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Liz Neeley: Science communicator extraordinaire
and lover of fine fashion... and bread. |
Liz Neeley is the assistant director at COMPASS where she helps develop and lead the communications
trainings for scientists, and specializes in the social media and
multimedia components of their workshops and outreach efforts. Before joining
COMPASS, Liz studied the evolution and visual systems of tropical reef fishes
at Boston University. After grad school, she helped communities and researchers
in Fiji and Papua New Guinea connect their knowledge of local coral reefs
ecosystems to the media. She also dabbled in international science policy while
working on trade in deep-sea corals. Liz is currently based in Seattle, at the
University of Washington. You can find Liz on Twitter (@LizNeeley) and on Google+. Also check our her passion projects, ScienceOnline Seattle and her SciLingual hangout series.
DXS: First, can you give us a quick overview of what your scientific
background is and your current connection to science?
I was one of those kids who knew from a
really young age what they wanted to be, and that was a fish biologist. Sea turtles, dolphins - no way - I wanted to
study fish. My mom actually found an old picture I drew when I was in third
grade about what I wanted to be when I grew up: it was me in a lab coat,
holding a clipboard, and tanks of aquaria behind me.
You combine this with the fact that I am also
a really stubborn person, and I just wanted to do science straight through all
my schooling. Not just the coursework
either - I did an NSF young scholars program in high school, was the captain of
the engineering team, and, of course, was a mathlete.
I did my undergraduate work in marine biology
at the University of Maryland. I did
three years of research there on oyster reef restoration,
and then went straight into my PhD at Boston University, where I studied the
evolution of color patterns and visual systems in wrasses and parrotfish.
I actually did not finish my PhD. Life sort of knocked me sideways, and instead
of finishing my PhD, I ended up taking a masters, and then going into the
non-profit world. At first, I mostly
worked on coral conservation in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and I did a big
project on deep sea corals.
After I left grad school, I started a 20-hour
per week internship at an NGO called SeaWeb. Vikki Spruill, who was
the founder and president, has killer instincts and a passion for women’s high
fashion that I share. She had noticed coral jewelry coming down the runway in
Milan, Paris, and NY. People just didn’t have any idea that these pieces of
jewelry were actually animals, much less that they were deep sea corals.
So we launched a campaign called “Too Precious to Wear,” which partnered with high-end fashion and luxury designer to
create alternatives to these deep sea corals – celebrating coral but not
actually using it. The Tiffany & Co.
Foundation was our major partner, and we got to throw a breakfast at Tiffany’s
that brought in fashion editors from Mademoiselle and Vogue.
Everyone always dismisses women’s fashions as
shallow and meaningless, but this ended up being this huge lever that got a lot
of attention for deep sea coral conservation, and my piece was the science that
pinned it all together. I got a taste of the international policy component of
that as well, and headed to the Netherlands for CITES (the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species) as part of the work. I knew the science, but certainly helped that
I knew how to pronounce the names of the designers too – opportunities like
that to bridge cultures that seem foreign to each other are tremendously
powerful.
I currently work at COMPASS, which is
an organization that works at the intersection of science, policy, and
communication/media. Our tagline is
“helping scientists find their voices and bringing science into the
conversation.” For my part, this means, I teach science communications trainings
around the country, helping researchers understand how social media works, how
reporters find their stories, and how to overcome some of the obstacles that
scientists often put in their own way when they talk about their work.
What I love about this work so much is that
it keeps me in the science community – around people who are pursuing tough
questions. That is how my brain works, it is how my soul works, and I want to
be a part of it. The power of this for
me is to be able to take in all of this knowledge that is generated by these
scientists and help connect it to the broader world. I feel like this is the best contribution I
can make.
DXS: What ways do you express yourself creatively that may not have
a single thing to do with science?
I am a pretty artistic person – or at least I
think of myself as a pretty artistic person!
My creative outlets usually involve some kind of graphic design. I am always giving presentations for my work,
and I constantly ask “what do my slides look like, and am I telling a good
story?” I so lucky that I get to spend a lot of time thinking about imagery,
visual storytelling, and how people react to art or data visualization.
I also paint and draw (though I wouldn’t
really share those) and I cook. I am
actually doing a bread baking experiment this year where I am trying out a
different type of bread recipe every weekend.
It can be really funny because sometimes, if
it has been a really stressful week, I will look for a recipe that really needs
to be punched down or kneaded for a long time. It’s a good workout too! And
then we have this amazing bread every weekend.
It is all about the aesthetics for me – I host dinner parties, bake, have
a great garden – all of that is sort of my own creative outlet.
