Program Faculty

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Sasha Adkins (they/them)

Sasha Adkins has been teaching environmental health at Loyola University Chicago's School of Environmental Sustainability. Among the classes they teach are "Gender, Health, and the Environment," "Climate Change and Human Health," "Global Health," and "Plastics: A Planetary Health Perspective." Sasha is the author of "From Disposable Culture to Disposable People: The Unintended Consequences of Plastics" and several book chapters, including "Plastics and Eco-Fascism in the Age of COVID." Their work is at the intersection of social and ecological determinants of health-- in other words, how do we transform the injustice in society that has led to climate change, species extinctions, and toxification. In the classroom, Sasha draws on experiential teaching methods including Theater of the Oppressed games.

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Evguenia Alechine (she/her)

Evguenia Alechine holds a degree in biochemistry, a master in biomedical science and a PhD in human genetics from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2015, she is actively working in the field of science communication and medical writing with particular interest in natural health and environmental sustainability and bringing scientific knowledge to a lay audience. Evguenia is really passionate about teaching science communication. She’s an active member of the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA), the chair of the Getting into Medical Writing group, co-editor of the Medical Writing journal, and faculty member of Homeward Bound, a year-long program for women in STEMM working towards a better leadership for a greater good in the pressing times of climate change, and a strong advocate for science communication in Latin America. This is Evguenia's second year teaching Citizen Science.

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Nick Avossa

Nick (a.k.a. Mr. Avossa) taught a variety and levels of life science, including AP, College Biology and Forensic Science. Nick is also a member of the SUNY Ulster Collegian Program. Over the years he has conducted ecological expeditions with his students to Belize and Costa Rica, as well as numerous local sites. In addition to his work in science education, Nick also has been extensively involved in the performing arts, serving as director of the KHS Theatre as well as marching director/drill designer for the KHS Marching Band. He remains involved in the world of Drum and Bugle Corps as the show announcer for Drum Corps Associates. After retiring from teaching high school in 2020, Nick and his wife Carol moved to the quiet Florida Panhandle where he manages a local brewery and stays involved in community theatre.

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Dan Bliss

Dan completed his postdoc at NYU. He studies how humans make perceptual judgments and builds theoretical models of the cerebral cortex. Dan has taught in the Department of Natural Sciences at Fordham and in the Cognitive Science Department at Vassar. His interests span experimental science, mathematical modeling, and philosophy of mind. This is Dan’s second year teaching Citizen Science.
 

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Melanie Bolden (she/her)

Originally from New Orleans, Melanie earned a BS in Biology from the University of Arkansas and an MPH from SUNY-Albany. She is currently earning her DrPH at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Pubic Health. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mozambique, focusing on Malaria prevention and HIV/AIDS community work. Her current research interests focus around assessing and mitigating environmental hazards in vulnerable communities. Melanie enjoys distance running and spending time with her two little doggy daughters, Missyanne and Alfie.

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Lindy Brastrom (she/her)

Her current research is split between cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease where a buildup of mucus causes respiratory distress and infection, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a condition that develops as a result of postnatal respiratory therapies. Lindy also engages with her community as a board member on the University of Michigan's Postdoctoral Association and as an instructor for Developing Future Biologists which is a program at the University of Michigan that allows underrepresented students hands-on experience with developmental biology. Outside of lab, Lindy loves being outdoors, expressing her creativity through crocheting and glassblowing, and spending time with her husband and pet rabbit.

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Iain Caldwell (he/him)

Iain grew up in Canada where he completed his BSc (Mount Allison University), MSc (Dalhousie University), and a PhD focused on “Habitat use, movement, and vulnerability of sedentary fishes in a dynamic world” (The University of British Columbia). He then spent several years as a postdoctoral researcher with the University of Hawaii, University of California Santa Barbara, and Stanford University. Most recently he has been a Research Associate at James Cook University in Australia focused on quantitative social-ecological systems. During his postdoctoral work Iain also became interested in scientific teaching and active learning approaches. Outside of academia, Iain enjoys cooking, hiking, and SCUBA diving.

