Community: Stories about finding a place to belong

Published: March 10, 2023, noon

b"Finding community within science can be a challenge. In this week\\u2019s episode, both of our storytellers struggle with feeling out of place in science.\\nPart 1: After his mentor and chemistry teacher uncle is murdered, Andr\\xe9 Isaacs feels adrift.\\nPart 2: Engineer Joey Jefferson doesn\\u2019t feel like he belongs in science as a black bisexual man.\\nA native of Jamaica, Andr\\xe9 Isaacs moved to the US to attend the College of the Holy Cross where he received his B.A. in Chemistry in 2005. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 and then worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2012, Andre accepted a tenure-track position at the College of the Holy Cross. In 2018, Andre was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. In addition to teaching courses in Organic Chemistry, Andre conducts research utilizing copper-mediated organic transformations. He is one of the members of Outfront - the college's LGBTQ faculty and staff alliance and serves as faculty advisor to a number of campus student groups. \\nJoey Jefferson is a flight systems engineer at JPL operating the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) and NEOWISE spacecrafts. Prior to his current position, he worked with NASA and foreign space agencies conceptualizing, negotiating, implementing and monitoring their antenna strategies over the Deep Space Network. An international award winning pianist, as well as singer and clarinetist, music will always be near and dear to his heart.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"