Position/Organization:

Senior Science & Research Information Officer, Research Communications, Penn State University

A graduate of Purdue in Science and Culture (chemistry), Boston University in Journalism/Science Communication, A'ndrea Messer is a veteran science communicator and press officer at Penn State University where she covers the natural science waterfront. At Penn State, where she has worked for 22 years, Messer writes about research of all kinds and advises faculty, staff and students on all aspects of media relations. Messer is also an archaeologist, with master's and doctoral degrees in Anthropology from Penn State, and is an authority on settlement pattern distribution in 13th century Puebloan societies. She has served in a volunteer capacity as press officer for the Society for American Archaeology for the past three years, and, as a self-described geek, she supports NASW's Internet/Web environment in her role as assistant systems operator.