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Margo Davis (she/her)

Margo Davis has focused her career on supporting the integration of sound science into decision making. In her current role as a contractor to the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office, she conducts technical and data reviews to help ensure the quality of material being used in decision-making. Previously, as a Project Manager with the Great Lakes Commission, she worked with state and provincial partners to align science and policy in the Great Lakes basin.

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Alicia Denning (she/her)

Alicia has worked as an environmental engineer for EPA’s Office of Water since July 2020. She has focused primarily on EPA’s Multi-Sector General Permit for industrial stormwater in the NPDES stormwater program. Prior to joining EPA's Office of Water, Alicia worked in EPA's Office of Pesticide Program in the Antimicrobial Division as a Human Health Risk Assessor. Alicia also served for two years as a Technology Transfer and Engineering Specialist in Peace Corps Mexico after having worked in the Oil and Gas fields in Texas and Oklahoma for three years. Alicia holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Auburn University.  She will be co-teaching with Amy Loewenhaar-Blauweiss.

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Cathleen Doherty (she/her)

After her Ph.D., she held a joint position as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a Columbia Science Teaching Fellow in the Frontiers of Science Program at Columbia University. Since joining Rutgers, she serves as a Laboratory Director and Research Mentor to undergraduate and graduate students in environmental exposure, toxicology, analytical chemistry, and environmental geology. She also teaches as part-time Lecturer in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers. Her research interests span scales of both time and space, from preset-day surface processes related to environmental contamination, to ancient deep-Earth processes related to differentiation of Earth’s reservoirs. Her work employs field and laboratory techniques using isotope geochemistry, in-situ chemical analysis, and mass spectrometry to answer questions related to chemical cycling, biomarkers of human heavy metal exposure, global climate change, and the evolution of Earth’s mantle. Most recently, her research aims to address emerging questions at the intersection of environmental exposure and public health, with a focus on environmental justice. Her broad research interests are motivated by the adaptability of geochemistry to various Earth systems, and the development of novel techniques to assess environmental exposure and human health in at-risk populations. Cathleen is also deeply passionate about science education, and seeks opportunities to establish relationships between universities and K-12 schools to provide research and training opportunities for both teachers and their students. Her laboratory is also committed to supporting an equitable and diverse scientific community, and aims to foster an inclusive environment where all people feel safe, valued, and respected.

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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 second time teaching Citizen Science.
 

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Marina Alejandra González Besteiro

Marina received a M.S. in Biotechnology from University of San Martín, in Argentina, and earned a PhD in plant molecular biology from University of Freiburg, in Germany, followed by 7 years at Fundación Instituto Leloir in Buenos Aires, Argentina, first as a post-doctoral fellow and then as a CONICET Research Scientist. During that time at Fundación Instituto Leloir, Marina's research focused on DNA replication errors that drive genomic instability in cancer cells.

Marina is an educator on a mission to help people develop critical thinking and become aware of their power to independently interpret and transform the world. Marina teaches Molecular Biology and Genetics at Favaloro University (Buenos Aires). In addition, Marina is a popular educator at Miguelito Pepe teaching mathematics and chemistry to marginalized high school students. Marina translates scientific data into blog articles and social media content to help non-scientists reduce their environmental impact and their exposure to environmental toxins through cosmetics.
 

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Deborah Keszenman

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. 

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Sarah Y. Kim (she/her)

Sarah earned her B.A. in Chemistry and Biology at Cornell University, and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. Her research for the past decade has focused on designing amphipathic peptides and protein polymers for biomedical applications. In her free time, she enjoys backpacking, caring for cats with special needs, and teaching English as a Second Language to immigrants in her local community.

