Seminar 4 – Science for Everyone: Communication Strategies to Make Your Research Accessible and Engaging

Speaker: Rhea Waldman

Dr. Rhea Waldman is a scientist, educator, and passionate science communicator. For more than 10 years, her research revolved around flight, with a primary focus on aerodynamics, kinematics, and energetics of bat flight. Rhea left academia in 2017 for a career in the nonprofit sector, and took over as Executive Director of the South Dakota Discovery Center in 2020. As a scientist by training, but a science communicator at heart, Rhea knows about the challenges and joys of effective communication, advocacy, and storytelling. She deeply believes in the Center’s values and goals and furthers its mission to empower all People of the Great Plains, by building bridges between Western Science and Indigenous Knowledge in research, informal and formal education. Her board service and community involvement support her efforts to build and strengthen partnerships and to find solutions to engage curious minds in science, technology, engineering, and math.