SCIENCE CADRES

Founder & Executive Director of Stand Up for Science

Colette Delawalla is a Clinical Psychology PhD candidate at Emory University, in the Behavior Genetics of Addiction Laboratory. She is the founder and executive director of Stand Up for Science, an organization that is mobilizing the fight for science and democracy. She is deeply committed to advancing the role of science in shaping a just and informed democracy.

Why I Fight: “I fight because science is the DNA of America and the same freedom that underlies a thriving scientific ecosystem underlies a thriving democracy.”

Social Media Lead at Stand Up For Science

Brynn Paulsen is a PhD Candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. In her research, she employs brain imaging to examine how univariate and multivariate measures of neural activation during cognitive tasks are associated with dimensions of psychopathology. She also works at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at CU as a data analyst.

Why I Fight: “I fight because I believe public science is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy — it opens the door to a more equitable, healthy, and joyful future for all.”

Executive Assistant to Colette Delawalla

Jemarie manages appointments, communications, and logistics to ensure seamless collaboration and advance science advocacy.

Why I Fight: "I fight because the future isn’t fate—it’s facts, and we’re writing them now.”

Volunteer Development & Management Lead

Janelle is a recent graduate from Keck Graduate Institute with a degree in Human Genetics & Genomic Data Analytics. She is passionate about using science to make a difference, particularly in oncology genetics, rare diseases, patient advocacy, and personalized medicine. She firmly believes that science is for everyone and is dedicated to empowering others through education and outreach.

Why I Fight: “I fight for my family and for a future where science lights the way toward hope, healing, and opportunity.”

Volunteer Development & Management Team

Nickole Moon is a PhD scientist and current medical student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, in the Laboratory of Translational Psychiatry. She has been an advocate for families living with mental illness since 2008, and seeks to continue this work as a psychiatrist-scientist working to understand the biological basis underlying vulnerability for psychiatric disorders. After helping to organize the Denver Stand Up for Science rally, Nickole joined the SUFS Volunteer Development & Management Team to mobilize efforts necessary to ensure science, healthcare, and support is accessible to future generations.

Why I Fight: “I fight for science because science brought hope and a future to my family when I needed it most.”

Volunteer Development & Management Team

Dr. Brian Lovett is an insect pathologist investigating the biology and evolution of entomopathogenic fungi, formerly with USDA-ARS. He obtained his PhD in Entomology from the University of Maryland. He has contributed to the advancement of transgenic mosquito-killing fungi for malaria prevention and studies diverse arthropod-associated fungi, including those that turn cicadas into zombies. He is a strong advocate for evidence-based policies, science communication, and a better future for scientists.

Why I Fight: “I fight for our people and our planet to thrive supported by science.”

Volunteer Development & Management Team

Kristin Weinstein is an Immunology PhD candidate at the University of Washington in the School of Medicine and Public Health. She has been working in research for over 10 years, with studies including cancer, transplantation, and autoimmunity. She is passionate about promoting science as a common and unifying good for all.

Why I Fight: “I am fighting for my country's future: We will have a stronger economy by retaining scientific jobs, a healthier public by defending biomedical research and public lands, and more geopolitical power by maintaining our country's status as a global leader in scientific research.”

Web Strategist

Steven Serna is a long-time web strategist, digital designer, and videographer from the Pacific Northwest, dedicated to creating innovative online engagement strategies for frontline communities, grassroots groups, and non-profits across the US.

Why I Fight: "Because environmental and climate justice must be recognized, amplified, and explored if we hope to build a safe, fair, and equitable world for everyone."

Legal Counsel

Melissa Auchard Scholz is the founder of Scholz Nonprofit Law, which she started in 2007 to provide practical legal and strategic advice to nonprofits. She and her colleagues serve nonprofits and mission-driven business of all sizes and types, ranging from small community-based organizations to statewide affordable housing providers, large national advocacy organizations, cooperatives, and land trusts (usually with a connection to a nonprofit). Before starting the firm, Ms. Scholz worked in the corporate, tax, healthcare, and political law practices at a large Wisconsin-based law firm. She received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1985 and her J.D. (cum laude, Order of the Coif) from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1995.

Advisory Board

Dr. Michael E. Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He is the director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM). He is also the Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action at the University of Pennsylvania. He has received many honors and awards, including NOAA's outstanding publication award in 2002 and selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002. He contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He received the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018 and the Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union in 2018. In 2019, he received the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and in 2020, he received the World Sustainability Award of the MDPI Sustainability Foundation. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2020. He received the Leo Szilard Award of the American Physical Society in 2021 and was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association in 2023. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2024. He is the author of several books, including Dire Predictions, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars, The Madhouse Effect, The New Climate War, and Our Fragile Moment.

