Outreach from field to classroom and museum

How we treat each other fundamentally matters. The core truth of our mutuality demonstrates the need to target both structural inequalities and implicit biases, which block scientific training opportunities for Black, Indigenous, Latine, LGBTQIA+, and female scholars. Recognizing the advantages provided by my perceived position at the center of society, as an educated, white-passing, native English-speaking American male, has helped me to take responsibility for that privilege by giving more kindness and taking more risks to defend the voices of others. I take my central positionality as a challenge to do proportionately more to promote others to pursue their dreams, and to cultivate community feeling where I live and work. Action toward these goals has guided my trajectory, from doing outreach in Chicago Public Schools and at the Field Museum of Natural History, to mentoring students during my postdocs (McMaster and Yale) and now building an inclusive lab environment as an ASU faculty member.

Outreach

Tempe, AZ

• Genetics Team, March Mammal Madness (2022, 2023, 2024).
• Guest speaker / mammal trapper, DEI Biocollections Summer Program (Summer 2021, 2022)
• Presented mammal specimens, ASU Earth and Space Open House, School of Earth & Space Exploration (2022).

Program facilitator for the Brothers4Science program (2012).

New Haven, CT

• Science Fair judge at Worthington Hooker Middle School (2017, 2018).

Hamilton, Canada

• Weekly tutor, Empowerment Squared program for Liberian immigrants (2014-15).
• Weekly tutor, Reading Buddies & Homework Help, Hamilton Public Library (2013-14).

Chicago, IL

• Program Facilitator, Project Exploration’s “Brothers4Science” program for 6-8th grade boys at Ariel Community Academy (10 weeks, 2012).

Showing specimens to students in the Sisters4Science program (2010).

• Host for “Talk to the Scientist Hour” programs, Field Museum’s Pritzker Laboratory (2012-13).
• Curated content for digital touch-screen, Field Museum’s DNA Discovery Center exhibit (2012-13).
• Lecturer on anatomy for Project Exploration’s Junior Paleontologists course (8-12th gr.; 2012).
• Discussed science careers with 7th grade class, Young Women’s Leadership School (2012).
• Lecturer on mammalogy for Project Exploration’s All Girls Expedition course (8-12th gr.; 2011).
• Presented specimens to 7-8th graders, Project Exploration’s Sisters4Science courses (2010-2012).
• Weekly tutoring in 8th grade geometry, Canter Middle School (2010).
• Public presentation of mammal specimens, Field Museum Member’s Nights (2009-12).

Trappers unite at Apache Box for rodent sampling in May 2021 (right to left): Savage, Faith, Luisa, Laura, and Nate.

DEI Scholars at Haigler Canyon in June 2021 (right to left): Savage, Mary, Faith, and Marcus.