Program Faculty

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Brooke Borel (she/her)

Brooke an award-winning science journalist whose writing has appeared at Popular Science, BuzzFeed News, the Guardian, Scientific American, Nature, Science, FiveThirtyEight, among others, and has also been anthologized in the 2017 book “What Future.” Her own books include “Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World” and “The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking.” She is currently the articles editor at Undark and co-hosts the magazine's podcast, Entanglements.  Brooke teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand.  This is Brooke's second year with Citizen Science.

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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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Lily Rubino (she/her)

Lily’s PhD thesis explores the social, political and economic dimensions of water contamination in the City of Newburgh, New York. Her study investigates the political and economic causes of PFAS contamination, residents’ embodied experiences of toxic exposure, and the community’s ongoing struggle for accountability, restoration, and repair.
Lily’s broader research agenda seeks to interrogate the widespread imaginary of universal water access in the Global North – particularly in the United States, where economic, political, and environmental factors continue to shape water insecurity across the country. Prior to her PhD, Lily spent much of her career in the international development sector, researching household water access in the Amazon in partnership with Cruz Roja Colombiana and working at WaterAid, a non-profit dedicated to increasing access to water, sanitation and hygiene around the world. Lily received her MSc in Anthropology, Environment and Development from University College London and her B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Science from the College of William and Mary. Lily will utilize her research on PFAS contamination of the City of Newburgh’s drinking water in the Science Communication for Public Action strand to exemplify the role of science in the struggle for environmental justice in the Hudson Valley. Lily is excited to join Bard’s Citizen Science department and encourages students interested in gaining experience conducting social science research to reach out. 
Lily teaches in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand. 2025-26 is her first year with Citizen Science.

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Amy Smith (she/her)

Thus, her work also focuses on the potential for life on Mars, Europa, Enceladus, and other Ocean Worlds in our Solar System. Amy has also explored deep-sea hydrothermal vents, marine and terrestrial aquifers, volcanic environments, caves, and cultures extreme microbes on minerals in the laboratory.
Amy received her Masters in Biology from Portland State University in 2011 and her PhD in Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences from Oregon State University in 2018. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA, and worked at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Bard College at Simon's Rock prior to joining Bard College as a Visiting Faculty member of Citizen Science. Amy teaches in both the Environmental Water Lab and in the Science Communication for Public Action Strand. 2025-26 is her first year with the program.

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Mike Tibbetts (he/him)

Mike Tibbetts came to Bard College’s Annandale Campus in 1992 as an Associate Professor of Biology. In his 32 years at Annandale his primary teaching responsibilities have been in courses relating to Genetics, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology. In addition, he has team-taught courses in: Bioethics, Biophysics, and The Environment and Disease.
Mike taught his first class for the Bard Prison Initiative in 2004, Human Genetics. Since then, he has offered courses to BPI students at every level of the biology curriculum, across 5 correctional facilities.
With a colleague from the Annandale campus, Mike has designed two tracks for BPI students who are interested in biology, a concentration and a second focus (minor). In addition, he offers courses for students interested in BPI’s Public Health Certificate program.
Mike was also involved in developing the most recent curriculum for Bard’s Citizen Science course. This is an intensive course focused on providing tools for citizens to engage with science. It is a graduation requirement for all Bard students, including BPI students. He regularly teaches the course, which for BPI students, currently focuses on Infectious Disease.