Broadening Access to Science
My outreach work focuses on creating opportunities for students to engage directly with science and to see research and higher education as paths that are open to them. As someone who entered higher education through a nontraditional path, I know that access to opportunities, mentorship, and examples of possible futures can have a substantial influence on how students see themselves and what they believe they can pursue.
Over time, my outreach has grown from individual mentoring and public science communication into the development of sustained programs that connect students with scientific practice and university research. Much of this work now centers on a partnership between Oregon State University and College Hill Alternative High School, where we have developed an Experimental Design course and an internship program that provides students with hands-on experiences across multiple university research laboratories.
My goal is not simply to expose students to science, but to create meaningful opportunities for them to participate in it—asking questions, designing experiments, interacting with researchers, and gaining experience within scientific environments that may previously have felt inaccessible.
College Hill Alternative High School Partnership
In 2025, I developed an Experimental Design course in partnership with College Hill Alternative High School in Corvallis, Oregon. The course was created to give students experience with the process of doing science rather than simply learning about scientific concepts.
Students work through the development of research questions, hypotheses, experimental design, data collection and analysis, and communication of results. The course emphasizes collaborative problem-solving and gives students opportunities to make decisions about how scientific questions should be investigated.
The program has continued to grow through collaboration with members of the Phillips Lab and College Hill faculty. In 2026, we offered the course for a second year and expanded the partnership through the creation of the OSU Integrative Biology Access Internship, providing students with opportunities to continue from classroom-based experimental design into hands-on research experiences at Oregon State University.
An important part of the partnership is that it creates opportunities in both directions. College Hill students gain access to university research environments, while faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers across OSU have opportunities to participate in sustained, meaningful community engagement.
OSU Integrative Biology Access Internship
The OSU Integrative Biology Access Internship was created to extend the College Hill partnership beyond the classroom and provide students with sustained, hands-on experience in university research environments.
During the pilot program, interns participated in 10 sessions across 11 Oregon State University laboratories. These experiences introduced students to a wide range of research questions, techniques, and study systems while giving them opportunities to work directly with faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers.
The internship also included discussions about college, graduate school, research funding, and STEM career pathways, with the goal of helping students understand not only what research looks like, but how people enter and build careers in science.
Interns received stipends for their participation and earned high school science credit for completing the program, helping ensure that participation was recognized as meaningful academic and professional experience rather than simply extracurricular exposure.
The long-term goal is to develop the internship into a sustainable pathway that connects classroom-based scientific training with direct participation in research and provides students with continued opportunities to build skills, confidence, and relationships within the scientific community
Public Engagement and Science Communication
In addition to program development and mentoring, I have participated in a range of public-engagement and science-communication activities designed to make research more accessible to broader audiences.
These activities have included public talks, community events, media interviews, and other opportunities to communicate scientific research outside traditional academic settings. I have particularly enjoyed translating complex biological questions into accessible stories that emphasize how science works, and why the questions matter.
I also view public engagement as an important part of scientific training. Creating opportunities for researchers at different career stages to communicate their work with non-specialist audiences helps strengthen both scientific communication skills and connections between universities and the communities they serve.
3rd joint Congress of Evolutionary Biology, Montreal
July 2024
Short research talk: Selection for early reproduction leads to extensive metabolic remodeling and accelerated aging in experimentally evolved Drosophila melanogaster populations
Invited Postdoc Research Talk
May 2024
Short talk about my work using experimental evolution to study metabolomics and aging in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). I start just after the 37 minute mark.
PhD Defense Talk
December 2022
The public portion of my PhD dissertation defense. I present the research I did throughout my graduate work.
IB Enlightening Talk
May 2022
I gave a brief talk highlighting some of my research on the thermal biology of garter snakes.
Geeking Out About it: Avatar
2022
I was a guest biology expert asked to discuss the biology of the Avatar movies
GRADx
2018
I spoke about my unusual journey to grad school and my recipe for success.
Inspiration Dissemination: Just Keep Slithering
2016
I was interviewed with my Mason lab mates on the KBVR radio program. We discussed our paths to grad school, our experiences and our research.