Communications Portfolio

Curious about how billions of neurons make up your consciousness? How anxiety hijacks your body? Why Freud was such a weirdo? Whether AI will replace your therapist? This witty, enlightening book, written by a brilliant neuroscientist and clinical therapist duo, uncovers the stunningly-intricate universe of the human brain in fun, awe-inspiring detail. Brains Explained: How They Work and Why They Work That Way was published on June 22, 2021 and is available on Amazon or wherever books are sold.

Also, if you’ve got youngsters in your life who are curious about their brain, you should check out Science Comics: The Brain – it’s a fabulously written and illustrated story about the brain. I wrote the introduction and acted as scientific content editor.

For UChicago News

• Ancient DNA shows people with certain genes were more likely to survive the Black Death
• UChicago researchers re-create sense of touch and motor control in paralyzed patient
• How were researchers able to develop COVID-19 vaccines so quickly?

For The Forefront at UChicago Medicine

• UChicago Medicine transabdominal cerclage team helps prevent pregnancy losses for hundreds of families each year
• Husam Balkhy, MD: On a relentless quest to make heart surgery less invasive for all patients

For This Week @ UC San Diego

• Stacks in the Corner: One-of-a-kind clinic provides hope for treatment of hoarding disorder

For UChicago Medicine

• Low doses of “laughing gas” could be fast acting, highly effective treatment for severe depression
• Mouse brain imaged from the microscopic to the macroscopic level
• New clues emerge in how early tetrapods learned to live — and eat — on land
• Microbes in dental plaque look more like relatives in soil than those on the tongue
• Monarch butterflies raised in captivity may be worse at migrating south than wild monarchs raised outdoors

For UC San Diego Health

• Heatwave Exposure Linked to Increased Risk of Preterm Birth in California
• The Birds and the Bats: Evolving to Fly May Have Had Big Effect on Gut Microbiome
• New Diagnostic Criteria May Enable Earlier Detection of Cognitive Impairment in Women

For Scripps Institution of Oceanography

• Parasitic Worms Have Armies, and Produce More Soldiers When Needed

For UChicago Medicine

Together with our digital media team, I led the development and production of a number of video projects, including:

• Ancient DNA shows people with certain genes were more likely to survive the Black Death
• Paralyzed Man Gains Re-created Sense of Touch and Movement Thanks to UChicago Researchers
• How does the FDA approve vaccines?
• How do vaccines work?

For UC San Diego Health

At the start of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, together with the social media and multimedia experts at UC San Diego Health, I developed a series of videos answering critical questions about COVID-19 and its prevention. This series, titled Spreading Facts: Answering Critical COVID-19 Questions, was awarded silver in the Health Care Communicators of Southern California awards.

For SciShow

From September of 2015 to May of 2018, I wrote 50 videos for SciShow, one of YouTube’s largest science channels, reaching an audience of over 5 million subscribers with daily videos about the world around us.

This is a playlist of all of the videos I have written, spanning topics from “brain training” to the science of alcohol to fantastic fungal superpowers.

For UC San Diego Health

• n=37 Balancing an MD, PhD and advocacy with Alec Calac (Conducted interview and edited podcast)

Podcast appearances

• Your brain on relationships – with Alie Caldwell for the Well Balanced podcast
• n=25 Talking neuroscience and #scicomm with Alie Astrocyte for UC San Diego Health
• Everybody Has A Brain with Alie Caldwell for Synapse Science

The Bigelow Science Communication Fellowship is intended to provide an opportunity for a Fellow to spend time working with the media departments of three different communications offices at UC San Diego, expanding their PR/public information skills and working with the three teams (Health, Oceanography, and Engineering) to tell interdisciplinary stories highlighting the research happening at the intersection of these departments. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the entire UC San Diego system works to navigate this crisis, the need for coordination and cooperation among university media departments has never been clearer.

Originally intending to compile a series of stories about climate change as a capstone project, during the last three months, I instead pivoted to work with the UC San Diego Health team behind the Bigelow Science Communication Fellowship to re-calibrate my projects and support ongoing communications efforts on campus in the face of the virus. This includes sharing the news of new projects to combat the effects of the virus as well as producing educational media to keep our community safe and informed. Below are the pieces I produced as part of this effort.

For This Week @ UC San Diego

• News feature: UC San Diego Engineers and Doctors Team Up to Retrofit and Build Ventilators with 3D-Printing

For UC San Diego Health

• Blog post & video: What Will it Take to Develop a Vaccine for COVID-19?
• Blog post: Struggling to Sleep in the Face of COVID-19?
• Video: How Does Physical Distancing Work?
• Video: Will Warm Weather Curb COVID19?
• Blog post: How Long Can COVID19 Live On Surfaces?
• Blog post & video: What Cleaning Supplies Will Help Combat COVID19?
• Blog post: Managing Anxiety in the Face of Coronavirus
• Blog post: What’s In Your Medicine Cabinet?

For UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

• News feature: Company founded by engineering alumni advances 1-hour COVID test

For UC San Diego Health

• For Doc Scribbles, Medicine and Art Go Hand in Hand
• Scientist and Neonatologist Sandra Leibel Aims to Take Science from the Bench to the Baby

For Brainfacts.org

• The Neuroscience of Stress
• How We Weigh Our Options

Blog appearances

• An Interview with Alie Caldwell of Neuro Transmissions for the International Youth Neuroscience Association
• Meet the 2018 Neuro Film Festival Winners for the American Academy of Neurology’s Brain and Life Magazine
• Women in STEM – Alie Caldwell for the Department of Ladyology

Guest Lectures

• “Using Digital Video to Communicate Science: It’s Not Rocket Surgery, it’s Brain Science!” UC San Diego Extension School Science Writing I. Winter 2018, Fall 2018, Summer 2019, Winter 2020

Science Communication/Social Media

• Workshop: “Social Media Savvy“. Speaking Science: Communicating with Media, Funders, Policymakers, and the Public. University of Minnesota. January 16, 2020
• Talk: “Social Media for Scientists, Or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the hashtag.” Spotlight on Science. The Medical College of Wisconsin. February 26, 2019

Research

• Talk: “Identifying Astrocyte-Secreted Protein Factors Linked to Altered Neuronal Development in ASD”. Gordon Research Seminar: Functional Interactions Among Glia and Neurons. March 2, 2019