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Deborah A. Kravchuk (she/her)

Deborah is the co-founder of Girls Rock STEM, an educational program for underrepresented female middle school students in the STEM Fields. She was named to the inaugural class of Master Teachers by the State of New York, is the recipient of the 2009 Science Teachers Association of New York (STANYS-SE) Earth Science Teacher of the Year, a 2015 finalist for New York State Teacher-of-the-Year. She has participated as a Teacher Fellow for the Mid-Hudson Young Environmental Science (MH-YES)Program And TeachNY Advisory Council. Deborah is a Regeneron STEM Teaching Fellow, National Science Foundation Fellow in Climate Change, National Geographic Certified Educator and has received multiple research grants from the National Science Foundation, the College Board, the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences, the National Urban Alliance, and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. As an educator, she has presented at multiple conferences on Diversity and Equity in STEM Education, including; the National Differentiated Conference, National Science Teachers Association(NSTA) Conference and at the New York University (NYU) Steinhardt TAC-D Sumer Institute. She has been an adjunct member of the Bard College MAT Faculty since 2015 as well as being an adjunct in the MAT Program at SUNY Empire State College. Deborah is currently member of the SUNY Maritime College Council. This is her second year teaching Citizen Science.

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Liz Landis (she/her)

Liz has extensive experience in teaching and science outreach in academia, museum education and community science. During her PhD, she collaborated with home bakers from around the world to sequence the microbial DNA in their sourdough starters and create a global atlas of sourdough biodiversity. She holds a B.S. in biology, an M.S. in microbiology, and a PhD in biology from Tufts University, where she also conducted research in teaching biology to undergraduates.

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Sonny Lee (he/him)

After receiving his PhD in environmental science from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago Medicine. Sonny’s research has always been centered around understanding the interaction between the microbiome and its hosts, and how it is affected by the environment. His research extends from model systems in the ocean to terrestrial, and from human gut to plants. He investigates shifts in the coral microbiome as a result of climate change, and its impact on the coral host. He is also working on understanding the human immune system and its response to diseases, and how it can be mediated by the gut microbiome. Besides coral and human, Sonny is also keen to understand the influence of severe climate changes on the interaction between the plant host and its microbiome. He uses both laboratory work to investigate the mechanistic explanation of microbe-host cross talk and bioinformatics to analyze huge OMICs datasets. Sonny is always eager to share his experience and knowledge with others, and enjoys the opportunity to make science more approachable. During his free time you can find Sonny scuba diving and discovering the wonders of the underwater world, or trail running in the woods.

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Amber M. Lively (she/her)

Amber studied Political Science at the University of Iowa before pursuing an Interdisciplinary Sciences B.S. from South Dakota State University. Here, she completed an undergraduate capstone focused on communicating changes in land use and land change using geographical information systems (GIS). Amber went on to pursue a Master of Science in Environmental Science and completed a sustainability residency in Costa Rica. In addition to using her position as a Watershed Project Specialist to educate the public on water issues, Amber serves on the Board of Directors for a local nonprofit focused on public watershed conservation engagement.

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Amy Loewenhaar-Blauweiss (she/her)

Amy has an extensive list of certifications and degrees in psychology-based fields from such schools as the New School for Social Research and the Wright Institute. She worked abroad in the Ann Freud Center in London, England, and has been involved with the Karen Horney Clinic (2020), as well as other institutions. Amy is the founding director of the Terezin Publishing Project, an editor/publisher of the English language edition of H. G. Adler’s “Theresienstadt 1941-1945: The Face of a Coerced Community”, and author of forthcoming "Songs in the Wilderness: Music in the Holocaust and the Betrayal of 'Bildung'". Her work has appeared in such publications as The Journal of the International Political Science Association, International Journal of Political Psychology and Political Socialization, The New York Times, The Prague Post, and TIKKUN Magazine. Amy has been involved with Bard College for a number of years; she taught a concert/lecture series, "Music in the Holocaust, Jewish Identity and Cosmopolitanism” through the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, in addition to her extensive work experience as a Language and Thinking faculty since 2011.  This is Amy's first year teaching in Citizen Science.

