits
• Diversity, opportunity

My STEM Story: I have always been interested in science and spent a lot of unsupervised time outside as a kid! Nature has always been the best learning space for me.

After working for a Palo Alto based pharmaceutical company for many years, Bill retired in 1992 to pursue his interests in environmental education and marine science.

For 20 years Bill has been a volunteer at Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve where he leads tours and works on field research projects.

He pursues his marine interest by leading tide pool tours at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and scuba diving with people who have strong marine interests. He enjoys communicating science to people with a wide range of backgrounds and watching them absorb new information and concepts.

Three words that describe Bill:
Ecology tour leader, field research voluteer, marine biology enthusiast

The dots that Bill connects:
Bill connects Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve science to students and visiting public. He connects high school and college students to marine inter-tidal science through leading tours at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. By volunteering, he helps teach science and math at Redwood High School.

Barry Greenwald is a Chicagoan who has called Minnesota home since he moved there after college. Teaching as a full-­time occupation is his third career — after enjoyable years as an agricultural research technician, and later in sales and administration.

He’s now in his 15th year of teaching urban high school students in St. Paul, in courses ranging from biology, IB Biology, environmental science to earth science. He does volunteer work on the World Food Prize Minnesota Youth Institute, as well as local citizen science activities.

Three words that describe Barry:
A grateful father to my daughter; teacher; always on the lookout for good humor.

The dots that he connects:
Barry connects scientists and instructors from the University of Minnesota to high school classrooms. He makes connections for his high school biology and environmental science students between the classroom and their “real lives” — current and future — outside of school.

Darlene is the founder of SciStarter and Science Cheerleader, a popular website and organization that works with 250 current and former NFL and NBA cheerleaders pursuing science and technology careers to promote science and the involvement of citizens in science and science-related policy. She has held executive positions at Walt Disney Publishing and has worked at Discover magazine for 15 years, where she now is a senior adviser and writer. She has created national science awards programs, science education initiatives, and a series of science-themed roundtable discussions for, among others, the Disney Institute, Space.com, Sally Ride’s Imaginary Lines, and the Franklin Institute. She also serves on the Steering Committee for Science Debate and is a founding partner of Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology and blog, which engages experts, stakeholders, and everyday citizens in assessing the implications of emerging developments in science and technology. She originated and managed the Emmy award-winning Science of NFL Football series produced by the NFL, NBC Sports, NBC Learn, the National Science Foundation and Science Cheerleader.

A former Philadelphia 76ers cheerleader, Darlene does not regret the years she gabbed through high school science classes. She earned a Master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, studying science history, sociology, and science policy to learn more about people like herself: “hybrid actors,” citizens interested in but not formally trained in the sciences. Discovering it was remarkably difficult to find opportunities to participate in science in any meaningful way, she launched SciStarter. Darlene lives in Philadelphia with her husband and four children, who have made it a hobby to explore the rainforests of Costa Rica. She’s also a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University’s Consortium of Science, Policy, and Outcomes.

Cavalier is the proud recipient of a Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant to support “people with brilliant ideas” and she is investing that grant in the development of a series of media partnerships to help bring more citizen science opportunities to more communities.

Three words that describe Darlene:
Science and citizen advocate; founder of Science Cheerleader and SciStarter; contributing editor, Discover Magazine; wife and mom.

The dots Darlene connects:
She connects the public to citizen science activities. She connects researchers to the public. She connects underrepresented groups to science.

Digital Learning and Science Coordinator

Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Twitter: @bbarent

Currently working on:  supporting teachers to make shifts in their teaching to support student learning towards NGSS.

Talk with me about:

• K-12 education
• Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Ecology, Engineering, Physics
• STEM ecosystems
• Partnerships with businesses
• Leadership

My STEM Story: Some of my inspirations have been the Understanding Science website and How Science Works iTunes U course.

Past Projects: 
Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science Past-President
NSELA Region E Director
Norris Science Festival

Meet Anne Holland, the Exhibits and Outreach Manager at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Previous to  managing the education and public outreach for the Space Science Institute, she worked at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and at the Mauna Kea Visitor Center.

She is a big advocate for libraries and librarians! Her favorite part of her job is helping librarians find easy and cheap activities to do with their patrons, and convincing them that they’re more than capable of doing STEM in their libraries.

Three words that describe Anne:
Space educator, skiier, new mom

The dots she connects:
She connects librarians with scientists and science educators

Cynthia Kramer, founder of SCOPE: Science and Citizens Organized for Purpose and Exploration.

Cynthia Kramer founded SCOPE in 2007, when a clinical trial saved her life (read more here). This grassroots initiative is dedicated to bringing Science and Technology’s relevance, resources and information to communities (at no cost) from education to workforce, so the public can connect to why it matters, how to participate and ways to benefit as a parent, student or citizen.

Through community building, events, State and County Fairs, SCOPE serves over 36 communities, in Missouri and Iowa, to impact over 500,000 people. Kramer was previously a shoe designer, created the first backless women’s tennis shoe and loves travel with sons Mitchell and Samuel.

Three words that describe Cynthia:
Coffee addict, Social Justice Advocate, Lover of Innvoation

The dots she connects: SCOPE connects rural, urban and suburban communities to Science and Technology resources and information, from Education to Financial Aid, Scholarships, Internships, Jobs and Careers. They connect parents, students and families to the relevancy and importance of Science and Technology for the betterment of our future, communities and lives.