Program Faculty

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Andrew K. Atwell (he/him)

Andrew is broadly interested in moral imagination in its relation to political theology, political economy, and traditions of critical reflectivity. Additionally, he received doctoral training and an MA in physics at the University of Virginia where he worked on the CMS Experiment’s search for supersymmetric decay modes and dark matter candidates at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. He also worked on measurements of the neutron spin structure at Jefferson Lab and simulations of the lively "empty" state of our theory of the strong nuclear force (QCD). This combination of social and physical scientific scholarship drives a particular interest in how styles of reasoning, habits of imagining, and political economic and theological conditions influence our encounter with scientific results and arguments, as well as vice versa. Andrew teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.

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Georgia Doing '15 (she/her)

After graduating from Bard (’15) with a joint major in Biology and Computer Science she found a harmony of the two disciplines in her PhD work at Dartmouth College using machine learning approaches to analyze gene expression in in opportunistic pathogens. As a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Julia Oh at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine she is now studying the skin microbiome and the pathobiont Staphylococcus epidermidis, identifying patterns in large compendia of data and testing molecular mechanisms in the laboratory. Much of her work relies on public, previously published datasets and she is passionate about data availability and open-source design. She believes there are no limits on the number of times a dataset should be interrogated or the number of minds by whom it should be re-analyzed. This is Georgia's third time teaching Citizen Science. Georgia teaches in the Environmental Water Lab Strand.
 

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Kate Fenn '07 (she/her)

Kate Fenn is truly honored to be joining the Citizen Science faculty in the fall. After obtaining a B.S. in Biology from Siena College, Kate worked in research at the Center for Cell Biology and Cancer Research at Albany Medical College. It was there that she discovered her love of teaching and learning, specifically in the laboratory sciences. Today, Kate is an accomplished science educator with over 18 years of experience. She has a vast array of teaching experiences to which she brings to the classroom, particularly ones centered within the Hudson Valley, such as stream ecology. She is a patient and reliable educator who values equity, diversity and inclusivity. She prioritizes student academic growth and achievement as well as social and emotional well-being. She excels at curriculum design and implementation with an innovative, creative and reflective lens. She promotes excellence in learning while ensuring every student is safe, engaged, supported and challenged. When Kate isn’t teaching, she enjoys being with her husband, three boys, and a variety of pets. Kate teaches in the Environmental Water Lab Strand.

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Kate Huffer (they/them)

Kate grew up in Green Bay, WI before majoring in Neuroscience and Biological Chemistry at Dartmouth College. They then earned their PhD in Biology from the National Institutes of Health-Johns Hopkins Graduate Partnerships Program, where they studied sensory ion channels in in the lab of Kenton Swartz, PhD, at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, MD. Kate is particularly interested in what the structure of an ion channel can tell us about how it works and which drugs it might be sensitive to. They enjoy knitting, spinning yarn, and biking.

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Scott Kellogg (he/him)

Scott is the Educational Director of the Radix Center, an urban ecological literacy and just sustainabilities non-profit in Albany where he engages local youth in food sovereignty, street tree planting, and water justice issues. In addition to Cit Sci, Scott also teaches in Bard's Masters in Environmental Education program. Scott teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.

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Deborah Keszenman (she/her)

Deborah Keszenman earned her MD from the Universidad de la Republica’s School of Medicine in Montevideo, Uruguay. Following her curiosity and desire of exploration of new areas, at an early stage of her medical studies she joined the Biophysics Department at the Medical School and started to do research in the area of DNA damage and repair. While working as a physician and teaching Biophysics at the Medical School, Deborah earned a MS and then a PhD in Biophysics in the area of Radiation Biology from the Universidad de la Republica–PEDECIBA. Deborah worked researching and teaching Biophysics at the Universidad de la Republica for more than 30 years, beginning as an honorary lecturer. She is a research member of the Project for Development of Basic Sciences PEDECIBA, Uruguay. In 2005, Deborah and her family moved to the United States where she continued her scientific career at the Biosciences Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and in 2006 she became a Beam Line Scientist of the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL). In 2015, Dr. Keszenman returned to Uruguay to join the Group of Biophysical Chemistry as Professor of Biophysics at CENUR Litoral Norte in Salto, and to be in charge of the Environmental and Medical Radiation Biology Laboratory. Her scientific research is focused towards problems of radiation biology with potential application in clinical Medicine and with impact on the human-environment interaction. Deborah has specialized in the study of genomic responses to nitro-oxidative stress induced by UV, ionizing radiation, anticarcinogenic agents and pesticides at the molecular and cellular levels. Her research group is also studying the role of natural products on protective and adaptive responses to genomic damage induced by physical and chemical agents present in the environment. Her group is actively involved in the transference of all this basic knowledge to society to empower a sustainable development. Debrorah teachers in the Environmental Water Lab Strand.

