Community work

I have dedicated a lot of time in my graduate student experience doing work that I view as community oriented. I served as the representative for the School of Life Sciences in the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly from 2021 until 2023, where I worked to build a culture that recognizes and compensates graduate students for their work in the realm of “Service” (i.e. event planning, mentorship, advocacy, etc.). I also served as the Director of Communications for the Arizona Science Policy Network (AZSPN). I helped to plan and pull off an annual event called “Science Day At The Capitol” where AZSPN members, who are all graduate science students at ASU, visit the Arizona State Capitol and meet with state and local legislators and policymakers to advocate on scientific issues that are important to them. I also helped AZSPN facilitate a visit from a sitting member of congress to ASU for an impactful talk on the role of information and truth in maintaining our democracy.

I also love to create art at the intersection of science, identity, culture, and curiousity. After completing the course revisions to include a more queer perspective in ASU’s online Animal Behavior Curriculum (see the Research section for a summary of this project), I sought out a way to make this information more broadly available. I was commissioned by the Denver Art Museum to create a short Zine that was displayed at a special event during Pride Month in Denver, which you can read below.