Executive Board

President
Dr. Allison Coffin is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Washington State University Vancouver, where she studies acoustic communication and hearing loss. She has more than 10 years of experience teaching communication workshops to a variety of scientific and professional audiences and was the Audience Choice winner at the 2014 U.S. FameLab Finals, a science communication competition hosted by NASA and National Geographic. Dr. Coffin runs the science communication website communicatalyst.com and is a long-time member of Toastmasters International. (president@sciencetalk.org)

VP of Public Relations
Kirsten Sanford, Ph.D., is owner of Broader Impacts Productions. Dr. "Kiki" is a freelance science presenter and reporter who loves media. She studied molecular, cellular, and integrative physiology and has over 10 years experience producing and hosting radio and television programming with companies such as PLoSOne, WNBC, and The Science Channel/Discovery Communications. She currently hosts the "This Week in Science" podcast.

VP of Content
Steven Sobieszczyk is a scientist and storyteller. In his day job he studies dirt and water quality and talks about science. He is heavily involved in science writing, public speaking, video production, media relations, and public engagement. At night he doodles on napkins for his kids. With his free time, he plays Dungeons & Dragons and runs marathons.

VP of Programming
Lewis Taylor directs communications for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of Oregon. A former newspaper reporter, Lewis worked as a senior writer and editor at a regional public relations firm before joining the UO’s Central Communications team. Trained at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, he empowers scientists and scholars to communicate complex topics in clear, vivid and engaging ways in order to reach the public, the media, elected officials and others outside their areas of expertise.

Treasurer
Dr. John Harkness is a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Dr. Barbara Sorg, at the WSU Vancouver campus. In the lab, he studies extra cellular matrix aggregations in the regulation of neural processes associated with sleep, memory, and cocaine seeking. John also serves on the Board of Directors for NW Noggin, a Portland-based neuroscience outreach group. Additionally, John is the founder and CEO of Rewire Neuroscience (RewireNeuro.com), a WSU startup that is developing artificial intelligence-powered research tools.

Logistics Committee Chair
Lisa Wald is a geophysicist and science communicator for a federal science agency. She has given public lectures, led teacher workshops, created web-based educational materials and resources, and served as a scientific consultant for several earthquake science books for children. She is currently a web designer and web content manager, and she writes web-based articles for general audiences about current earthquake research.

Program Committee Chair
Amanda Thomas hosts the event series Science on Tap and the podcast A Scientist Walks Into A Bar. She was on the organizing committee and was emcee for the March for Science Portland in 2017. Amanda she has a Master’s in Science Education. She plans to continue teaching science to adults until there are no more speakers or the heat death of the universe…whichever comes first.

Secretary
Bre Kelsey, P.S.M. is an informal science educator, most recently working with the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, WA, leading hands-on STEM summer camps. She studied genetics and molecular cell biology, microbiology, and psychology. She enjoys all manner of things related to public engagement in science, science event planning, the intersection of science and art, and making science more accessible to kids, especially from groups underrepresented in STEM.