Liz Neeley

Liz Neeley is a science communicator and the Executive Director of The Story Collider, a nonprofit organization that focuses on true, personal stories inspired by science. She began her career in marine biology and conservation and has since become an expert in the use of narrative storytelling for effective science communication.

Liz Neeley
Alma materUniversity of Maryland, BA, 2002
Boston University, MA, 2005
OccupationExecutive Director, The Story Collider
Lecturer, Yale School of Medicine
EmployerSeaWeb, 2005 – 2008
COMPASS, 2008 – 2015
The Story Collider, 2015 – present
Known forScience Communication, Marine Conservation
Spouse(s)Ed Yong
WebsiteWebsite

Education and early career

Neeley received her Bachelor of Arts in Marine Biology in 2002. She then completed her Master's degree at Boston University in Ecology and Evolution in 2005. Her graduate research centered on the evolution of color patterns and visual communication systems in tropical reef fishes—wrasses and parrotfish—in the laboratory of Gil Rosenthal.[1]

Following graduate school, she began a career in marine conservation, applying her general subject matter knowledge to science advocacy. She began working at SeaWeb, a communications-based nonprofit organization committed to promoting understanding around ocean and conservation science to a host of stakeholders—from decision makers to community leaders to the media. By strategically communicating to these groups, SeaWeb worked to foster the development of measures to protect the ocean. From 2005 to 2006, Neeley worked with SeaWeb's Asia Pacific Program, partnering with local communities and researchers in Fiji and Papua New Guinea to build communications capacity for them to share their knowledge of local coral reefs ecosystems with the local media.[2] In 2006, she transitioned to the role of Program Manager at SeaWeb, where she helped launch the "Too Precious to Wear" campaign, partnering with the fashion industry to raise awareness around the toll of dredging deep sea coral. The campaign sought to impose limits on coral use in fashion, design, and home decor through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.[3][4]

Science communication career

Following her tenure at SeaWeb, Neeley focused her career more on efforts around science communication, training scientists on how best to share their knowledge of science with a range of stakeholders. She has served as a contributing author on a range of books on science communication. She wrote a section on utilizing social media to promote a scientist's work for Science Blogging: The Essential Guide and contributed a chapter on communicating controversial topics in science on social media in Effective Risk Communication. She also co-authored Escape from the Ivory Tower: a guide to making your science matter during her time at the nonprofit COMPASS.[5][6][7]

Neeley has lent her expertise to a number of groups centered on communicating science to the public, previously serving on the advisory board of the CommLab at MIT from 2015 to 2017 and on the Advisory Council of Ensia magazine.[8] She also holds a Lecturer appointment at Yale School of Medicine in conjunction with the National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative.[9]

COMPASS

In 2008, Neeley joined COMPASS, a nonprofit organization co-founded by marine ecologist and former NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco to train scientists to more effectively share their expertise with journalists, decision makers, and the public at large.[10] There, Neeley served as the Assistant Director of Science Outreach, working to develop their training programs in science communication and connecting scientists to public conversations around their expertise.[11][12] She also launched COMPASS's training programs around how scientists can more effectively utilize social media to share their work and engage with a broader audience.[13][14] During her tenure at COMPASS, she was affiliate staff at the University of Washington in the School of Aquatic & Fisheries Sciences.[13]

The Story Collider

In 2015, Neeley became the executive director of The Story Collider, a nonprofit organization that brings personal stories inspired by science to the public through live shows and a weekly podcast. The organization also trains scientists on how to employ the tools of storytelling to become better communicators.[15][16] In this role, she's also spearheaded efforts in applying storytelling to more traditionally academic forms of communication, curating a collection of "Conservation stories from the front lines" for PLOS Biology.[17] She has spoken about the importance of storytelling for science at a number of universities and organizations, including the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Washington College of the Environment's Bevan Series, Yale University, and at Northwestern University.[18][19][20][21] In the policy arena, she has contributed a position paper on the use of narrative persuasion to help scientists ethically navigate the world of decision making at the Institute on Science for Global Policy in partnership with Sigma Xi.[22]

