What traits do you think people need to be good science educators?

I think you need to be a good communicator. You need to create a space where everyone feels comfortable to be curious and ask questions because science is hard to understand. You need people to feel okay with not understanding it and then letting you know, what they do understand and what they don't understand. I think you need to have a good balance of presenting information in an “unprofessional” way and really getting into the science, but then also framing it in a way that makes people feel like they can approach it and feel like they can approach you.

It’s people skills and communication skills. It's a lot of consideration. You have to be really considerate of a lot of people’s different circumstances and backgrounds. It’s preemptive thinking, a lot of expecting the unexpected. Before every single colloquium session we present, Tullaia and I always say “Okay, what's the worst-case scenario?” We want to think, “Okay, what could go horribly wrong, what are we missing?”

Have you seen an intersection between hope and science education or hope and science literacy?

Susan has this motto “Science does not operate in a vacuum.” ... I feel like that's kind of our team motto and I am trying to incorporate that into everything that I do. And I think that if you truly put that into practice and understand all the surrounding circumstances surrounding what you're trying to communicate, then you can actually reach an audience. If you're just operating in your own little science bubble, of course, there's going to be miscommunications and lack of interest and lack of care. I'm hopeful that now the science community is starting to see where they fit in to a broader context and use that awareness to communicate the science. With us at Tyson, we're doing that in a small little Tyson bubble community, but if we're able to do that successfully this summer, maybe that, you know, inspires bigger applications.