People

Adam Blaustein Rejto is a painter, musician, and unemployed biochemist living in Brooklyn. They are the founder and director of The Compassionate Knowledge project at Hampshire College’s Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Alex Sanchez (she/they) is a person who enjoys sitting in the sun and letting time pass. They also enjoy reading, playing video games, and spending time with friends. She is still figuring out what science/being a scientist means to them.

Alexis Takahashi (aka ATAK) is a multiracial organizer who loves plants, sushi, and disrupting capitalism. Her personal superpowers are cat whispering and laying in trees.

Ames Mx is a student of sorts interested in researching health disparities, physical art creation, and trans health.

Andy Su (they/he) is a rocket science engineer turned community organizer. They are working towards becoming a high school physics teacher to work with youth in envisioning a liberatory future in the stars.

Anna Khatt is a non-binary dragon of all trades whose political convictions are best described by her D&D alignment of chaotic good. You can't find her in the office, but you can find her in the studio throwing clay, on the mats training jiu-jitsu, or in the lab... of the musical variety, mixing self-acclaimed classics. She tutors in languages & sciences by day, and coordinates workshops & events for Free Radicals by night.

Apollonia Piña is an interdisciplinary researcher of Mvskoke, Xicana, Scots-Irish, and French lineage. Apollonia’s life as an indigenous activist started with her Native and Xicano parents and informs her work in academia and community involvement in Northeast Oklahoma. Presently, she is the Tulsa chapter organizer for the Matriarch organization and developer of an indigenous-centered STEM camp for Native youth. Her research interests include non-Western perspectives in science and math, indigenous sexuality and womanism, and promoting Natives in STEM. She is the founder of Green Corn Medics, a street medic crew that provides care to those in need during direct actions. Piña is also one of ten 2021-2022 On Being fellows. She enjoys scouting rare books, rock and roll, origin stories, and connecting the dots. She resides on the Mvskoke reservation in Tvlse, Okla Humma with her son.

Art Li is middle school science teacher who is trying to figure out how to balance science education with social justice. When he is not forgetting to do his laundry or clean his room, Art likes to play video games, board games, and cook food for his friends.

August Guang is a genomics data scientist at Brown University and healing coordinator at the Providence Youth Student Movement. Both their research practices and organizing work are guided by the belief that crisis and uncertainty are a gift (credit to Chhaya Chhoum) and that we must be involved in shaping how change happens.

Chrystal Li is a former environmental/ocean science major who now does design and creative coding for a living. She spends her free time drawing, questioning everything, and appeasing her cat, Hiccup.

dri chiu tattersfield is a nonbinary physics teacher who can usually be found laying in patches of grass or attempting to farm. things they are currently thinking about include the role of imagination in community organizing. they love writing poetry, doodling and combining the two into comics, and would love to meet u !

fèini yĭn is a loving crab/crabby lover and child of immigrants living on lenape land currently known as philadelphia. as a science journalist, they aim to bring forth perspectives not traditionally heard in science stories and expand society's definitions of words like "expert," "scientist" and "facts." they have a dog and strong fine motor skills, which they put to use in embroidery, origami, veggie chopping and other persnickety tasks. kids at school used to taunt them with the nickname "chinese barbie" but joke's on those bullies because that's a badass (and accurate) character assessment!

Frankie Gerraty (he/him) is an Australian-American biologist and science storyteller interested in marine community ecology and global change. He likes feminist theory, surfing, raising houseplants, and combining art with science. He holds a BA from Whitman College and lives in Santa Cruz, CA. www.frankiegerraty.com

Free Radicals Free Radicals is an activist collective dedicated to creating a more socially just, equitable, and accountable science. We create accessible resources for political education on the intersection of science and social justice and collaborate with local progressive organizing efforts on issues related to science and technology.

Kelly Jiyoon Park is a medical student and science fiction enthusiast based in Los Angeles. She is passionate about reproductive rights, mental health literacy in immigrant communities, and not actively contributing to the medical industrial complex. In her free time, she enjoys choral singing and having strong feelings about social justice, books, and the internet.

Linus Kuo is a researcher, aspiring educator, gamer, and an on again, off again cellist.

Mara Freilich is a scientist, organizer, artist, and bookworm. When she was very young, she was afraid of the ocean but she is now a professional ocean and climate scientist, working on her PhD in Massachusetts. She develops her wonder at the natural world by spending time outdoors hiking, backpacking, biking, and kayaking. She works to involve scientists and scientific inquiry in movements for justice and on envisioning the roles that science will play in a more just future.

Maria Florencia Caruso is a cat mom, painter, and thrifter. She has a Biology degree, works in tech, and is interested in Environmental Justice. You can find her tending to her composting worms.

Mariah-Rose Marie M is an artist, poet, amateur naturalist, capsaicin enthusiast, and nomad-heart. She is interested in creating a future where all life is valued, variation is celebrated instead of persecuted, and the socially constructed borders between nations, races, classes, sex, and gender are dissolved. In the meantime, she’s enthusiastic about producing art, writing, and music to help us get there. When she is not brooding about the sixth mass extinction, she can be found enjoying music, trying to pet random cats, cooking, gardening, or training in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu.