Neeley has also told stories of her own for The Story Collider, including a story about a field expedition gone awry during her time as an undergraduate and another about her colleagues forgetting her while working on coral conservation in Fiji.[23][24]

Personal life

Neeley is married to Ed Yong, science journalist at The Atlantic.[25][26] They occasionally collaborate on speaking engagements.[21][25]

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References
  1. symisun.com, SymiSun* -. "People - Rosenthal Lab - Mate Choice and Evolutionary Genetics". swordtail.tamu.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  2. Communications Trainings to Enhance Marine Protected Area Network Development and Effectiveness in Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PDF) (Report). 2009.
  3. "Sea lovers say coral is too precious to wear". today.com. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  4. "Corals in the Red –.The State of Corals and Recommendations for Recovery". docplayer.net. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  5. Wilcox, Christie; Brookshire, Bethany; Goldman, Jason G (2016). Science blogging: the essential guide. ISBN 978-0300197556. OCLC 920017519.
  6. Joseph Arvai; Louie Rivers III, eds. (2013-10-30). "Risk communication in social media". Effective Risk Communication. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9780203109861-17 (inactive 2020-01-22). ISBN 9780203109861.
  7. Baron, Nancy; Neeley, Liz (2010). Escape from the ivory tower: a guide to making your science matter. Washington: Island Press. ISBN 9781597266635. OCLC 699823828.
  8. "National Environmental Monitoring Conference - NEMC". www.nemc.us. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  9. "Elizabeth Neeley > People and Organizations at YSM | Yale School of Medicine". medicine.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  10. "COMPASS | Our Mission & History". COMPASS | USA | Science Communication. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  11. Smith, Brooke; Baron, Nancy; English, Chad; Galindo, Heather; Goldman, Erica; McLeod, Karen; Miner, Meghan; Neeley, Elizabeth (2013-04-30). "COMPASS: Navigating the Rules of Scientific Engagement". PLoS Biology. 11 (4): e1001552. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001552. ISSN 1544-9173. PMC 3640098. PMID 23637575.
  12. "Science Communication at a Tipping Point : Soapbox Science". blogs.nature.com. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  13. McClain, Craig; Neeley, Liz (2014). "A critical evaluation of science outreach via social media: its role and impact on scientists". F1000Research. 3: 300. doi:10.12688/f1000research.5918.2. ISSN 2046-1402. PMC 4376169. PMID 25866620.
  14. "Assembling (Science) Networks Online | COMPASS | USA | Science Communication". COMPASS | USA | Science Communication. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  15. Locker, Melissa (2015-12-06). "Listen to this: Story Collider reveals the human stories behind the science". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  16. "About us". The Story Collider. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  17. Gross, Liza; Hettinger, Annaliese; Moore, Jonathan W.; Neeley, Liz (February 2018). "Conservation stories from the front lines". PLoS Biology. 16 (2): e2005226. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2005226. ISSN 1545-7885. PMC 5798755. PMID 29401208.
  18. BeckmanInstitute (2017-10-27), "The Power of Personal Stories About Science" - Story Collider's Liz Neeley (Lecture), retrieved 2018-07-31
  19. "Bevan Series 2018: Liz Neeley". Washington Sea Grant. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  20. "Science, Sense-making, and Storytelling: The Graduate School - Northwestern University". www.tgs.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  21. Shelton, Jim (2019-09-25). "Neeley and Yong extol the power of narrative in science writing". YaleNews. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  22. Neeley, Liz (August 2015). "Training in Narrative Persuasion for Ethical, Effective Science Communication". Communicating Science for Policy (PDF) (Report). Institute on Science for Global Policy (ISGP). pp. 23–33. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  23. "In the Field: Stories about venturing into the wild". The Story Collider. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  24. "Invisibility: Stories about hiding in plain sight". The Story Collider. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  25. "The Atlantic's Ed Yong visits UW as fall science writer in residence". news.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  26. "Liz Neeley on Instagram: "This guy... AND #elephants!!! . . . . #zimbabwe #waterhole #honeymoon #victoriafalls #nofilter"". Instagram. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
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