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Jonathan Lambert (he/him)

He studies and works within the realms of paleoclimate (past climate) and modern climate solutions (specifically geochemical carbon dioxide removal). He received his bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in 2014 where he reconstructed hurricane landfalls over the last 500 years in a field known as "paleotempestology." Jonathan has been in New York for 10 years now though - receiving an M.A. in Climate and Society from Columbia in 2015 and eventually a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Science from Columbia in 2022. At Columbia, Jonathan reconstructed the last 1.5 Million years of ocean conditions in the warmest part of the global ocean - the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool - using both sediments and fossil plankton (foraminifera) and a combination of proxies for temperature, salinity, and nutrients. Jonathan has also held positions and done research in the fields of climate smart agriculture, marine conservation, and geochemical carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Currently, he splits his time between consulting for nonprofits in the emerging geochemical CDR space and teaching at liberal arts colleges around NYC. Last year, he taught "Ocean Based Climate Solutions" at Vassar College, and alongside Bard he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Barnard College in the Environmental Science Senior Seminar. Jonathan teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action  Strand.

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Beate Liepert (she/her)

Dr. Liepert is a climate scientist who pioneered research on the phenomenon of “global dimming,” a decline in the amount of sun reaching the Earth’s surface, which has implications on the planet’s water and carbon cycles. She comes to Bard from the Seattle area, where she worked for and founded start-ups in the clean tech and insure tech fields, and was a lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Seattle University. This is her first time teaching Citizen Science. For more information on Beate see read her faculty page here. Beate teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.

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Jamal Davis Neal, Jr. (he/ they)

Jamal's last formal foray into the scientific world was during their time in undergrad at the University of Vermont, where they graduated with a B.S. in Neuroscience in 2019. While the work he does now is not necessarily related to the hard sciences, he is encouraged by Citizen Science's goal of highlighting scientific literacy skills as central to being a good citizen, in interconnected relationship with one another and with our planet. When you meet them, feel free to ask them more about their switch from the field of hard sciences to the social science disciplines--they promise they have a story to tell you. (He would also love to hear your life narrative as well!) January 2024 was their first time teaching at Bard and teaching Citizen Science and they are looking forward to continuing to teach in the program during the school year after meeting this incoming class during Language & Thinking this August.  Jamal teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.

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Daniel Newsome ’02 (he/him)

Daniel's Ph.D. is in the History of Science specializing in medieval natural philosophy and mathematics. He currently teaches for the Mathematics Department, the Science Division, the Citizen Science and L&T programs, and the Bard Prison Initiative.

In addition to Citizen Science, he also teaches courses on medieval Islamic natural philosophy, modern and medieval mathematics, the Scientific Revolution, evolution, and most recently he has developed a laboratory course reproducing scientific experiments and technologies from the past. Daniel strives to bring his art and craft skills into whatever class he teaches. Daniel teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.
 

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Yakira Teitel (she/her)

Yakira's path to medicine and public health has been winding and untraditional. She has lived and worked in Mexico, Central America and Peru; taught in after school programs and high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area; and led community mural projects in all of these places. Yakira received her MD from the University of California San Francisco and her MPH from Columbia University in New York. She trained in Family and Community Medicine at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital and then worked for the Department of Public Health in San Francisco doing primary care, HIV care and adolescent medicine before moving to the Hudson Valley in 2021 and starting at Bard in 2022. Yakira teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.

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Trish Tomaseski (she/her)

Trish will be joining the Citizen Science faculty for the first time this fall. She considers this a great opportunity and the next step in her life as a retired educator. Trish is a lifelong resident of the Hudson Valley and received her Bachelors of Science in Biology from Marist College and later her Masters in Biology at the State University at New Paltz. Trish began her career as an educator at Red Hook High School teaching regents and general Biology. She then moved on to establish her career at Millbrook High School teaching a variety of courses throughout her 32 year career. She taught middle school science, Regents Living Environment, DCC college level Biology and International Baccalaureate Biology. After retiring, Trish began substitute teaching at Rhinebeck High School and later accepted a leave replacement in Biology. This reignited her love of teaching and interacting with her students.Trish has a passion for science, especially Biology, and considers being an educator as part of who she is. She is excited to be a faculty member of the Citizen Science program and looks forward to the many rewards and challenges this new journey will present. In her free time, Trish can be seen walking on local trails, in the gym, or sitting outside trying new foods at local restaurants. She has two children and a husband that teaches culinary arts. Trish teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.

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Emily White (she/her)

Emily received her B.S. in Chemistry and Environmental Studies from Tufts University, her M.S. in Environmental Science from The Ohio State University, and her Ph.D. in Environmental Chemistry from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. While at SUNY-ESF, she received a NASA Earth System Science fellowship to investigate estuarine biogeochemistry and carbon cycling. Emily has participated in several oceanographic research cruises and spent a month on an Antarctic icebreaker. As a postdoctoral scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Emily studied recreational beach water quality. Before coming to Bard, she taught introductory and environmental chemistry at Sewanee: The University of the South and conducted research on the occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in treated wastewater. At Bard, Emily has taught courses on drinking water treatment, methods of environmental analysis, environmental monitoring, climate change, and introductory chemistry. She is the Associate Director of the Ecology Field Station and a Research Associate in the Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing. Emily is involved in efforts to monitor water quality in the Saw Kill and is working with the Office of Sustainability on the Annandale Dam Micro-Hydropower Project. Emily teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.