The Center for Media Engagement (CME), in partnership with the Fulbright US-UK Foundation and supported by a grant from the Rita Allen Foundation, will host Clio Heslop as a Civic Science Fellow in 2020. Heslop is on sabbatical from her role at the British Science Association, where she worked on strategy including partnerships, audience research, program design, and organizational development relating to equality, diversity, and inclusion. She led the BSA’s research into the UK science engagement landscape including diversity, motivations, and working patterns of science engagement professionals.
“We are thrilled to have Clio join the Science Communication division of the Center for Media Engagement. Her work will help us generate new knowledge about scientists’ communication with the public and how the public perceives science,” says CME Program Director for Science Communication Anthony Dudo,
Heslop’s work at the Center for Media Engagement will focus on audiences traditionally underrepresented in the public debates around science and will also explore ways in which convening different international perspectives can further a culture of civic science.
The Rita Allen Foundation Civic Science Fellows Program is designed to catalyze new partnerships, practices, and ways of thinking to advance meaningful, inclusive engagement on issues at the interfaces of science and society. “This new Civic Science Fellow position is crossing not only sectors but countries—combining the perspectives of the Center for Media Engagement and the Fulbright US-UK Foundation,” said Elizabeth Good Christopherson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Rita Allen Foundation. “We are excited to see in Clio’s work an example of how cross-cultural connections across media, social science, and science engagement can deepen civic connections around the urgent scientific questions of our time.”