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Some experimental results from Liz's bread project. |
DXS: What is your favorite bread?
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The delicious baguette |
LN: Oh, the baguette. I made my own for the
first time last weekend and it was really fantastic! I realize that baking is
one of these things that, if you want to do it properly, you have to be very
precise. You should weigh the ingredients. But I’m precise in the rest of my
life. When it is the weekend and I am having fun, I kind of love it when the
flour is just flying everywhere. As a
result, my loaves are a little bit mutated, or just not quite right, but they
are delicious! Some of my other
favorites also includes a great focaccia (the recipe for it is below!).
DXS: Do you find that your scientific background informs your
creativity, even though what you do may not specifically be scientific?
Yes, absolutely. It’s funny because when you asked the
question about my creative outlets that have nothing to do with science, it was
not entirely easy to answer. You know,
science is who I am – it permeates everything I do. When I am baking the bread, I am thinking about
the yeast and fermentation. When I am
painting, I am thinking about color theory and visual perception – after all that
would have been what my PhD was in!
Speaking of color theory, Joanne Manaster recently
shared a “how good is your color vision?” quiz. I took that test immediately to
see how I would do. That lead me on this interesting exploration around the
literature, and I read one theory that Van Gogh might have had a certain type
of color
blindness. I love this question of
how our brains interact with the world. In animal behavior the concept is
called “umwelt” - each
species has a unique sensory experience of the environment. I like to think
about how that applies to individual people to a smaller degree.
I think about this all the time – science,
creativity, art, aesthetics – it is all one beautiful and amazing thing to me.
DXS: Have you encountered situations in which your expression of
yourself outside the bounds of science has led to people viewing you
differently--either more positively or more negatively?
I accept the fact that, especially when it
comes to strangers, we make up stories based on what we see – clothes, hair,
etc. I know that this happens to me as
well. When we talk about femininity,
it’s no secret that I am a girly girl. I
wear makeup and heels. That’s how I feel most like myself, how I feel best. I
know that this doesn’t sit well with everybody, but that’s ok. I like to think
that I hold my own. Give me enough time to speak my piece and I can back it up.
I’ve got an interesting career, I am a geek, and it is not hard for me to
connect with people once we start talking.
In science we say that we don’t have a dress
code, but the reality is that we do. Maybe it’s unspoken, and sure it is not
the same as you see in the business world, but when you look different from how
everyone else looks, people do want comment on it. I don’t feel like it is
particularly negative in my case, and I feel that it doesn’t impede me. What is
most exciting is that it often opens up conversation – mostly with other women
who say “oh I really like your dress, I’ve been wearing more dresses lately!”

When I was an undergrad, I was kind of
oblivious to the whole dress code thing.
One day, when I was in the lab, I was wearing this pink, strappy sundress,
tied up the back, and these stupid platform sandals that were really tall (clearly
not appropriate lab gear). I was
scrubbing out this 100-gallon oyster tank and my advisor happened to walk by
and he sees me doing this. I remember freezing – all of the sudden I was afraid
he was going to mock me or lecture me, but he just said, “Oh, Liz… Keep on.”
My graduate advisor was the same way – he acknowledged
who I am and didn’t bother about how I dress. We didn’t avoid the topic. It just wasn’t an issue. I hope that other
women can have that same experience. It doesn’t matter if you are a tomboy or a
girly-girl. I don’t care - I am not
judging you. You don’t have to look like me because I am in a dress.
This is why I love this #IAmScience
meme, and the whole “be yourself” mentality. And that is what I am going to do.
I’ve decided to be myself. I accept the fact that not everyone will like the
look of me. But, I think that we will
eventually get to the point where we understand that science can be presented
in lots of different ways.
DXS: Have you found that your non-science
expression of creativity/activity/etc. has in any way informed your
understanding of science or how you may talk about it or present it to others?
For me, my job with COMPASS really is sitting
at this nexus of asking how we share science with people who aren’t
intrinsically fascinated by it or connected to it. This is very much a ripe field for thinking
about creative expression. Mostly, we come
at it in terms of verbal presentations, storytelling and written materials, but
then I specialize in the social media and multimedia components. I am always thinking about everything I am
reading and seeing – news, art, music, fiction - and how we can apply what
resonates with others in these non-science realms. It is very much a two-way thing; my science
informs my creativity and my creativity informs my science. That makes it really fulfilling and exciting
for me.
