Earyn McGee

Earyn McGee
McGee at Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona
Alma mater
Known forBlack Birders Week #IfThenSheCan The Exhibit
Scientific career
FieldsHerpetology
InstitutionsUniversity of Arizona

Earyn McGee is an American herpetologist and science communicator. She is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) IF/THEN Ambassador and a 2020 AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow. In response to the racism faced by Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper in the Central Park birdwatching incident, McGee co-organized Black Birders Week to celebrate Black birders.

Early life and education

Growing up in Inglewood, California, McGee completed an undergraduate degree in conservation biology at Howard University, where she was an Environmental Biology Scholar.[1][2][3][4] Her summer undergraduate research involved studying Yarrow's spiny lizard in the Cave Creek Canyon of the Chiricahua Mountains. In 2018, McGee completed a Master's degree in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona, with a focus in wildlife conservation and management.[5]

Research career

McGee obtained her PhD in natural resources, with an emphasis in wildlife conservation and management, from the University of Arizona, where she studied the effects of stream drying on lizard communities in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.[1][2][5] She is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) IF/THEN Ambassador, [6] and studies how to use social media to bring more African American women into careers involving water and land management.[7]

Science outreach and communication

In April 2019, the Discovery Channel released a promotional video showing various scientists at work, which was criticised for the low number of women in the video. McGee was one of a team of female scientists who appeared in a response video, which portrayed a diverse group of women performing similar scientific tasks.[8]

In 2020, she was selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) to become a 2020 Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow, where she contributes to the Las Vegas Review Journal.[9][10]

McGee is active on Twitter as @Afro_Herper. Each Wednesday, she hosts a two-day Twitter identification challenge #FindThatLizard where she shares images and facts about lizards under the hashtag, #FindThatLizard.[11][12] Her research and science outreach efforts have also been featured in several podcasts, including the science and comedy podcast Ologies, with Alie Ward.[13]

As part of the BlackAFinSTEM group, she was one of the co-organizers of Black Birders Week, a social media campaign aimed at celebrating Black naturalists, scholars, and birders.[1][14] The initiative was a response to the racism faced by Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper in the Central Park birdwatching incident.[15] The hashtags created by the initiative, #BlackInNature and #BlackBirdersWeek, were used several thousand times. The project garnered worldwide media coverage, including a feature in National Geographic,[16] Scientific American,[17] and Forbes.[18] It produced unique content in collaboration with the National Audubon Society and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

In February 2020, Popular Mechanics chose McGee as one of ten influential women in science communication and for science content.[19] Forbes named her as one of their 30 Under 30 in the "Science" category for 2021.[20] As an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) IF/THEN Ambassador, McGee appears a statue in the #IfThenSheCan The Exhibit.[21]

Awards

Received the National Conservation Young Leader Award from the National Wildlife Federation in 2021.[22]

Selected bibliography

  • McGee, Earyn; Manka-Worthington, Sarah; Bogan, Michael (2019). "Novel Fecal Collection Technique" (PDF). Herpetological Review. 50 (3): 518.
  • Puritty, Chandler; Strickland, Lynette R.; Alia, Eanas; Blonder, Benjamin; Klein, Emily; Kohl, Michel T.; McGee, Earyn; Quintana, Maclovia; Ridley, Robyn E.; Tellman, Beth; Gerber, Leah R. (2017). "Without inclusion, diversity initiatives may not be enough". Science. 357 (6356): 1101–1102. Bibcode:2017Sci...357.1101P. doi:10.1126/science.aai9054. PMID 28912234. S2CID 206653434.
  • Robinson, Courtney J.; London-Thomas, Laricca Y.; Dickson, Leon A.; Clinton, Tiffany A.; Baig, Hana; Bute, Maude; Fahad, Mohammed; Farrakhan, Kanhai; Grady, Neshaun; Guthrie, Nicholas E.; Hafid, Ruoa; Harvey, Jayla; Hunnicutt, Kellie; Larsen, Victoria L.; McDuffie, Taashaylaray; McGee, Earyn N.; Pailin, Jillian Y.; Peacock, Bria; Thomas, Antolice; Anderson, Winston A. (2016). "Genome Sequence of Mycobacteriophage ErnieJ". Genome Announcements. 4 (6). American Society for Microbiology. doi:10.1128/genomeA.00873-16. PMC 5122674. PMID 27881532.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Black Birdwatchers Face Racism Too | Voice of America - English". Voice of America. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Q&A: Lizard-Loving PhD Student Earyn McGee". UArizona Research, Innovation & Impact. February 11, 2019. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  3. ^ Robinson, Kimi (January 7, 2021). "30 Under 20 - Arizona Grad Student Honored on Forbes List - page 1". Arizona Republic.
  4. ^ Robinson, Kimi (January 7, 2021). "30 Under 20 - Arizona Grad Student Honored on Forbes List - page 2". Arizona Republic.
  5. ^ a b eamaxwell (June 28, 2018). "Ecologist Spotlight: Earyn McGee". Rapid Ecology. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  6. ^ "SNRE Graduate Student Named AAAS Ambassador". College of Agriculture and Life Sciences | The University of Arizona. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  7. ^ Becker, Rachel (March 24, 2019). "Test your animal knowledge with these challenges on Twitter". The Verge. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  8. ^ "Female Scientists Respond to Discovery's New Campaign in The Best Way". Science Alert. April 5, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  9. ^ "SW CASC Communications Assistant Selected as AAAS Mass Media Fellow". Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Arizona. April 30, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  10. ^ Kimbrell, Elana. "AAAS Selects 28 Mass Media Fellows, Bringing Scientists into Newsrooms Around the Country". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  11. ^ "Can You Spot the Lizard Camouflaged in this Photograph That's Driving Twitter Crazy?". News18. February 5, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  12. ^ Jain, Sanya (January 30, 2020). "How Quickly Can You Find The Lizard Hiding In Plain Sight In This Pic?". NDTV. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  13. ^ "Ologies with Alie Ward: Saurology (LIZARDS) with Earyn McGee on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  14. ^ Mock, Jillian (June 1, 2020). "'Black Birders Week' Promotes Diversity and Takes on Racism in the Outdoors". Audubon. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  15. ^ "Woman sacked after calling police on black man". BBC News. May 28, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  16. ^ "Everyone can watch the birds". National Geographic. June 4, 2020. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  17. ^ Thompson, Andrea. "Black Birders Call Out Racism, Say Nature Should Be for Everyone". Scientific American. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  18. ^ Cat, Linh Anh. "Opening The Outdoors: Inaugural Black Birders Week". Forbes. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  19. ^ Leman, Jennifer (February 11, 2020). "These 10 Women Are Changing the Way We Talk About Science". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  20. ^ "Inventing the future from the atom up". Forbes. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  21. ^ "IF/THEN Digital Exhibit". Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  22. ^ Vecchio, Anna (June 11, 2021). "Earyn McGee Honored with National Conservation Young Leader Award" (Press release). The National Wildlife Federation.