COVID Watch: Discussing issues with COVID and existing health disparities in black communities
Nicholas St. Fleur
(Journalist, children's STEM author, and Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow at STAT)
COVID-19 Science: Communicating the basics of COVID-19 and vaccines
Dr. Chiquita Mays, BSE, MS, Ph.D.
(Strategist and Leadership Development Consultant)
In personal and business environments there are challenges, Dr. Mays has spent over 20 years leading people, teams, and organizations through successful transformations in the face of those challenges. Her great passion is guiding with light and optimism to discover science- supported solutions; we lean on science and data as we lead with compassion. Her specializations are diversity, equity, and inclusion; change management & communicating change; and leadership and organizational development. She has worked with in numerous industries and with various companies including Caterpillar, Boeing, Kia, Coca-Cola, GA Quickstart, Toyo Tires, and Wellstar Health Systems. During the last year she has supported Wellstar’s COVID-19 Taskforce and DEI Advisory Council.
PANEL: Building trust with black communities through SciComm
Anicca Harriot
(Host of Vanguard STEM and Ph.D. Candidate at University of Maryland School of Medicine)
Anicca Harriot (she/her) is a Biochemistry & Molecular Biology PhD Candidate at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the mechanisms responsible for skeletal muscle atrophy and injury. Anicca plans to use her degree to explore the effects of long duration space missions on the human body and hopes to someday venture out into the final frontier for herself. Anicca also serves as the Chief of Community Development for #VanguardSTEM: Conversations for Women of Color in STEM, a non-profit dedicated to lifting the voices of women and non-binary people of color in STEM. Through #VanguardSTEM, Anicca is able to deploy her passion for advocacy and science communication alongside other women of color & non-binary people of color in STEM to self-advocate by fully representing themselves and their STEM identities and interests, without assimilation. Anicca’s passion for advocacy and prominent influence has led her to being recognized as one of Motherboard’s 2017 Humans of the Year, a 2017 Young Futurist for The Root, and most recently as a 2020 President’s Fellow at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Dr. Reyhaneh Maktoufi
(SciComm researcher & trainer, Rita Allen Foundation Civic Science Fellow in Misinformation at WGBH/NOVA)
Dr. Jaye Gardiner
(Artist, SciComm organizer, and Post-doc at the Fox Chase Cancer Center)
Lanell Williams
(Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard University, Founder of the Women of Color Project (WOCP)