Join us this month for five true, personal stories about finding your destiny with science!
Hosted by Erin Barker and Paula Croxson.
Stories by:
Hossein Aleyasin received his PhD in neuroscience from University of Ottawa in Canada. He studies neurobiology of aggression to understand the cellular and molecular basis that governs this behavior. He is a medical doctor by training and practiced family medicine. He has been fascinated by wonders of science of medicine more than practicing it since he was a teenager. This passion has led his journey across the world from the Middle East to North America.
Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Wired, The Boston Globe, Aeon, Slate and The Guardian among other publications. His book, "The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions" was recently published by Ecco.
Anita Flores co-hosts a monthly comedy show called Party of Two and is currently on tour with Awkward Sex and the City. She has a comedy channel called QuesoDigital where she makes videos with her friends. Follow her on Twitter at @anitajewtina for important updates on pizza and Kelsey Grammar's career.
Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH currently serves as a Deputy Commissioner in the New York City Department of Health and is the Founding Director of the Center for Health Equity. The Center’s mission is to bring an explicit focus to health equity in all of the Department’s work by tackling structural barriers, such as racism, ensuring meaningful community engagement, and fostering interagency coordination in neighborhoods with the highest disease burden. Prior to this role, she was an Assistant Commissioner in the NYC Health Department and served as the Director of the Brooklyn Office, a place-based approach. Dr. Maybank also successfully launched the Office of Minority Health as its Founding Director in the Suffolk County Department of Health Services in NY from 2006-2009. Dr. Maybank serves as Vice President of the Empire State Medical Association, the NYS affiliate of the National Medical Association. In the media and on the lecture circuit, she has appeared or been profiled on Disney Jr.’s highly successful Doc McStuffins Animated Series, ESSENCE Facebook live and their Festival’s Empowerment Stage, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry show, and various other outlets. She has also advised on the award-winning documentary Soul Food Junkies by Byron Hurt and Black Women in Medicine by Crystal Emery. For her accomplishments, she has won numerous awards.
Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D. is a Conservation Science Research and Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow jointly appointed with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation and the Education Department. As a conservation biologist, her work broadly explores the influence of human activity on large carnivore ecology, using spatial modeling techniques to explore these relationships. Rae is currently studying the impacts of human activity on landscape use, habitat suitability, and habitat connectivity of black bears in the Western Great Basin. Rae also helps to coordinate the Education Department’s Science Research Mentoring Program, offering high school students the opportunity to join ongoing research projects lead by AMNH scientists. Rae also serves as one of the mentors for the program, working with two students on exploring the social drivers of human-bear conflict in a rapidly developing landscape. Rae received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Columbia University, her Masters of Environmental Science from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and her B.S. in Environmental Science from Emory University.