Speakers

Speakers

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  • Kevin M. Folta

    Associate professor and chair, Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Florida

    Kevin Folta’s laboratory examines the role of light in plant development and productivity, as well as how genes in small fruits contribute to consumer-desired traits. Folta has edited two seminal texts on genomics and genetics in fruit crops and serves as an editor for leading journals. He has been recognized with several prestigious national awards for research and student/postdoc mentoring. His research program has been recognized for its strong element of student training and service to the community. Folta’s goal is to teach evidence-based science at all levels and use research as a mechanism to train scientists and further scientific understanding beyond laboratory walls. He maintains an active web presence with the blog Illumination and is a frequent guest on science podcasts and radio shows. Ultimately his goal is to extend laboratory knowledge, shaping better products and policy that can benefit communities, farmers and the environment.

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  • Peggy Girshman

    Kaiser Health News

    Peggy Girshman is the Executive Editor for online at Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service covering health care and health policy. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a nonpartisan operating foundation based in Washington D.C. KHN publishes stories on its website and partners with major news organizations, including USA Today, The Washington Post, NPR, McClatchy Newspapers, among many others. Peggy worked as a producer for TV stations in Washington DC and New York City and as the senior producer for several PBS series, including Scientific American Frontiers and a 26-part series on statistics. She helped edit science/health news at National Public Radio (NPR), eventually becoming a Managing Editor responsible for "converging" the radio and digital parts of NPR News. She was Senior Medical Producer at Dateline NBC from 1998-2001. She had journalism fellowships, at the Marine Biological Lab and at M.I.T. She is a co-winner of the AAAS science-writing prize and is on the NASW board.

    How to Pitch Kaiser Health News:
    KHN is interested in stories that illuminate the U.S. health care system, the practice of medicine, hospital
    practice, comparative effectiveness and most anything connected to the Affordable Care Act, A.K.A.
    Obamacare. We do not cover medical treatments (unless there is an insurance/financial/public policy
    angle), public health or global health. Please check out our website before you
    pitch: www.kaiserhealthnews.org

    Contact information:
    peggyg@kff.org

    Speaking:

  • Cecile Gonzalez

    Science Writer-Editor, National Science Foundation

    Cecile Gonzalez is a science writer-editor at the National Science Foundation. She is responsible for news and feature stories on engineering research topics ranging from mind-machine interfaces to bio-based materials to water purification. On behalf of the Engineering Directorate, she oversees collaborative projects with CEP Magazine, IEEE Spectrum Radio, LiveScience.com, and NBC Learn. She previously did media and public relations work for the National Academy of Engineering.

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  • Gregory C. Gray

    Professor and chair, Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions; director, Global Pathogens Laboratory, University of Florida

    Greg Gray, a board-certified physician with graduate training in public health, has conducted epidemiological infectious disease research in the U.S. and abroad for 25 years and joined the University of Florida faculty in 2010. His current research interests include the transmission of pathogens, especially respiratory viruses, from animals to people as a result of occupational exposure. This work has taken him more than to a dozen countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. A strong proponent of the cross-disciplinary "One Health" approach to animal and human health, he holds a joint appointment in veterinary medicine at UF, directs the world's first One Health Ph.D. program and recently won NIH funding for a postdoctoral zoonoses training program in partnership with scholars in Mongolia.

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  • Daniel Grushkin

    Freelance journalist; co-founder, Genspace

    Daniel Grushkin is a journalist who covers the intersection of biology, business and culture. His articles have appeared in Businessweek, Fast Company, Popular Science, Scientific American, and others. His subjects have included high-wire pharmaceutical thefts, cutting edge biofuels, next generation gene therapies, and public perceptions about DNA sciences. In 2010, he cofounded Genspace in Brooklyn, NY, the world's first community laboratory. Genspace functions as a neighborhood space for creative innovation and education in biotechnology.

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  • Joe Hanson, Ph.D.

    Blogger/host, It’s Okay To Be Smart, on PBS Digital Studios

    Joe is host and writer of It’s Okay To Be Smart, a YouTube science series from PBS Digital Studios, and his blog, www.itsokaytobesmart.com. He was a 2013 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Wired magazine, and his work has been featured on the Scientific American guest blog and published in Open Lab.

    Joe earned his doctoral degree in cell and molecular biology from the University of Texas at Austin. His mission in life is to tell the world about the awesomeness of ALL THE SCIENCE. We live in the future, and that future is one in which science impacts every part of our lives. But too many people aren’t taking part in that future. Too many aren’t taking part in science. We must teach science as more than facts. It’s a creative process, it’s an instant injection of wonderment, it’s the excitement we feel at the edge of knowledge. It’s for everyone. Joe says, “I'm working to change the way science is communicated and restore it to its rightful place."

    Connect with him on Twitter @jtotheizzoe.
    Joe lives in Austin, Texas, with two adorable dogs and one beautiful wife.

    Speaking:

  • Laura Helmuth

    Science and Health editor, Slate

    Laura Helmuth is science and health editor at Slate magazine. Before she joined Slate, Helmuth was senior editor at
    Smithsonian magazine where she selected and edited most of the stories about science, nature, and technology. Before that she
    worked for Science magazine's news department for five years, first as a writer covering neuroscience and then as an editor for life sciences stories. She has written for National Wildlife, California Wild, and Science News. She has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley.

    How to pitch Slate:
    Helmuth considers a pitch the start of a conversation. Email her with a couple of paragraphs to
    get your idea off the ground. Slate wants the political, cultural, or counter intuitive angle, and
    the voice is opinionated. Helmuth says #slatepitches makes fun of the site, “But it’s not
    completely wrong.”

    Contact:
    Laura.helmuth@slate.com

    Speaking:

  • Virginia Hughes

    Freelance journalist

    Virginia Hughes is freelance journalist who specializes in genetics, neuroscience, and biotech. Her stories have appeared in Nature, Popular Science, and the New Yorker's science blog, among other publications. Her blog, Only Human, is published by National Geographic magazine. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and whip-smart puppy.

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  • Mark Jaccard

    Professor of sustainable energy, Simon Fraser University

    Mark Jaccard is an economist who has advised energy and environment policy makers around the world. He is known for designing and applying energy-economy models to assess the effectiveness and cost of sustainable energy policies. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Jaccard contributed to assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the 1990s and was an author on its 2011 special report on renewable energy sources. In 2007-12, he served as convening lead author for sustainable energy policy with the Global Energy Assessment. He has served on the faculty of Simon Fraser University since 1986, save for a stint as chair and CEO of the British Columbia Utilities Commission 1992-97. He writes the blog Sustainability Suspicions and made headlines in 2012 as one of 13 protesters arrested for blockading a rail line used to deliver U.S. coal to Canada.

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