One of Philadelphia’s favorite sons, Ben Franklin, was an abolitionist, a scientist, a politician, a writer, an inventor, and an advocate for women’s education. It’s not hard to imagine what Ben Franklin might think about our current societal disregard for facts and evidence. Taking this as inspiration, we see it as our vision to promote a fact-based public dialogue, particularly focusing on issues such as climate change, environmental regulation, education, and civil rights. We believe that scientific thinking can lead us to a better society through evidence-based public policy.  

We are grateful for the women in our lives who have paved the way for us, and we want to follow their example and give back to our community. We’re focused on outreach activities for young women and girls in our city, particularly those in communities that have been underrepresented in the scientific establishment.  

We’re also providing a community for women scientists to support each other. Being a woman in science isn’t easy, and we find great solidarity in each other. We've formed a sisterhood of women scientists, not simply a group of colleagues with shared interests.

We have reached out to our networks, which include women scientists from diverse circumstances and backgrounds including academia, government, and industry.  In addition, we have gone outside our own networks and specialties to recruit women scientists from a variety of scientific disciplines. We’re still working on making our pod more inclusive by expanding our membership to serve women of color and the LGBTQ community. We value a diversity of voices and we want to be sure that we address issues that are outside our own white cis-gendered experience. 

Pod Members 

Tanya Dapkey is a co-founder of the Pod. She was a 500 Women Scientists National Leadership Board Member from 2017 - 2020, coordinating the Pods Team. She works in the field of entomology at the Patrick Center for Environmental Research in the Academy of Natural Sciences for Dr. Stef Kroll.  She studies freshwater stream ecosystems and collaborates on the DRWI project. Tanya is a very active member of her community, participating in local STEM events as a women scientist spreading the knowledge of entomology to children. Her goal is to help raise awareness of the beauty, importance and joy of insects. She is a nerd, mother, entomologist, and a partly cloudy Gonzo Patriot. Tanya currently lives with her partner of 23 years, and her two children.  

Dr. JoEllen McBride is our Policy and Advocacy Director. JoEllen earned her PhD in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016. Her research focused on galaxies that live close to each other and how that affected their ability to create stars. After graduating, JoEllen worked as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Voice of America in Washington D.C. and an adjunct faculty member in the physics department at West Chester University. While at UNC, JoEllen was active in graduate student government, including holding positions as treasurer and secretary and successfully advocating on issues related to graduate student well-being. She is currently the Associate Director of the Graduate Student Center at the University of Pennsylvania where she manages academic support programs and the Center’s publicity and communications. JoEllen is passionate about science communication and remains active in the science community through her advocacy work, serving as Advocacy Director of the 500 Women Scientists Philly Pod, a member of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, and a Board member of the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester. She also raises her two daughters, Carina and Alessa, with her partner Ed, and the help of her two kitties, Thelma and Louise.

Dr. Laura Guertin works with Science Education and Advocacy Director to disseminate the Weekly Wrap Up. She is also our Social Media coordinator. She is a Professor of Earth Science at Penn State Brandywine in Media, PA. In 2015, Dr. Guertin was elected as a GSA Fellow and was named one of 100 women nationwide as an INSIGHT Into Diversity Inspiring Women in STEM. She is the Penn State Brandywine campus coordinator for the environmental inquiry minor and Earth sustainability certificate. 

Katie Horn works with Outreach Director to keep the website and calendar up to date. She is a software developer from West Chester. She mainly works with Java and JavaScript, but her favorite language is still Python. She is a graduate of Temple University's College of Science and Technology. When she's not coding, she likes crafts and iced coffee.

Sarah Davidson is the Associate Director of Local Organizations. She finds and watches local organizations whose mission aligns with ours and works with Advocacy Director to set up meetings and promote their on-the-ground activities. She also finds ways to support local activity (volunteering, promoting events, etc.) and reaches out to local institutions about support for women.

Dr. Lexi Moore Crisp is a co-founder of the Pod. She was a 500 Women Scientists National Leadership Board Member from 2017-2018. She is currently a FULL Professor at Cabrini University in Radnor, Pennsylvania. Her PhD research was on the biomechanics of burrowing rodents (cool videos here: www.biologyunderground.com) and her scientific interests include biomechanics, vertebrate anatomy and physiology, functional morphology, and digging animals. Outside of biology, Lexi has a broad background with degrees in philosophy, psychology, and history and philosophy of science. Lexi and her husband, Larry, moved to Philadelphia from Las Vegas, Nevada in 2015. Lexi enjoys listening to podcasts, playing video games, and all cat-related media.

Jillian Roamer was a Pod Leader from 2017-2018. She works as an analytical chemist, specializing in characterization of biologic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals by chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. Her work focuses on peptide mapping and sequencing, characterization of glycans, and post-translational modifications. Jillian’s involvement with 500 Women Scientists grew from her desire to create career development tools to make science inclusive. Outside of the lab, Jillian enjoys playing chamber music, reading, and an occasional TV binge. She and her husband relocated to the Philadelphia area from Reno, NV in 2013.