The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies .(May 2019) |
Liz Neeley | |
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Alma mater | University of Maryland, BA, 2002 Boston University, MA, 2005 |
Occupation(s) | Founder, Liminal Creations Lecturer, Yale School of Medicine |
Employer(s) | SeaWeb, 2005 – 2008 COMPASS, 2008 – 2015 The Story Collider, 2015 – 2020 |
Known for | Science Communication, Marine Conservation |
Spouse | Ed Yong |
Website | www |
Liz Neeley is a science communicator, researcher, and founder of Liminal Creations. She was formerly the Executive Director of The Story Collider, a nonprofit organization that focuses on true, personal stories inspired by science. [1] She began her career in marine biology and conservation and has since become an expert in the use of narrative storytelling for effective science communication.
Neeley received her Bachelor of Arts in Marine Biology in 2002. She then completed her Master's degree at Boston University in Ecology and Evolution in 2005. Her graduate research centered on the evolution of color patterns and visual communication systems in tropical reef fishes—wrasses and parrotfish—in the laboratory of Gil Rosenthal. [2]
Following graduate school, she began a career in marine conservation, applying her general subject matter knowledge to science advocacy. She began working at SeaWeb, a communications-based nonprofit organization committed to promoting understanding around ocean and conservation science to a host of stakeholders—from decision makers to community leaders to the media. By strategically communicating to these groups, SeaWeb worked to foster the development of measures to protect the ocean. From 2005 to 2006, Neeley worked with SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program, partnering with local communities and researchers in Fiji and Papua New Guinea to build communications capacity for them to share their knowledge of local coral reefs ecosystems with the local media. [3] In 2006, she transitioned to the role of Program Manager at SeaWeb, where she helped launch the "Too Precious to Wear" campaign, partnering with the fashion industry to raise awareness around the toll of dredging deep sea coral. The campaign sought to impose limits on coral use in fashion, design, and home decor through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. [4] [5]
Following her tenure at SeaWeb, Neeley focused her career more on efforts around science communication, training scientists on how best to share their knowledge of science with a range of stakeholders. She has served as a contributing author on a range of books on science communication. She wrote a section on utilizing social media to promote a scientist's work for Science Blogging: The Essential Guide and contributed a chapter on communicating controversial topics in science on social media in Effective Risk Communication. She also co-authored Escape from the Ivory Tower: a guide to making your science matter during her time at the nonprofit COMPASS. [6] [7] [8]
Neeley has lent her expertise to a number of groups centered on communicating science to the public, previously serving on the advisory board of the CommLab at MIT from 2015 to 2017 and on the Advisory Council of Ensia magazine. [9] She also holds a Lecturer appointment at Yale School of Medicine in conjunction with the National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative. [10]
In 2008, Neeley joined COMPASS, a nonprofit organization co-founded by marine ecologist and former NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco to train scientists to more effectively share their expertise with journalists, decision makers, and the public at large. [11] There, Neeley served as the Assistant Director of Science Outreach, working to develop their training programs in science communication and connecting scientists to public conversations around their expertise. [12] [13] She also launched COMPASS's training programs around how scientists can more effectively utilize social media to share their work and engage with a broader audience. [14] [15] During her tenure at COMPASS, she was affiliate staff at the University of Washington in the School of Aquatic & Fisheries Sciences. [14]
In 2015, Neeley became the executive director of The Story Collider, a nonprofit organization that brings personal stories inspired by science to the public through live shows and a weekly podcast. The organization also trains scientists on how to employ the tools of storytelling to become better communicators. [16] [17] In this role, she's also spearheaded efforts in applying storytelling to more traditionally academic forms of communication, curating a collection of "Conservation stories from the front lines" for PLOS Biology. [18] She has spoken about the importance of storytelling for science at a number of universities and organizations, including the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Washington College of the Environment's Bevan Series, Yale University, and at Northwestern University. [19] [20] [21] [22] In the policy arena, she has contributed a position paper on the use of narrative persuasion to help scientists ethically navigate the world of decision making at the Institute on Science for Global Policy in partnership with Sigma Xi. [23] She has also contributed her expertise to providing recommendations for how to have better conversations around the COVID-19 pandemic. [24] [25]
Neeley has also told stories of her own for The Story Collider, including a story about a field expedition gone awry during her time as an undergraduate and another about her colleagues forgetting her while working on coral conservation in Fiji. [26] [27]
Neeley is married to Ed Yong, science journalist at The Atlantic. [28] [29] They occasionally collaborate on speaking engagements. [22] [28]
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view. The term "storytelling" can refer specifically to oral storytelling but also broadly to techniques used in other media to unfold or disclose the narrative of a story.
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Jeremy Bradford Cook Jackson is an American ecologist, paleobiologist, and conservationist. He is an emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, senior scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, and visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. He studies threats and solutions to human impacts on the environment and the ecology and evolution of tropical seas. Jackson has more than 170 scientific publications and 11 books, with nearly 40,000 citations listed on Google Scholar.
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Susan Lynn Williams was an American marine biologist and Distinguished Professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis, where she directed the Bodega Marine Laboratory from 2000-2010. She researched marine coastal ecosystems and how they are affected by human activities. She was a strong advocate for environmental protection, credited with helping pass legislation expanding the boundaries of Northern California's Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank national sanctuaries, increasing the area of federally-protected coastal waters.
The Story Collider is a US-based non-profit group dedicated to telling true, personal stories about science. Their mission is to empower both scientists and nonscientists alike with the skills they need to tell these stories and share them through their live shows and podcast, with the goal of exploring the human side of science.
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Christine Figgener is a German marine conservation biologist, author, science communicator, and ocean advocate recognized for her work in sea turtle conservation, the fight against plastic pollution, and the empowerment of women in STEM. She is best known for documenting the removal of a plastic straw from a sea turtle's nose in a YouTube video that went viral in 2015. This video, which was featured in popular media outlets such as National Geographic, HuffPost, The New York Times, ABC News, and CNN, highlighted the dangers of plastic pollution on marine wildlife and was a catalyst for the global anti-straw movement that led to several straw bans by businesses such as Starbucks, Disney, and Alaska Airlines.
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