Angela Zhou
Angela Zhou has been working hard behind-the-scenes to bring you our monthly #CDNSCICHAT Twitter chats! She brings plenty of science communication skill to the role as she currently works as a medical writer for Turnstone Biologics, Inc., a company that develops therapies that induce your immune system to kill off tumor cells as a way of treating cancer. Angela came to her role as a medical writer after completing her PhD in Immunology at the University of Toronto. Angela was drawn to study Immunology because of her fascination with how the immune-system is a double-edged sword – our immune systems work constantly to protect us from infections and cancer but if overactive, we suffer from autoimmune diseases and allergies.
We asked Angela what she would tell others about her time volunteering with E4D and she said: “My experience volunteering with E4D has been rewarding, and I recommend it to anyone interested in getting involved in outreach and advocacy. Helping set up the monthly Twitter chats gives me the opportunity to communicate with and learn from a diverse range of researchers from across the country. It’s a great way to see the wealth of knowledge and curiosity in Canada, from all sorts of sectors, and definitely never dull!”
When she’s not dedicating her time to science and science advocacy, you can find Angela calming down and de-stressing by pouring herself into painting or spending time at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Farah Qaiser
If you’re on Twitter, you very likely know Farah Qaiser for her top-notch science communication skills and super helpful threads on science policy issues and beyond. When Farah isn’t juggling science communication, outreach and policy initiatives*, she is busy with her studies as a graduate student at the University of Toronto’s Molecular Genetics department. Farah analyses patient DNA (using whole genome sequencing) to better understand the underlying genetics of complex neurological disorders.
During her graduate degree, Farah became familiar with E4D’s work and, as part of her amazing Wikipedia editing efforts, created a Wikipedia page for E4D and expanded the page of our co-founder Katie Gibbs! Since then, she’s shared more of her time and talents on our blog.
We asked Farah what she would tell someone who was thinking of offering their time, talents, or treasures to E4D. Here’s what she told us: “When it comes to supporting organizations, people often think that donations are the only way. While donations are (greatly) appreciated, it isn’t the only way to show support. You can support E4D by donating your time, skills or even sharing E4D campaigns in your personal network. In my case, I offered my time and words for E4D’s blog.”
On top of all this amazing work, Farah is happiest when curled up with cliched dystopian novels or TV shows, unwinding by actively ignoring her to-do list.
