Plucky Ladies

I chat with Emilia Caylor, a graduate student in geosciences at the University of Arizona, about being a young woman pursuing a career in STEM, growing up in a large family in Texas, and following your passions!

I chat with Dr. Faten Ghosn, associate professor of practice in the School of Government and Public Policy at UArizona. We talk about her journey from growing up during a civil war in the middle east to working on issues of conflict management as an educator and researcher here in the United States. In 2020, undergraduate students selected her as a Five Star Faculty for her excellence in teaching, mentoring, and research.

I talk with Dr. Maha Nassar, an associate professor in the school of Middle Eastern and North African studies at UArizona, about Palestine, the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, being Palestinian in the U.S., and the wonderfully diverse and complex Arab world. Dr. Nassar won the 2018 Palestine Book Award for her book entitled Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World, and is hard at work on a second book.

I chat with Dr. Netzin Steklis, an Associate Professor of Practice in the School of Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the University of Arizona. She has studied a variety of nonhuman primates in captive and wild settings, in particular the ecology, social behavior and conservation of wild mountain gorillas in Rwanda. For 10 years she also served as the Director of Scientific Information Resources for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Her higher education reflects her multidisciplinary interests in human and non-human animal behavior: She holds a B.A. in Anthropology (Biology emphasis) from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in Ethology & Evolutionary Psychology from University of Arizona.

Dr. Amanda Kraus is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the College of Education at UArizona studying educational policy and practice. She is also the Executive Director for Disability Resources (one of the largest in the nation), and the Assistant Vice President for Campus Life. We talk about her personal journey as a woman with a disability, framing disability on college campuses and beyond, and how we all can use inclusive teaching strategies such as universal design to better the learning experience for all students, not just those with disabilities.

Dr. Guada Lozano is an associate research professor of mathematics and director of CUES (Center for University Education Scholarship) at University of Arizona. Born and raised in Argentina, her path to mathematics was circuitous, influenced by curiosity and experimentation. She talks about the creativity of math, why she loves mathematics, the stereotype of math being hard, and her work on equity for LatinX students in STEM.

Dr. Melody Buckner is the associate vice provost of digital learning initiatives and online education at UArizona. We talk about her circuitous path to this career from being an animator, learning to code, hiking a national park for a year, and living in over 40 different places all over the world before settling down in Tucson, AZ. With remote learning becoming part of our new normal, her passion for quality online education is what we need right now!

Dr. Joela Jacobs is an assistant professor of German studies and an award winning teacher. We talk about her fascination with the grotesque as a genre of writing, how plant reproduction has been thought to threaten morality, and what it means to be alive.

Dr. Ananya Mallik joins me to discuss finding her curiosity for geosciences as a child in India, her journey to the United States, and being an experimental petrologist who simulates the conditions of the deep earth in her laboratory.

Dr. Joellen Russell talks about growing up in rural Alaska and dreaming of studying the oceans from a young age. She is an oceanographer and professor of biogeochemical dynamics in the department of geosciences at the University of Arizona, where she is also the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Integrative Science.

Dr. Barbara Carrapa talks about growing up in Italy, being educated in Europe, and her life-long love of mountains. She is a geologist and the department chair at the University of Arizona in the department of geosciences.

Dr. Jamie Edgin is an associate professor studying cognition and neural systems in the department of psychology at the University of Arizona. Her research includes studying how sleep influences memory and learning in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as down syndrome and autism. In this episode, we talk about how she went from aspiring musician to woman scientist, and why sleep is such an important part of human cognitive health.

Renee Angle is a writer/poet whose work is thought provoking, lyrical, and edgy. We met when we were both teaching at the same charter school - her, English Language Arts, me, Math and Science. Our paths crossed again at U of A, and I am so thrilled to have had this chance to catch up. Her book, WoO - her creative translation of the first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon - is available on Amazon.

Dr. Tammi Walker is a former lawyer who left her D.C. job to get a PhD in psychology. She is a professor in both the law and psychology departments at the University of Arizona, where she studies how universities and colleges handle sexual assault accusations.

Nikolas Glazier Hodge is the director of the Transfer Student Center at the University of Arizona, and is dedicated to fostering healthy and productive transitions for transfer students. She is a self-made techie, applying her skills of organization and management in unique ways throughout her career. She is also involved in several groups who advocate for women, both on campus and in the Tucson community.

I chat with Molly McCloy, a writer and performer who holds an MFA in nonfiction from the New School. Molly is a four-time Moth StorySlam winner, creator/performer of a one woman show, and a frequent storyteller at FST (Female Storytellers) and Odyssey in Tucson, AZ.

Dr. Diane Thompson is a marine geoscientist who uses coral reefs to study climate change and the affects of global warming on ocean ecosystems. We talk about how she fell in love with coral reefs, how corals reproduce, her reef restoration experiments at Biosphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona, and being married to a fellow scientist!

Wendy Moore is an entomologist who studies beetles, in particular, beetles that shoot super-heated chemicals out of their butts! She is an associate professor of entomology at the University of Arizona, and insect systematics curator of the Arizona Insect Collection. Learn more at https://cals.arizona.edu/ento/content/wendy-moore

In this episode, I sit down with Melo Dominguez, a Tucson artist who was inspired by graffiti art and cartoons as a child growing up in a rough neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Mel's difficult childhood didn't stop her from pursuing her dream of being an artist. We talk about her struggles, successes, her connection to her community, and how she brings joy to everything she does. Check out her work and learn about her gallery, Galeria Mitotera, at melodominguez.com. Mel created the logo for this podcast - thanks Mel!