I see this in terms of the ability to make
connections. When I am standing up in
front of a group of researchers doing a social media training, I am making
pop-culture references, alluding to literary works, quoting song lyrics. When you get it right, you can see someone’s
eyes light up. It’s just another way to
connect - people sit up and pay attention if you can make a meaningful reference
to the artist they love or the book they just read.
One of the questions we always use in our
trainings is “so what?” So you are telling me about your science, but why
should I care? Miles Davis has a famous song
“So What?” and we play that in the background. It makes people smile. It makes
it memorable. I love that. I really like this idea that we should be using the
fullness of who we are and our creative selves, including all of the sensory
modalities, to talk about the very abstract and difficult scientific topics we
care about so much.
(DXS editor's side note: A portion of the previous paragraph was delivered to me in song. What's not to smile about?!?!)
DXS: How comfortable are you expressing your femininity and in what
ways? How does this expression influence people’s perception of you in, say, a
scientifically oriented context?
I feel very comfortable in my own skin, and
who I am and where I come from does tend to be a classically feminine look (at
least in terms of clothing choices and how I wear my hair). I am never quite certain the exact definition
of “femininity”, but I don’t think how I look so much influences people’s
perception of me as much as it opens up opportunities for us to discuss gender
and personality and science.
Part of what I do for my work is to help
scientists understand that in journalism, we need characters. So, I have the obligation to walk my talk – we
are all the main characters in our own lives and we have to live with that and be
true to that.
It brings up interesting questions of
personality and privacy. I feel pretty comfortable talking about my clothes and
my art and my dogs and my bread baking – but I also know that a lot of people
don’t want that type of stuff out there. I like the challenge of helping them tell
their own science stories and shine through as interesting people in a way that
is authentic and represents who they are in a way that works for them.
DXS: Do you think that the combination of your non-science
creativity and scientific-related activity shifts people’s perspectives or
ideas about what a scientist or science communicator is? If you’re aware of
such an influence, in what way, if any, do you use it to (for example) reach a
different corner of your audience or present science in a different sort of
way?
Sure, I think that I sometimes surprise
people. For example, in the world of
communications and journalism, we are seeing more and more that coding and
programming has great value. To just look at me, you might not believe that I
geek out over altmetrics and that I miss using MatLab.
It suprises people when they find this out,
and I sort of like that. I know what it feels like to walk into a room and to
be dismissed. I relish these opportunities because I consider them a challenge.
Instead of feeling offended (though it can get tiring), my approach is thinking,
“Guess what! I have something interesting to say, and you and I are actually
going to connect, even though you don’t see it yet.”
I think that this sort of willingness to interact
is something I try to help the scientists that I work with to understand. Maybe you think that you are going to be met
with great opposition toward some subject like climate change, but if you have
the willingness to approach it without assuming the worst, it opens new
opportunties. I’m no Pollyanna, but I think relentless optimism and a
commitment to finding common ground with others is very effective.
When I introduce social media to scientists,
it has changed a lot over the last three years, but there is still a lot of
skepticism and some outright scorn for “all those people online.” I like to
encourage taking a step back from that in order to reveal all of the awesome
things going on online and the ways you might engage. I truly enjoy the process of turning skeptics
into something other than skeptics – I might not change them into believers,
but they will at least be surprised and interested onlookers.
Liz Neeley's Favorite Focaccia
INGREDIENTS:
Scant 4 cups
white bread flour
1 tablespoon
salt
Scant 1/2
cup olive oil
1 packet of
active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm
water
Favorite
olives, roughly chopped if you prefer
Handful of
fresh basil
TIME:
Start this
mid-afternoon (between 3 and 4 hours before you want to eat it, depending on
how fast you are in the kitchen)
RECIPE:
1. In a large bowl, combine the flour and
salt with 1Ž4 cup of the olive oil, the yeast & the water. Mix with your
hands for about 3 minutes.
2. Lightly dust your countertop with flour
and knead your dough for 6 minutes. Enjoy your arm workout and stress relief
exercise!
3. The dough will be pretty sticky. Put it
back in the bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let stand at room temperature
for 2 hours.
4. Mix 1Ž2 or more of your olives and all the
basil into the dough, and try to get them evenly distributed. It won't be
perfect, but it will be delicious.
5. Dump the dough onto a lined baking sheet.
Flatten it with your hands until it's a big rectangle about 1"/2.5cm
thick. Slather with olive oil. Let rise for 1 hour.
6. Preheat your oven to 425°F/220°C
7. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and drizzle
with more olive oil if you want. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.
8. Make your neighbors jealous with the
amazing smell of baked bread wafting from your house.
9. Enjoy!