Researcher. Leader. Catalyst.
Researching How to Make Institutional Change Possible
Although individual scientists, universities, professional societies, and major funders are committed to discipline-spanning work and the ethical conduct and sharing of science, related initiatives are falling short in STEM and academia, and innovation programs haven’t informed STEM practices as much as hoped.
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Better mentoring is key, because people are driven out of science by a combination of systemic issues and negative personal experiences. Since historically marginalized people's research is disproportionately transdisciplinary and publicly engaged, the loss compounds in the face of calls for engaged scholarship and more robust broader impacts.
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I lead research-driven programs and facilitate strategic planning processes aiming to help us (1) understand the mechanisms underlying these persistent issues and (2) build academics' capacity to change their institutions to rectify these issues. My work has tangible, durable impacts on people's ability to make academia a better place to learn and work.

MENTOR: Mentoring toward Ethical, Novel & Transdisciplinary Outcomes of Research
I am the lead investigator on MENTOR, an initiative to:
1. Leverage apprenticeship and critique practices in the arts to enhance research mentorship in STEM;
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2. Shift paradigms around systems-to-individual-level change and access/participation in academia, STEM, and scicomm; and
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3. Coach early-career and experienced mentors to address systemic issues of ethics and collegiality in academia and STEM through a holistic approach to mentoring.
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This work is supported in part by the Wyoming INBRE program and an NSF EPSCoR Track II award (UNL-Lincoln).

Equity, community, and accountability: leveraging a department-level climate survey as a tool for action
I am the co-lead investigator on a study to develop a suite of tools that can effectively inform academic departments of their organizational climate and subsequent methods for enhancing it.
Organizational climate is a key determinant of numerous aspects of success in work settings. Quantifying experiences of climate across employment categories can help identify changes necessary to create a more ethical and productive workplace. We developed, validated, and administered a climate survey within our academic workplace. Three common themes emerged from the analysis of open-ended responses: equity, community, and accountability. We also identified how these themes correspond to concrete action items for improving our departmental climate, some of which have been implemented already, while others constitute future initiatives and/or require a collective push towards systemic change in academia. We conducted this work to streamline similar efforts for other departments aiming to evaluate workplace climate as a key first step in building a positive work environment for all employees.

Thinking Like a Writer: Enhancing Scholarly Writing for Graduate Students
There is considerable overlap in the competencies needed for effective, ethical scicomm and being successful as a graduate student in the sciences. If we hope to retain graduate students, we have to help them become our colleagues. To do so, we must make the craft and practice of being a professional writer legible, visible, and fundamental to their graduate training, not just their outputs.
Furthermore, academics who are effective at scholarly writing can more readily make space for themselves to pursue scicomm and engaged scholarship.
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My co-PI Rick Fisher and I are conducting a multi-year study to test and evaluate mechanisms for helping graduate students overcome deep-rooted fears, hang-ups, and counterproductive habits that impede their abilities to develop into confident, competent scholarly writers.​​​ Program details here.​
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I also have a book on the subject coming out from University of Chicago Press (fall 2025) entitled Teaching and Mentoring Writers in the Sciences. For more about why I wrote this book (with co-author Stephen B. Heard), see this link.
Related work
Most of my research and programs have an "institutional change" element to them, as well. See my research foci on Research to Enhance Ethical Scicomm Capacity and Researching Creativity to Improve Our Communities for additional examples of my applied, transdisciplinary approach to scicomm and transdisciplinarity.
I have also served in numerous capacity-building, administrative roles which are complementary to my research. These include:
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Director, University of Wyoming Science Communication Initiative (2018-present)
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Chair, Academic Assessment Committee, Zoology & Physiology Department (2018-present)
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Special Assistant to the Vice Provost for Strategic Planning and Initiatives (2021-2023)
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Digital education strategy specialist (COVID-19-response). Special Assistant to the Interim Provost (2020-2021)
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Director, Research Impacts Assessment, Biodiversity Institute (2019-2021)
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Co-founder, Section editor-in-chief and webmaster, Secretary, Vice Chair, Chair, and Past Chair, emeritus leadership/mentoring role, Communication & Engagement Section, Ecological Society of America (2014-2022)
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In these roles, I co-led a major, decade-long initiative to professionalize, value, and enhance training in scicomm for members of the Ecological Society of America. I also co-led development and implementation of our most recent, campus-wide consultation process for the University of Wyoming's current strategic plan and co-wrote the university's current mission, vision, and values statements. I also co-facilitated our campus-wide implementation of faculty support programs for hybrid and remote teaching and developed a comprehensive, organization-wide assessment process for a major science institute on campus. I continue to offer field-defining leadership and mentoring for our campus with respect to broader impacts and associated scholarship and culture change.