Mario De Leon loves math. He was born and raised in Guatemala until the age of 9, and has lived in Los Angeles as an undocumented immigrant ever since. Mario believes that math is beautiful and that we are simply out of love with math due to modern formal education systems, colonialism, and capitalism. Mario believes in the power of math and science in the hands of the working class to radically reimagine what math education can look like for the benefit of all beings. When he’s not contemplating the meaning of life, Mario likes to hang out with his cat, Pi.

Mario Pizarro Rojas (They/He) is an undocumented scientist currently working on a Masters in biochemistry at Cal State LA. Their research interest involves creating novel therapies for illnesses that can be easily affordable and accessible to marginalized communities. Mario also is continually fighting to make STEM more accessible for undocumented students. Their passions outside of science and activism include drinking excessive amounts of boba and coffee while scrolling away through twitter.

Nora Jameson (they/them) is a queer public health scientist and PhD student in social epidemiology. They specialize in mental illness and disability justice, firearms violence, violence prevention, LGBTQIA populations, and social factors. They hope to revolutionize and de-stigmatize the way people look at mental health and see direct ties between higher education accessibility and the need to remove ableism not just there but everywhere. They are a project manager and community organizer for free rads and helps facilitate remote meetings and community building. insta: @nejamesonphoto

Sara Onitsuka (they/them) is a genderqueer organizer, writer, and current Masters in Sustainable Peacebuilding student at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They are interested in many topics including abolition, transformative justice, US and Japanese imperialism, and neuroscience for the revolution. Find their articles and poetry at Art For Ourselves and follow them on IG @sara_iume.

Sarmistha Talukdar is a neuroqueer immigrant, transdisciplinary educator, audio-visual artist and organizer. They like to draw bridges between their different lived experiences spread across non-linear space/time, experiment with dirt, cultivate divergent relationships and daydream. @tavishi.experiments on instagram

Sasha Karapetrova is a solar engineer, commercially-licensed driver, extremophile lover, and certified best friend. When brain space isn’t dedicated to queering gender performativity, transnationalism, and all things molecular biology related, Sasha loves frolicking in rural Russian fields, visiting museums in the snowy Eastern Sierra, and skating down the street to play pick-up soccer in Chicago’s Jackson park. Catch Sasha doing more Baba Yaga witchcraft on the gram @sashawasha23!

Shubha Rajan (she/they) is a writer, designer, theater nerd, and science/tech enthusiast in her mid-20s who helped build Free Rads' new, revamped website. For most of 2019, Shubha will be living on Duwamish land attending Ada Developers Academy, a year-long training and internship program for women and non-binary individuals to break into tech. In Shubha's free time, you'll most likely find her designing radical games, taking pictures of wildlife, stargazing, or drawing She-Ra fan art. Twitter: @panicpixels

Sophie Duncan is a queer robot beep-booping her way through grad school one rusty, robot heartbeat at a time. She likes plants (ALOT ALOT) and dabbles in the sophisticated science of caring for pet-rocks. When she’s not making weird things with glue and paper, she thinks about how shooting stars are the universe’s garbage. or something.

Sophie Wang (aka shuf) is a big nerd and small zine gremlin who challenges our taken-for-granted assumptions about western science through comics and zines. She draws (heh) from her background in Science and Technology Studies and her many years making art of widely varying quality. You can follow her at @wangshuf.

Supriya is an evolutionary biologist, education researcher and community organizer who wishes she had learned about feminist science and technology studies before finishing her PhD. In her free time, she likes to cook, bake, read and play with her cat, Raita i.e. yogurt dip.

Ti Do My 9-5 is to decolonize education as an aspiring teacher focused on liberation. I'm also in the anti-gentrification movement with Chinatown Community for Equitable Development. Building and working in community not only nourish my being, so does flatuent humor, dirt, doggos, hikes, books, and so many other things. Though, the most important thing for you to know about me - is that I'm trying to reclaim and liberate my mind and body.

Wil’ Prada is an undocumented filmmaker and astronomy enthusiast. You can follow him on instagram: @wilwill51

xiili sarkela is a research scientist and maker based in occupied Lenape lands (princeton, nj). xiili works at the intersection of fungi, microbiology, fashion, and justice. kye is involved in collective practices of bioremediation and harm reduction to build the world we want beyond/through the toxic realities of environmental racism. kyr project hyphaenate: “Becoming” Inspired Design for the Future of Fashion imagines and conjures a future where we grow our own clothing and practice becoming alongside our nonhuman skin.

Yiran Liu is a smol human with big feelings. She daydreams about how anti-oppressive, community-based science can mitigate, rather than perpetuate, social and political inequities. Her favorite human-made wonders include live music, spicy food, fuzzy socks, and compassion. She is a grad student in the bay area.