Forum Network

**Gail Collins** joined the _New York Times_ in 1995 as a member of the editorial board and later as an op-ed columnist. In 2001 she was appointed editorial page editor—the first woman to hold that post at the Times. In 2007, she stepped down to finish her book "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present", which became a national bestseller. Collins is also the author of America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines; As Texas Goes…; Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity, and American Politics; and The Millennium Book, which she coauthored with her husband, Dan Collins. Collins has a master's degree in government from the University of Massachusetts. She has been a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. >> [Follow Gail on Twitter.](https://twitter.com/gailcollins)

**Laur Hesse Fisher** leads the development and execution of public engagement on climate change for the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, and collaborates with people throughout MIT to plan and create the next generation of MIT’s digital community on climate change. She is the host of ESI's podcast, TILClimate ("Today I Learned: Climate"), which breaks down the science, technologies, and policies behind climate change, how it’s impacting us, and what our society can do about it in 10 minute episodes.

**Helen Zaltzman** is the host and producer of The Allusionist, a multiple award-winning podcast about language and why we humans use it the ways we do, and the comedy show Answer Me This, one of Britain's longest running podcasts.

Jenni Doering got her start in radio and podcasting as an intern with Living on Earth back in 2014, and covers a wide range of environmental topics on policy, science, climate change solutions, and more. After growing up in San Diego, California, she majored in Environmental Humanities at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, fell in love with nature writing, and now enjoys molding words and sounds to please the ear. She is an occasional interviewer and co-host at Living on Earth. Some recent favorite productions have explored how African guinea fowl might reduce Lyme disease risk, the incredible ecosystem services of beavers, and the ineffable world beneath our feet.

**Carolyn Beeler** covers the environment for The World, where she focuses on stories about people and places impacted by climate change. She has reported from all seven continents and won national and regional awards for her breaking news and in-depth feature reporting. Before joining The World, she helped pilot the weekly health and science show The Pulse at WHYY in Philadelphia, and reported from Berlin for a year as a Robert Bosch Foundation fellow. She studied journalism at Northwestern University and got her start in radio as a Kroc fellow at NPR.

**Andy Danyo Kubis** is a freelance producer, reporter and editor based in Pittsburgh. She produces the Trump on Earth podcast and Hacking Hunger, a podcast for the UN's World Food Program. She also produced early episodes of the podcast Being Human, from the University of Pittsburgh's Humanities Center, and Cat Facts, a cat-based podcast hosted by her son. Andy started her radio career at NPR and worked as a producer for The Bob Edwards Show/Bob Edwards Weekend for the full ten-year run of the show. Her environmental reporting has won top honors from the National Press Club and the Society for Environmental Journalists.

Robin Pierson is from London in the UK. He is the host of the History of Byzantium, a podcast dedicated to the story of the Roman Empire from the collapse of the West in 476 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. He also leads listener tours to Istanbul to explore the Byzantine sites.

Matt Breen is the publisher and host of the Explorers Podcast, which looks at the lives and discoveries of some of the world's greatest (and not so great) explorers. Matt holds a history degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Sarah is the author of Bodies in Blue: Disability in the Civil War North. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of History at the University at Buffalo. In addition to a PhD in History from the University at Buffalo, Sarah holds a BA from Wells College and an MSEd from Niagara University, and is an alum of the New York State Council for the Humanities Public Humanities Fellows. You can find her writing on Nursing Clio, where she is also an Editor, and various digital news outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Mishy Harman is the host and co-founder of Israel Story. He's a curly-haired Jerusalemite, who stumbled upon radio by chance. Following his military service in the IDF, he studied history at Harvard, archeology at Cambridge and wrote his PhD – a biography of the first Protestant missionary in Ethiopia – at the Hebrew University. He now lives in Somerville, MA, with his wife Federica and their two dogs, Nomi and Golda.

Carol Downs has been a small business owner, community volunteer and resident of Boston for twenty-nine years. Carol is founding Co-Owner and current General Manager of Bella Luna & The Milky Way, an award-winning dining and entertainment landmark in Jamaica Plain opened in 1993. She currently serves as Board Member and Treasurer of the Boston Planning and Development Agency and as a member of Boston’s Community Preservation Committee. She served as a Trustee of the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester from 2002-2017. She served as an elected Board Member of the Jamaica Plain Firehouse Multicultural Arts Center from 1992-1996. Carol has a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Virginia (1988) and lives in Roslindale with her husband and two children.

Maris Wicks is a writer and illustrator of science comics as well as a self-proclaimed nerd. She has written, drawn, and colored comics for First Second Books, the New England Aquarium, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as Spongebob Comics, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics. Wicks is the illustrator of the book Primates (2013), written by Jim Ottaviani. Wicks wrote and illustrated Human Body Theater (2015), a 240-page book about the major systems of the human body told in comics format. She shared her love of the ocean in Coral Reefs: Cities of the Ocean (2016). Her next book is Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier, written by Jim Ottaviani (February 2020). When she is not busy making comics, Wicks can be found prepping slides for her collection of vintage microscopes, traveling, scuba diving, hiking, and baking cookies. She was a program educator at the New England Aquarium for eight years, teaching people about awesomeness of marine science. Her work in science education and outreach continues in her comics. Wicks was the science outreach communicator for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution onboard the R/V Atlantis for Popping Rocks Cruise in March/April 2016. Most recently, she was in Antarctica as a part of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers grant. She is currently working on a graphic novel about life and science in Antarctica.