We all belong to categories - the ones others find for us, and more importantly those we find for ourselves. Join us in the Community Room of St. Louis Public Radio on April 11th for an evening of true, personal stories about what happens when those classifications are redefined.
Hosted by Gabe Montesanti and Sam Lyons
Stories by:
Katie Murphy is a plant biologist who loves studying the inner workings of corn. She is the Director of Phenotyping and Principal Investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, a non-profit research institute in St. Louis, Missouri. Her research group studies phenotyping, which means measuring the physical traits of plants. She holds a PhD in Plant Biology from UC Davis, and a Bachelor's in Chemistry from Stanford University. Katie's goal is to make a secure, sustainable food supply that can withstand future climates. She shares her research on TikTok @Real_Time_Science.
Cynthia Chapple is an innovative scientist, an advocate for black girls and women, and champion of equity. In keeping with this work, she is founder of Black Girls Do STEM, an organization offering exploration of STEM career pathways through hands-on engaging curriculum to middle and high school black girls to expose them to career pathways and empowerment. As a Black woman in STEM this work is deeply personal and Cynthia draws upon her lived experiences as a result of her intersectional identities to offer ideas and solutions that truly foster belonging and give the opportunity for people to show up as their authentic selves. She has been a member of both the American Chemical Society and the Society of Cosmetic Chemist for over 5 years combined. Cynthia’s superpower is leveraging her expertise and power to dream on behalf of Black liberation.
Kris Kleindienst is a queer lesbian writer, bookseller, and activist based in St. Louis. She edited a collection of essays called This Is What Lesbian Looks Like that won a Lambda Literary Award, and is the recipient of a Hedgebrook Fellowship. She co-founded Team St. Louis, participated in 4 Gay Games and has 3 gold medals in track. In 2019, she was recognized as one of St. Louis's Most Influential Business Women as the owner of Left Bank Books. After almost 5 decades of enthusiastically championing the work of others, she is finally including herself in the pantheon of writers.
Sean Whelan is a British-American virologist who pioneered genetic approaches to manipulate the genome of vesicular stomatitis virus - a prototype of the non-segmented negative-sense RNA viruses a class of viruses that includes some of the most significant human, animal and plant pathogens extant. His group changed our understanding of gene-expression in this group of viruses through mechanistic studies of the multifunctional viral polymerase proteins and through determination of the first structure of this class of viral polymerase. This work has aided in the development of antiviral drugs against this class of important pathogens. He also engineered this relatively harmless virus to carry envelope proteins from lethal viruses to rapidly and safely learn how such viruses infect cells and replicate. Information gleaned from such studies may help design vaccines or therapies for deadly infectious diseases. In addition to a passion for scientific research he is committed to training the next generation of microbiologists. He and his husband enjoy a rich life outside work that includes the arts, sports, travel and cooking.
Dacia ‘InnerGy’ Polk is an award-winning, multi-talented, multifaceted creative that wears many hats. Springing upon the St. Louis scene in 2013 as a local grassroots community organizer, she has grown into a powerful performing artist, producer, and entrepreneur.