The Ode to Evolution Team
Dr. Lauren Esposito is a passionate science communicator, who spent her childhood as a budding naturalist exploring tidepools on a small Bahamian island with no electricity or running water. Dr. Esposito is an Assistant Curator and the Schlinger Chair of Arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences, and she is the co-founder of the non-profit Islands & Seas. Her current research investigates the patterns and processes of evolution in spiders, scorpions and their venoms. A passionate educator, she has organized education programs on the importance of conserving biodiversity in local communities throughout the Americas, developed a nationally-distributed digital science curriculum, and has taught courses on a range of topics. Dr. Esposito leads a field-based conservation biology course for students at Columbia University, and teaches professional development courses for educators.
Kathryn Chong Quigley is a filmmaker and animator interested in creating media for the science education space that pushes the traditional boundaries of the medium to incorporate artistic expression. She currently works at the Lawrence Hall of Science as Lead Media Producer for a nationally distributed science curriculum. She attended SUNY Purchase for Film Production and UC Berkeley for Geophysics. In 2010 she completed her master’s work at UC Berkeley focusing on science education through new media. Currently, she is working on a project called Ode to Evolution, which to seeks to raise awareness about human’s impact on mass extinction.
Kaitlyn Kraybill-Voth is a multimedia science journalist specializing in film production, print reporting, and editorial illustration. She’s soon graduating from UC Berkeley with a Bachelors in Earth Science. Her mission is to fuse art, philosophy, and science into engaging narratives exploring topics that range from pink nudibranch range- expansions, to undersea wave energy conversion carpets, to pacific upwelling in the San Francisco Bay. Her work can be found in Bay Nature Magazine, the U.S. Department of Energy website, California Magazine, and a multimedia project about the wide and narrow scopes of the tree of life called Ode to Evolution.
Ben Strunin is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies, and has long harbored a great love and fascination with animals and nature. He has spent time working with organizations focused on natural history and preservation, including the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, and Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF), where he helped raise funds for restoration projects worldwide. He is currently working on a multimedia project called Ode to Evolution, aiming to educate about natural selection and the fears of mass extinction.