We all come into the world under certain conditions, but those change time and again throughout our lives. What happens when the conditions we’re used to, or expecting, change?
Join us on June 5 at The Science Center’s OMNIMAX Theater for four true stories about adapting your expectations and learning the heights you can reach!
Hosted by Sam Lyons and Peter Michalski.
STORIES BY:
Sarah K. England is a professor and researcher in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wash U Medicine. For nearly 30 years she has directed a lab focused on understanding normal and aberrant uterine activity during pregnancy. To understand maternal health at a policy level, she became a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow. During this time, she worked in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for one year working on policies related to maternal child health issues, newborn screening, the healthcare workforce, and health disparities. Today, she uses this experience to develop translational studies in her lab.
Kasey Fowler-Finn has lived in Saint Louis for over a decade since joining the faculty in Saint Louis University’s Biology Department in 2014. She is a mother to two young children, an outdoor enthusiast, avid rock climber, stained glass hobbyist, and daily visitor to Tower Grove Park. From a young age, Kasey has been enthralled with insects, spiders, and other aspects of the more hidden world around us. Her fascination for vibrational communication (sound that travels as tiny vibrations through solid objects like plant stems and leaves rather than through the air) started in college and she has studied this ubiquitous, but little-known, form of communication ever since. In addition to trying to understand the diversity of sounds (emulating little whales, frog choruses and even construction equipment) that insects produce, Kasey’s research group strives to understand how insects and arachnids respond to a rapidly-changing world. Kasey is dedicated to increasing diversity and access to STEM and has collaborated with her students and with artists to bring her research to life for people of all walks of life.
Adam Rembert is the Restoration Ecology Supervisor at the Litzsinger Road Ecology center, a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden, where he has worked since 2018 researching and restoring Missouri native habitats. He has previously worked with the Botanical Garden's Shaw Nature Reserve and the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development. Adam serves on the board of Open Space STL, where he helps protect natural areas and organize river cleanup initiatives throughout the region. He holds a degree in Biology from Western Illinois University, with a concentration in plant ecology and conservation. Outside of his professional work, Adam is an enthusiastic (some would say obsessive) home gardener and an avid competitive river paddler.
Seanna (Shawna) Leath is a professor at Washington University, studying how cultural and ecological factors inform positive developmental outcomes among Black youth and young adults, with a particular focus on gendered and racialized processes. She directs the Fostering Healthy Identities and Resilience (FHIRe) Collaborative, a diverse and incredible research team of undergraduate and graduate students and community partners who are collectively invested in Black women and girls’ health and wellness. The lab focuses on Black feminist epistemologies and interdisciplinary approaches in education and psychology to understand how intersectional systems of oppression (e.g., ableism, classism, racism, and sexism) influence Black women and girl’s daily experiences, as well as their health and wellness across the lifespan.