Science
Writing

I write about science, especially how it intersects with society, and how to better share science with a diversity of peoples.

Before I set off on my own, I enjoyed writing, editing, tweeting, and Web wrangling for the neuroscience-focused Dana Foundation for 16 years.

In the past, I copy-edited, designed pages, assigned news stories and edited them, reported and wrote editorials at the Hartford Courant, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Baltimore Sun.

I’ve done substantive editing, copy-editing, and proofreading for books, medical booklets, and newsletters, as well as writing and ghostwriting.

I have a BA in communications from Michigan State University, an MS in teaching English to speakers of other languages from Central Connecticut State University, and an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Worldwide Impact:
IBRO Extends the Reach of Brain Awareness Week

Because Brain Awareness Week organizers are part of the communities they target in their outreach, they know what topics local people might want or need, and just what types of activities will draw them in. Grants from the Dana Foundation through the International Brain Research Organization help these groups reach more people around the world.

brain awareness week school event in Cameroon

Getting People Talking:
Promoting Public Engagement with Neuroethics

How should we think about future neurotechnologies and their interactions with people? Civic Science Fellow Claire Weischelbaum is developing new tools to engage with the public on neuroscience and its social impact.

Claire shows plays a neuroethics-based card game with a family at a science museum

Co-Creating the Future of Neuroscience

Learn about several successful pilot projects that offer models for drawing non-scientists into the conversation about how science is created, applied, and given priority. Photo courtesy of Zuckerman Brain Institute

at the Museum of Harlem, a woman in braids explains a glass-wall installation to two other people

Dana Foundation’s New Focus:
Neuroscience and Society

It’s time to re-imagine how neuroscience is conducted and used in our day-to-day lives.

a young girl in a department store stares raptly at an engineering display

Debra Yourick Receives 2021 SfN Science Educator Award

Q&A from Neuroscience 2021. In photo, Dr. Yourick is with Leon the chameleon, in the teaching lab at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Photo courtesy of Benjamin Beale

Woman in a lab stands in front of an aqarium set up for lizards and holds one of the lizards in her hand

More for the Dana Foundation

Advances: a monthly column of potential breakthroughs in brain science, for Cerebrum magazine, 2021-22, samples via Flippingbook:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Tessa Hirschfeld-Stoler Receives 2022 SfN Science Educator Award Q&A from Neuroscience 2022

Debra Yourick Receives 2021 SfN Science Educator Award Q&A from Neuroscience 2021

John Archie Pollock Receives 2020 SfN Science Educator Award Q&A from Neuroscience 2020

Cristian Zaelzer-Perez Receives 2019 SfN Science Educator Award Q&A from Neuroscience 2019

Sound Health: Shaping Our Children’s Lives Through Music Engagement Blog post from Kennedy Center event, 2018

Neuroscience and Society: Autism When trying to help people with troubles due to autism spectrum disorders, one challenge is definition: What does “autism” mean? Report from AAAS lecture series, 2018

The Neuroscience of Aesthetics: Artists and perceptual researchers start a conversation on what they can learn from one another This was also reprinted in the zine Folly (defunct), Dec 2010

Urbanite Magazine

All Work and No Play: When did Americans stop having fun? As a group, Americans—especially East Coast Americans—don’t pencil in as much time as they’d like for plain-old relaxation. Just ask around the water cooler, or check out the blogs, assuming you’ll allow yourself a moment for such idle speculation. Cover story for Urbanite magazine, 2006, includes interviews with neuroscientists and psychologists.