Outside of academia, Amy was the costume model for a famous drag queen in the 80s; the third-ranked female salsa dancer in New York in the 90s; and was the host and head writer for a kid’s science show called "Big Green TV." 

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Liza Loza '12 (she/her)

Liza Loza graduated from Bard in 2012 with a biology degree. She did her senior project on bacterial pigments that inhibit chytrid fungus with Brooke Jude, which inspired her career in fungal research. From 2013-2016, she worked as a lab technician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute assisting with a clinical trial of autologous (from the patient) fecal microbiota transplants. Liza is currently completing her PhD in the Doering lab at Washington University in St. Louis. There, she is studying how a human fungal pathogen (Cryptococcus neoformans) uses enzymes to build its sugars. For fun, Liza enjoys hiking, going to weird musicals, and reading mystery novels.

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Daniel Newsome ’02

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.
 

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Sofia Polcowñuk (she/her)

Sofia started her career in a very different field with a more ecological background. She did her bachelor’s and master’s degree at the Universidad del Comahue in Bariloche, Argentina, where she was born. After her masters degree, she moved to Buenos Aires and started her Ph.D. at the Instituto Leloir, Universidad de Buenos Aires, in the Behavioural Genetics laboratory. There she worked with Drosophila Melanogaster to understand the mechanisms of circadian-controlled behaviours like locomotor activity. Currently, Sofia is a research associate at the University of Glasgow, UK and she continues her work with Drosophila as a model organism to understand gut-brain communication in the context of colorectal cancer and how intestinal diseases affect sleep. In her time outside of the lab, Sofia enjoys painting with watercolours and drawing. Sofia works to combine her research with art. She recently had her first exhibition at the Pint of Science event, Creative Reactions. Sofia enjoys hiking and is a yoga instructor.

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Alli Privitt (she/her)

Alli is a science educator, learning design expert, and academic success speaker. A science instructor and entrepreneur, Alli is committed to building lifelong personal learning and development in any environment. She believes purpose is found in the path of releasing perfection, moving consistently forward, and putting in the hard work. Alli has a diverse background in science, health education, public education, professional development leadership, personalized coaching, curriculum design, community outreach, nonprofit leadership. As a teacher, she has helped thousands of students overcome almost all academic challenges, many of which have to do with mindset. Other than her passion for teaching and learning, she also loves to skydive, enjoys mango-banana smoothies, running marathons, traveling to volcanic islands chains (think Hawaii, the Galapagos, the Azores, Dominican Republic, Iceland, and New Zealand), and avidly watching the original reality television show that started them all: Survivor.

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Haley Ramsey

Haley received her B.Sc. from the University of Tennessee, a M.Sc. from the Science Academy of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg and her Ph.D. from the Medical University of Vienna, where she was credited with creating the first murine model of alloreactive mismatch T memory cells for use in bone marrow, heart, and skin transplantation studies. Prior to joining the Savona Lab in 2015, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. She is currently designs pre-clinical studies for novel therapies in Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and effects of therapy on tumor metabolism.


 

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Shannon Roback (she/her)

Dr. Roback has a doctoral degree from University of California, Los Angeles in Environmental Science and Engineering as well as MS and BS degrees in Environmental Health Science. She has worked with water agencies and collaborators throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Japan, Israel, China and Canada on solving water quality problems posed by emerging trace organic pollutants. In addition to her research, Dr. Roback works with a variety of local and state governments, educational institutions and community organizations to develop educational, public outreach and workforce development programs to increase awareness of pressing water problems and build a knowledgeable, sustainable and diverse water workforce.

