Meet Science Friday
Science Friday is your trusted source for news and entertaining stories about science. We started as a radio show, created in 1991 by host and executive producer Ira Flatow. Since then, we’ve grown into much more: We produce award-winning digital videos and publish original web content covering everything from octopus camouflage to cooking on Mars.
SciFri Staff
Nahima Ahmed is Science Friday’s Manager of Impact Strategy. She is a researcher who loves to cook curry, discuss identity, and helps the team understand how stories can shape audiences’ access to and interest in science.
As Science Friday’s director, Charles Bergquist channels the chaos of a live production studio into something sounding like a radio program. Favorite topics include planetary sciences, chemistry, materials, and shiny things with blinking lights.
Danielle Dana is Science Friday’s executive director (a.k.a. scary boss). She’s also a huge Mets fan and Giants fan. She hates zucchini, unless it’s zucchini bread.
Kathleen Davis is an assistant producer at Science Friday, which means she spends the week brainstorming, researching, and writing, typically in that order. She’s a big fan of stories related to strange animal facts and dystopian technology.
Elah Feder is a podcast development producer for Science Friday. She produces the Science Diction podcast, and co-hosted and produced the Undiscovered podcast. She’s also Science Friday’s resident Canadian.
Jennifer Fenwick is the director of institutional giving at Science Friday. She enjoys creating new recipes and gardening anywhere she can find a patch of dirt.
Ira Flatow is the host and executive producer of Science Friday. His green thumb has revived many an office plant at death’s door.
Xochitl Garcia is Science Friday’s K-12 education program manager. She is a former teacher who spends her time cooking, playing board games, and designing science investigations from odds and ends she’s stockpiled in the office (an in various drawers at home).
Luke Groskin is Science Friday’s video producer. He’s on a mission to make you love spiders and other odd creatures.
Katie Feather is an associate producer for Science Friday and the proud mother of two cats, Charleigh and Sadie.
Alexa Lim is a producer for Science Friday. Her favorite stories involve space, sound, and strange animal discoveries.
Johanna Mayer is the host of Science Diction from Science Friday. When she’s not working, she’s probably baking a fruit pie. Cherry’s her specialty, but she whips up a mean rhubarb streusel as well.
Valissa Mayers is Science Friday’s office manager. She will happily tell you she’s a foodie, a feter, and a Converse Chuck Taylors collector.
Diana Montano is the Events Producer at Science Friday, where she crafts live events to delight and engage audiences in the world of science.
Annie Nero is Science Friday’s individual giving manager. She enjoys listening to music through giant headphones.
Nadja Oertelt is Science Friday’s Chief Content Officer. She once worked like a neuroscientist, dug like an archaeologist, and shot like a documentary filmmaker. And she’s always loved to commute by bicycle.
Daniel Peterschmidt is a digital producer and composes music for Science Friday’s podcasts, including Science Diction and Undiscovered. Their D&D character is a clumsy bard named Chip Chap Chopman.
Beth Ramme
Beth Ramme is Science Friday’s Controller and handles all things financial for the organization. She is passionate about supporting families of children and adolescents who live with serious mental health conditions.
Christie Taylor is a producer for Science Friday. Her day involves diligent research, too many phone calls for an introvert, and asking scientists if they have any audio of that narwhal heartbeat.
Kyle Marian Viterbo is an engagement producer at Science Friday. She loves sharing hilarious stories about human evolution, hidden museum collections, and the many ways Indiana Jones is a terrible archaeologist.
Lauren J. Young is Science Friday’s digital producer. When she’s not shelving books as a library assistant, she’s adding to her impressive Pez dispenser collection.
Ariel Zych is Science Friday’s education director. She is a former teacher and scientist who spends her free time making food, watching arthropods, and being outside.
Sci Fri Board
Martha J. Fleischman is President and owner of Kennedy Galleries, Inc. She currently serves as a board member of New York Public Radio, Democracy Now!, the Advisory Board of the New York Festival of Song, and is a Trustee for the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.
Ira Flatow is the host and executive producer of Science Friday. His green thumb has revived many an office plant at death’s door.
James M. Gentile is the Dean for the Natural and Applied Sciences at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He has been, or continues as, a consultant to numerous national and international public and private colleges, universities, foundations and corporations.
Julie LaNasa, in addition to launching her own firm, Collaborative Consulting, is currently a trustee with The Leakey Foundation. She and her husband, John Kunzweiler, live in Tiburon, California.
Jorge Leis is an advisory partner at Bain & Company, where he has served in multiple roles and offices for 30 years. He is also a board member with the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation and the National GEM Consortium. He and his wife, Ann, live in Houston, Texas and have three children and one grandchild.
Mary Smart has been on the Science Friday Board since 2004. She is also a board member with the Buehler Center on Aging at Northwestern University, the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, and the National Forest Foundation.
Camilla Smith serves on several national and community boards including the National Public Radio Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She and her husband, George Smith, have five children and eight grandchildren.
Thea True-Wells is a Wyoming native who has been professionally involved with formal and informal pre-K-12 education for over two decades. She has facilitated science outreach efforts to low-income elementary schools and taught both middle and high school science courses in public and private schools.
Dave Vernier founded Vernier Software & Technology in the early days of microcomputers, when he was a high-school physics teacher. He is still active with programming and developing science lessons. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and business partner, Christine.