Storytellers of STEMM: Dr Emily Smith (Episode 19)

Episode #19 was released today, and is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Breaker, and RadioPublic.

The 3rd & final episode of #EarthDay2020 week is here! Dr Emily Smith is a program manager working with NOAA to manage long-term oceanography programs (like Argo!!) https://t.co/1aDJIeSva7 #storytellersofSTEMM #womeninSTEMM #oceanography

— Rachel Villani (@flyingcypress) April 24, 2020

The third episode of Earth Week is live! Dr Emily Oceans Smith is a program manager working with NOAA to manage long-term oceanography programs. She talks about the programs, what a program manager does, and also the lagniappe story about how she achieved her goals and got to where she is today!







I always share lots of links and information on my Twitter (@flyingcypress) and on the Storytellers of STEMM Facebook Page, but I also will consolidate it here!

• Emily was featured in the #WomenofNOAA Spotlight Series, which talks about her work and the Women in Sciences Leadership Workshop she runs. It'll be happening again in the fall of 2020 so if you're interested in that stay tuned!
• Emily's most recent paper is titled "Treading Water: Tools to Help US Coastal Communities Plan for Sea Level Rise Impacts"
• One of the NOAA programs is Argo - a set of over 3000 oceanic robots that floats underwater collecting temperature & salinity profile data for 9 days, surfaces to transmit, then repeats that process.
• Argo goes to 2000m deep, while it's partner program Deep Argo goes to 6000m deep. 
• Emily was a Knauss Fellow, with NOAA. Dr Lauren Morris (Episode 6) also was a Knauss Fellow. If you want to learn more, listen to Episode 6 where we talk about that program extensively, or check out: https://seagrant.noaa.gov/Knauss-Fellowship-Program
• I work in coastal environments, which are the first to be inundated with rising seas, so this program in particular is interesting to me! It's the GLOSS Sea Level Program, with stations worldwide!

Storytellers of STEMM: Jodi Salmond (Episode 18)

Episode #18 was released today, and is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Breaker, and RadioPublic.

It's Earth Day and new episode day! Episode 18 with Jodi Salmond is live! She talks about her coral reef work, citizen science, whale sharks in Mozambique, and what it's like to work on Christmas Island. Happy #EarthDay2020 https://t.co/1RCmmlbr9W

— Rachel Villani (@flyingcypress) April 22, 2020

Yesterday was Earth Day and new episode day! Episode 18 with Jodi Salmond is live! She talks about her coral reef work, citizen science, whale sharks in Mozambique, and what it's like to work on Christmas Island. Happy Earth Day!!

I always share lots of links and information on my Twitter (@flyingcypress) and on the Storytellers of STEMM Facebook Page, but I also will consolidate it here!

• Jodi and I are both #teamHB5 - the 5th cohort of the leadership training program Homeward Bound. You can read more about Jodi's journey here! https://chuffed.org/project/send-the-salmond-south
• You can connect with Jodi a bunch of ways!! LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Blog
• Jodi works for Reef Check Australia as the General Manager and Specialty Instructor for training recreational divers in reef health surveying! https://www.reefcheckaustralia.org/our_team
• When Jodi and I talked about her time at Christmas Island, I realized I had definitely seen footage of the red crabs before (I think in Planet Earth) but here's footage to show you just how many crabs there really are and why they needed to sweep them off the road as they traversed the island https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtXDcw34lqI
• I can't get enough of whale sharks even though I've never seen one, but here's a video for you from National Geographic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQrBwN39LJI
• From talking to Jodi I can tell she has a high enthusiasm for life and adventure and the great blue world out there. Want to join Jodi on her next EPIC adventure? Check out https://www.facebook.com/yournextepicadventure/
• The group She Maps has been doing so many awesome science outreach videos, and Jodi did one called "What’s Hiding in our Rock Pools?" https://vimeo.com/399854230
• Jodi's publications! 
• Making Waves: Marine Citizen Science for Impact
• Monitoring the effects of tourism on whale shark Rhincodon typus behaviour in Mozambique
• Citizens and Reef Science
• Cohabitation of Indian and Pacific Ocean species at Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Storytellers of STEMM: Hilary Glenn-Bertoniere (Episode 17)

Episode #17 was released today, and is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Breaker, and RadioPublic.