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Marta Shocket ’09 (they/any)

Marta earned her PhD in ecology, evolution, and behavior from Indiana University, and completed postdoctoral work at Stanford University and UCLA. Her research explores how temperature and other environmental drivers affect disease transmission, combining field observations, lab experiments, and mathematical modeling. Her PhD focused on a fungal pathogen that infects Daphnia zooplankton in Midwestern lakes, while her postdoctoral work focuses on mosquito-borne pathogens that infect humans across the globe. She is also interested in science communication and art. While in graduate school, she co-organized a monthly Science Cafe, and commissioned a dramatic digital drawing inspired by the lab’s research. Aside from research, Marta loves reading SciFi and watching popular TV shows several years after everyone else.

 

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Jeanette Starpine (they/she)

They now work as the Education, Outreach and Diversity Director for the NSF Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment, where they combine chemistry knowledge with a passion for making science fun and accessible. Whether it’s through research experiences or hands-on activities, Jeanette loves to guide people become curious about science and find it in their everyday lives. When not nerd-ing out about science Jeanette loves to be outside soaking up the sun. They live with their partner, two cats, and many plants in the place we call San Diego, which is located on Kumeyaay land.

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Robert Todd (he/him)

Rob obtained his B.S. in Biology from Iowa State University and a M.S. in Integrated Biology from the University of Iowa. He earned his Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from Creighton University in 2020 and went on to complete a postdoctoral position at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities campus. On the micro-scale, his research focuses on genome instability and adaptation in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. However, he is generally interested in how organisms adapt to both acute and chronic environmental stresses. Beyond typical laboratory research, he is keenly interested in developing curricula and outreach opportunities that increase (and support) diversity and representation in science. Rob has worked as a Citizen Science faculty member at Bard every year since 2020 and is beyond thrilled to continue working with all of the talented and passionate students, staff, and faculty at Bard. 

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Nykia Walker (she/her)

Nyki earned her bachelor’s degree in cell biology, immunology, and infectious diseases from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to starting graduate school, she worked at Merck and Co. Research Laboratories in the biomarker discoveries group.  Her PhD focused on stem cell and cancer biology and is from Rutgers University. As a graduate student, she was a member of the stem cell education society, where they sponsored bone marrow drives and educational seminars to teach the public about stem cells. Nyki recently completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago where she studied the cellular signaling cascades between breast cancer cells and macrophages through the release of secreted factors like exosomes. Nyki's overall goal is to stand up to cancer by developing novel cell-based approaches to prevent breast cancer metastasis. Besides research, Nyki loves estate sales, music, dancing, laughing, and teaching. From September to February, you can find her every Sunday afternoon cheering for her beloved 2017 Super Bowl Champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. Prior to the pandemic, she rescued a 3-year-old schnoodle (schnauzer and poodle mix) named King George. King George loves running, sleeping and ice cream which has been fun during the pandemic so that Nyki can still get out and practice social distancing while chatting with people along their walk.

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Kim Wilson (she/her)

Since 2016 she has worked in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention at EPA to address risks posed to human health and the environment by antimicrobial pesticides. Her casework includes coordinating the first ever joint-office hazard characterizations for formaldehyde and establishing a national leach rate cap for copper antifouling paints to mitigate harm to aquatic organisms. Prior to this, she served three years in the Peace Corps as a protected areas management specialist in Madagascar, worked as a wildlife biologist for Adventure Scientists, and provided technical assistance to citizen scientists at the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring. She is passionate about sustainability, mindfulness, environmental justice, and promoting science and media literacy in a world full of disinformation. Kim enjoys playing guitar, volunteering, and is always the first one up for karaoke.

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Francis Windram (he/him)

Francis is a PhD Student at Imperial College London, working in computational theoretical ecology and arachnology. He received his BSc in Zoology from Leeds University and his MSc in Computational Methods in Ecology & Evolution from Imperial. Francis' research is focused around using quantitative methods to evaluate the trade-offs involved in spider foraging, with a particular focus on spider web structure. He is also involved in teaching science and computing at a range of levels both for Imperial and for the British Ecological Society. Francis is an avid climber and musician in his free time, and enjoys recording and producing music and podcasts.