Advisory Board

Jeremy M Berg is current Professor of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh. Berg received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry. He started as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University in 1986. He moved to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as Director of the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry in 1990. In 2003, he became Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at NIH. He served at NIGMS until July 2011 when he moved with his wife Wendie Berg, M.D., Ph.D., a leading breast imaging researcher, to the University of Pittsburgh. Berg served as Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals from 2016-2019. His efforts have been recognized by numerous research, teaching, and public service awards. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Advisory Board

Victor Ambros grew up in Vermont and graduated from MIT in 1975. He did his Ph.D. thesis research (1976-1979) with David Baltimore at MIT, studying poliovirus genome structure and replication. He began to study the genetic pathways controlling developmental timing in the nematode C. elegans as a postdoc in H. Robert Horvitz's lab at MIT and continued those studies while on the faculty of Harvard (1984-1992), Dartmouth (1992-2007) and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (2008-present). In 1993, Ambros and co-workers Rosalind Lee and Rhonda Feinbaum identified the first microRNA, the product of the heterochronic gene lin-4 in C. elegans, a discovery that was recognized in 2024 by the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, shared by Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun. Currently, the chief research interest of the Ambros lab is understanding the roles of microRNA-mediated regulatory pathways in animal development and human disease.

Advisory Board

Kate Starbird is a Professor at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW). Extending from early work in crisis informatics, her research program has followed the phenomenon of online rumoring down the rabbit hole and into some of the toxic online spaces that are increasingly (re)shaping discourse, values, and politics around the world. In particular, Kate’s team has developed and deployed methods for conducting rapid research to help resolve rumors as they unfold. Her work has demonstrated that online disinformation — i.e. the intentional manipulation of discourse for political gain — is inherently participatory, taking shape through collaborations between witting agents and unwitting (though willing) crowds. Most recently, her research has converged on a conceptualization of right-wing media as effectively leveraging partisan, participatory dynamics through improvisational performances.

Dr. Starbird received her BS in Computer Science from Stanford (1997) and her PhD in Technology, Media and Society from the University of Colorado (2012). She has received several awards for her research, including the ACM SIGCHI Societal Impact Award and a Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award. She is a co-founder and formerly served as director of the UW Center for an Informed Public, which works through research, education, and policy recommendations to strengthen democratic discourse by building resilience to online misinformation and manipulation.

Advisory Board

Carol Greider received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984, working together with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, she discovered telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomeres, or chromosome ends. In 1988, Dr. Greider went to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where, as an independent Cold Spring Harbor Fellow where she cloned and characterized the RNA component of telomerase. In 1990, Dr. Greider was appointed as an assistant investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, followed later by appointment to Investigator in 1994. She expanded the focus of her telomere research to include the role of telomere length in cellular senescence, cell death and in cancer. In 1997, Dr. Greider moved her laboratory to the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 2003 she was appointed as the Daniel Nathans Professor, and Director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. At Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Greider’s group continued to study telomerase and determined the secondary structure of the human telomerase RNA. In addition, they characterized the loss of telomere function in mice, which allowed an understanding of age related degenerative disease in humans which include as bone marrow failure, pulmonary fibrosis and other diseases. In 2009, Dr. Greider shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak for their work on telomeres and telomerase. In 2020, Dr. Greider established her laboratory at the University of California Santa Cruz where her research groups studies fundamental mechanisms of telomere length regulation.

Advisory Board

Ardem Patapoutian is an American scientist of Armenian origin. He is molecular biologist specializing in sensory transduction. His research has led to the identification of receptors activated by temperature and pressure. His laboratory has shown that these ion channels play crucial roles in sensing temperature, touch, proprioception, pain, and blood pressure. Patapoutian was born in Lebanon in 1967 and attended the American University of Beirut for one year before he immigrated to The United States in 1986 and became a US citizen. He graduated from UCLA in 1990 and received his Ph.D. at Caltech in 1996. After postdoctoral work with Dr. Lou Reichardt at UCSF, he joined the faculty of Scripps Research in 2000, where he currently holds the Presidential Endowed Chair and is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Patapoutian was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience in 2006 and was named an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2014. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016), a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2017) and a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020). He is a co-recipient of the 2017 Alden Spencer Award from Columbia (with David Ginty), the 2019 Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research (with David Julius), the 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience (with David Julius), and the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with David Julius).