Earth Week begins now!!! Ep 17 features Hilary Glenn-Bertoniere, a salmon fisheries scientist in California, and she tells us her fisheries story - from CA, to AK, to LA, and back! 🌎🌍🌏 #fisheries #storytellersofSTEMM #womeninSTEMM #fisharecool https://t.co/mhn22xjIp8

— Rachel Villani (@flyingcypress) April 20, 2020

Episode 17 features Hilary Glenn-Bertoniere who is a salmon fisheries scientist in California, and has worked all over the world. She tells the story of how she got into fisheries to begin with, about being a fisheries observer in Alaska, studying red snapper at LSU, and moving back to her home state of California to work on endangered salmon restoration.

I always share lots of links and information on my Twitter (@flyingcypress) and on the Storytellers of STEMM Facebook Page, but I also will consolidate it here!

• Hilary studied red snapper for her master's work, which was completed after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Spill. Coincidentally, today is also the 10 year anniversary of the start of that incident. It was massively destructive to the environment, and we're still learning about the long term impacts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
• An article from National Geographic about the BP oil spill, 10 years later Ten years later, BP oil spill continues to harm wildlife—especially dolphins
• I also run a book club that reads a different science/conservation book every month. This month is Song for the Blue Ocean by Carl Safina. The book is split into multiple sections, and the 2nd section is all about salmon in the western US. The book wasn't timed with the podcast but it worked out so if you're interested check it out! Outdoor Conservation Book Club
• Hilary and Courtney Saari did their master's research on red snapper together, so ICYMI if you want to hear more about red snapper, check out Ep 3 with Courtney Saari! #3 - Courtney Saari
• Hilary is working on salmon restoration in California specifically in the San Joaquin River system. Salmon in the coastal western US face a lot of challenges - river dams, loss of surroundings forests which provide shade to keep water temps cooler & fallen material that provides in-water cover, siltation from erosion after logging, and grazing too close to the water that disrupts everything. So salmon restoration projects are underway all over, and Hilary specifically works in the San Joaquin system. San Joaquin River Restoration
• 2019 was the first year that the salmon returned to the river to spawn, which was a momentous occasion in the restoration of the species!! After 65 Years, Spring-Run Chinook Salmon Successfully Return to the San Joaquin River

Storytellers of STEMM: Dr Blake Grisham (Episode 16)

Episode #16 was released today, and is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Breaker, and RadioPublic.

New episode alert!!! Dr Blake Grisham (who is one of my very best friends) and I talk about our friendship, our mutual love of swallow-tailed kites, the value of friendship in science, and all the adventures we've gone on together!! #StorytellersofSTEMM https://t.co/68dHbKUmE0

— Rachel Villani (@flyingcypress) April 15, 2020

Today's episode features Dr Blake Grisham (who is one of my very best friends) where he & I talk about our friendship, our mutual love of swallow-tailed kites, the value of friendship in science, and all the adventures we've gone on together!




I always share lots of links and information on my Twitter (@flyingcypress) and on the Storytellers of STEMM Facebook Page, but I also will consolidate it here!

