Danielle DaCrema is a recent PhD graduate from the Cell Biology Department at the University of Virginia. Her graduate work focused on tissue regeneration during development. She is a founding member of the planning group for the new Virginia state-level science policy fellowship, the Commonwealth of Virginia Engineering and Science (COVES) Policy Fellowship, which ran for the first time in 2020. She is also a former Mirzayan Science Policy fellow (2019).

Robert Dyer is a PhD Candidate in Chemistry at UVA. He is originally from New Orleans and received his Bachelors of Science in Chemistry from UVA in 2016. As the Professional Development Chair of the Science Policy Initiative at UVA, he helps to develop graduate’s skills and education in science policy. Rob’s research focuses on developing new and efficient ways to make molecules.

Sarah is a third year PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UVA, where her dissertation work involves developing new computational tools for analyzing biomedical big data and applying these methods to study neurodevelopmental mechanisms contributing to obesity risk. Alongside her research, Sarah serves as Co-President of the Science Policy Initiative at UVA and Co-Chair of the Southern Region of the National Science Policy Network. In both of these roles she has worked to expand access to science policy career development opportunities for graduate students and create new initiatives for science advocacy and policy engagement at the local and state levels. Sarah is committed to advocating for the inclusion of science-based evidence in policymaking and for increased communication between the scientific community and policymakers to tackle society's biggest challenges.

Linnea Saby is a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering at the University of Virginia, where her dissertation work evaluates the outcomes of water quality policies. She serves as co-president of the Science Policy Initiative at UVA, where she leads a group of graduate students from across Virginia in providing science background for environmental advocacy groups. Linnea's mission in research and advocacy is to advance the use of science in decision making from the local to international scale.

Marlit Hayslett serves as the Director for Communication Training and Strategy in the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs at the University of Virginia. Her role is to coach graduate students on how to share their research with audiences such as the public, media, industry, and policymakers. Prior to coming to UVA, Marlit was the founding director of the Office of Policy Analysis and Research (OPAR) at the Georgia Tech Research Institute where she led research projects on state-level science policy. In this role, she also served as a liaison between researchers and state legislators.

Marlit earned a B.S. and an M.S. in International Affairs and an M.S. in Public Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She completed her PhD in Mass Communication from the University of Georgia in May 2020 where her dissertation compared how science was communicated on three policy issues in the US and the EU.