NCAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ROB EVON
Rob Evon is an NCAS Life Member and a lifelong supporter of national skeptical and science organizations, including the Center for Inquiry and the Skeptics Society. He has been a frequent attendee of CFI’s CSICon and The Amazing Meeting (TAM), as well as a direct supporter of CFI initiatives such as Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES).
He currently serves as Treasurer and a member of the Board of
Directors, and previously as Vice President, of one of the
nation’s largest branch-level Friends of the Library nonprofit
organizations. He brings more than 30 years of senior leadership
experience in strategic planning, business development, and
governance across both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. His
strong commitment to evidence-based analysis, public education,
and organizational strategy would help advance NCAS’s mission of
promoting critical thinking and scientific understanding.
BRIAN GREGORY
I’m a senior software engineer, currently working for NVIDIA on their supercomputer scheduling software. A while back, I ran a skeptical video-chat discussion group called “Virtual Drinking Skeptically,” used to host a weekly podcast called “The Virtual Skeptics,” and have somehow managed to (with a lot of help) organize three SkeptiCamp DC (https://skepticampdc.org) events, and continue to work toward organizing the Baltimore Skeptics.
MARY PASTEL
I
have been a member of NCAS for over twenty years. I am
interested in many pertinent topics but especially in why people
choose to believe things that are demonstrably not true. My
background is in science and engineering. I have been a
researcher, lab director, regulator. By the time I retired I
headed up the radiological health part of FDA.
MELISSA POLLAK
Melissa Pollak retired from the National Science Foundation in 2010 after spending nearly three decades at the agency. During her tenure at NSF, she was responsible for seven chapters of the National Science Board biennial report Science & Engineering Indicators, including the 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 chapters on public attitudes toward and understanding of science. When she began that assignment, she discovered how little attention the science community was giving the public’s belief in pseudoscience. She was astounded by her colleagues’ unfamiliarity with the problem and lack of concern. As a result, she made it a goal to give the subject as much coverage as possible in Indicators, as well as in NSF’s increasingly dwindling survey work on public understanding of science. In October 2005, Ms. Pollak went on a Long Term Professional Development detail at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). After returning to NSF, she was involuntarily re-assigned different duties. So, to stay involved, she decided to do whatever she could to see that NSF continued to have a role in the work of skeptical organizations. To that end, NCAS was able to hold some of its monthly public lectures at NSF. However, with the agency's move to Alexandria in 2017, that arrangement ended. From 2010 to 2015, Ms. Pollak served as a volunteer at the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a program of the National Academy of Sciences whose main mission is to connect scientists with producers of movies and TV shows to ensure that the science seen on both the small and big screen is as accurate as possible. She holds a B.S. degree in political science and economics from American University and an M.A. in economics from George Washington University. Incidentally, it’s now been more than two decades since NSF last undertook any survey work on the public’s belief in pseudoscience.
WALTER ROWE
Dr. Walter Rowe is currently a member of the Board of NCAS. He is a founding member of NCAS and has served on its board since the organization was founded. He has published several skeptical articles in Skeptical Inquirer and has presented several talks to NCAS on such diverse topics as the Salem Witchcraft Trials, alchemy and forensic science. Dr. Rowe recently retired as professor of forensic sciences at The George Washington University and has been named professor of forensic sciences emeritus. He has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals. Dr. Rowe has AM and PhD degrees in chemistry from Harvard University and a BS degree with highest honors in chemistry from Emory University. He was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship for graduate study. Dr. Rowe is also an honor graduate of the US Army Military Police School’s criminal investigator course and was a credentialed US Army CID investigator. He served in the US Army Crime Laboratory system as a forensic drug analyst and a forensic serologist. During his military service Dr. Rowe testified as an expert witness at Army courts-martial and processed crime scenes on several US Army posts. Dr. Rowe has also testified as an expert witness in both criminal and civil trials in state and federal jurisdictions across the United States.
Scott Snell
I’m a charter member of NCAS, a past vice
president, the current president, and I hope to continue to
serve on the NCAS board of directors. The capabilities that
NCAS events producer J. D. Mack has delivered to skeptics,
both locally and worldwide online, is a unique gift that I
support to the maximum possible extent. We skeptics are
inquirers, and NCAS, perhaps more than any other
organization in the world (other skeptics groups,
Smithsonian, news media, etc), offers unparalleled
opportunities for any event participant to share fully
visible moderated comments and questions with other
participants and have them conveyed to the speaker. As
moderator/host of our events, I strive for the greatest
possible opportunity to share information and questions,
both to and from our speakers. Now, more than ever, we can
consult with experts around the world, pose questions to
them that they may not have considered before, and see what
comes of it. By this, we can also lead by example. My hope
is that more and more people will incorporate skeptical
principles in their roles as citizens, students, employees,
and even as relatives and friends. What’s true, and how can
we know? What decisions can we make, despite inevitable
uncertainties? If we skeptics can ask the best questions,
we might even pick up some of the slack that much of our
news media has sadly dropped in its duty to inform the
public.
