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.
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