Name: Evelyn Valdez-Ward
Pronouns: she/her/ella
Affiliation: ReclaimingSTEM Institute

Evelyn (she/ella) is a sixth year, formerly undocumented, PhD candidate, Ford Foundation Predoctoral and Switzer Foundation Fellow studying the effects of drought on plants and soil microbes. Her final dissertation chapters aim to study marginalized scientists and their use of science communication and policy for social justice. She was named one of 2020’s Grist 50 Fixers and a 2018 UCS Science Defender, voted best of Story Collider 2018 in LA, awarded UCI’s Dynamic Womxn’s Award for Outstanding Social Justice Activist and the Svetlana Bershadsky Graduate Community Award for her advocacy for undocumented scientists. She was a 2020 AAAS Mass Media Fellow and awarded the Ecological Society of America Science Communication in Practice Award. Additionally, she co-founded the ReclaimingSTEM workshop and is the executive director for the ReclaimingSTEM Institute. The ReclaimingSTEM workshop is the first to address the need for science communication and policy training spaces for marginalized groups. The workshop has been hosted five times since 2018 and reached over 600 attendees internationally.