The Urban Scientist

Danielle N. Lee is an Outreach Scientist who studies animal behavior and behavioral ecology. Currently, she is post-doctoral research associate at Cornell University studying the natural history and behavioral phenotypes of African giant pouched rats. While completing her dissertation research on individual differences on exploratory behavior of field mice, she mentored several undergraduate and high school students as biology research assistants. She also coordinated ecology outreach programs with nearby public high schools for the Department of Biology at her graduate institution. This included co-coordinating a summer internship research in urban ecology for high school students and an after-school biology club at a nearby public high school. In 2009, she was named the Diversity Scholars Award recipient by the American Institute of Biological Sciences for her contributions to science and promoting diversity within the field. Her outreach efforts emphasize sharing science to general audiences, particularly under-served groups, via outdoor programming and social media. She writes about science, research news, and diversity outreach in science, technology, engineering, and math for several online communities and at her other science blogs: Urban Science Adventures! ©, winner of the 2009 Black Weblog Best Science or Tech Blog Award and SouthernPlaylisticEvolutionMusic, a blog that explains evolutionary science through hip hop songs. She is often sought out to discuss bridge-building opportunities to connect under-served audiences to science. Danielle has been a featured panelist at Blogging While Brown – the largest conference of people of color in social media, a co-moderatator at ScienceOnline – the largest conference of online science communicators, and a presenter at the 1st Annual International Public Science Events Conference in 2011. In addition to pursuing career opportunities in academia, she also consults and gives public presentations about science outreach, social media and science, outreach to urban audiences, STEM diversity, and informal experiential education in ecology. You can contact her at dnlee5(at)ymail(dot)com.

Education:
PhD Biology, University of Missouri – St. Louis
MS Vertebrate Zoology, University of Memphis
BS Animal Science, Tennessee Technological University

Professional Affiliations:
American Institute of Biological Sciences (since 2009)
American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 2004)
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (since 2004)
Sigma Delta Epsilon / Graduate Women in Science (2003-2004)
American Society of Mammalogists (since 2002)
Animal Behavior Society (since 1999)

Professional Service:

Coalition for the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) Core Animal Behavior Society, Charles H. Turner Undergraduate Program Mentor Women in Science and the Young Scientists Program of Washington University, Women in Science Day, Science Introduction Program for High School Girls Annual Missouri Junior Science, Engineering, and Humanities Symposium Judge St. Louis Academy of Science, Green Your Future Science Careers Presenter