• You can find Blake on Instagram (@ecostats_TTUNRM) to see what his lab and research partners are up to. 
• Blake is a professor at Texas Tech in Lubbock TX and their student chapter of The Wildlife Society has been running Friday night conversations called Wildlife Semi-Filtered. You can join them this week on Friday 4/17 at 7pm CDT for a talk on skunks! https://www.twitch.tv/ttu_tws/
• More info on TTU TWS can be found at The Wildlife Society at Texas Tech Facebook page - https://facebook.com/TTUTWS
• Blake has loads of awesome science in progress and here's his list of publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Blake_Grisham
• Blake is a professor at Texas Tech. In his own words: "My research focuses on the conservation and management of game and non-game bird species in context of a changing climate." https://www.depts.ttu.edu/nrm/people/faculty/faculty_pages/blakegrisham/grisham.php
• Blake & I met at the The Wildlife Society's 2005 Southeast Student Conclave hosted at the University of Florida. Each region has a student conclave hosted at different university each year. As a student in #wildlife it's a great way to meet classmates! https://wildlife.org
• We went on a field trip to Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge (that's where we met!), which I remember as being awesome! https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Cedar_Keys/ The place that solidified our friendship was Sherburne WMA in the Atchafalaya Basin. He was working on his master's and trapping turkeys, and I was working on a bird banding project. Info about Sherburne: https://wlf.louisiana.gov/page/sherburne
• I was bird banding with MAPS: Monitoring Avian Productivity & Survivorship. It's a standardized protocol by the Institute for Bird Populations https://birdpop.org/pages/maps.php
• The roadtrip I talk about was in 2009, a month long, and traveled around the western US. I've been recapping it on my Twitter @outdoorconserv and on Instagram @outdoorconservation using the hashtag #westernroadtrip2009. 
• "Deep in the swamp, having a shit day, and see a swallow-tailed kite and everything's OK now." -me in this episode. Yep. Exhibit A of deep in the swamp having a shit day: 

Storytellers of STEMM

Turns out I don't love writing a blog. Also turns out I do LOVE hosting a podcast. So instead of blog articles (mostly, I may still write a few, when inspiration strikes), I'm going to write about my podcast - Storytellers of STEMM!

The podcast started as part of my homework for Homeward Bound, which I talked about in a previous blog post titled "Women, Science, and Antarctica". I am part of Team HB5 which is the 5th cohort of the Homeward Bound program. Much of the program is centered around learning about leadership, strategy, and visibility. So as part of a visibility audit to determine just how visible we are within and without our circles, we also had to come up with ways to increase visibility. I am actually quite the introvert, and only have so much to say on my own. But I know a ton of interesting people that might be willing to talk to me and a podcast is the ideal format for that!

I chose STEMM as the category because Homeward Bound is women in STEMM, and because I am in STEMM (as a wetlands scientist), and it's also the category that's most interesting to me. I also think STEMM has a bit of a reputation problem in that we're often behind the scenes. Also people know a lot of the different jobs that can be within STEMM but there's so much more than what most people know, have access to, or are involved with so I wanted to show how big and varied and awesome the STEMM category really is. STEMM is Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine, and Math. It's big. There's a lot of different jobs under that umbrella. Which means endless podcast episode topics and lots of people I can talk to.

Once I decided the category, I needed to decide what the podcast was going to be. I could do a more scientific approach, but that's way less fun for me as the host and also for the listener. I settled on a story style approach because stories are way more relatable to people, easier to listen to, and more memorable. So each episode features a different storyteller(s). I'm using the term story very loosely because it's more of a story that turns into a conversation, but it's all still storytelling in my opinion. I also wanted it to sound like the audience was in the room listening to the conversation. So the format is that there is no format, and it's flexible depending on the story and the people!

And that's how Storytellers of STEMM was born. I recorded the first episode alone, because it's only fair to be vulnerable and share a story of my own first if I'm going to ask others to share their stories. So I went first, and told the story of how I became a field biologist. Basically I interviewed myself. I hope you enjoy the silliness.

I often give the caveat that I'm not an audio tech engineer or anything, so it's not always perfect but I'm only human as we all are. So enjoy the adventure!

Storytellers of STEMM is hosted on Anchor but available on these platforms: Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Breaker, and RadioPublic.