News from Those Nerdy Girls

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Welcome to News from Those Nerdy Girls!

Health information has never been more challenging to navigate. Those Nerdy Girls has been bringing you up-to-date, no-nonsense health information since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Our mission is to bring you trusted answers to your most pressing health questions, always ensuring a scientific, data-driven take with a heavy dose of humor and empathy. We have a special focus on infectious disease, reproductive health, aging, mental health, and data literacy but cover many other health topics as well. Our Nerdy Girls are always ready to address anything you’re most confused or curious about. Through our work, we empower people to share knowledge within their communities and make better decisions for themselves and those close to them. 

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We want everyone to benefit from our content, and that is why none of our content is ever paywalled. To ensure that we can continue to reach a broad audience with our free content, please consider a paid subscription. This can be $5/month or$50/year.

As a paid subscriber, you will:

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  • Be invited to attend 2-3 live events with Those Nerdy Girls each year. 

We want to be able to compensate our writers and have funds to train more scientists to do this important work. We appreciate your partnership and support! 

Thanks for making us one of your trusted sources of health information. We do not take that trust lightly. 

Love,

Those Nerdy Girls

What People Are Saying

“You are not just providing a critical educational service…you are inspiring girls everywhere to lean into data and science—nerdy is cool. You go girl!” -TNG fan Jaime

“Love this ALL FEMALE TRIFECTA…thank you for giving voice to data, fact, science. Appreciate your efforts to keep our communities safe, AND for inspiring our daughters to pursue STEM fields. If they can see it, THEY CAN BE IT.” -TNG fan Anne

“BTW, a colleague of mine has been on the fence about getting vaccinated and I asked her if I could send her some info…shared some DP [Dear Pandemic] screenshots and now she’s totally geeking out on the nerdy girls and ready to schedule her vaccine appt. You’re changing and saving lives!”

“I go to the NG often for answers to my questions and know I can rely on the answers you give - SO appreciative of your work and mission!” -TNG fan Regina

You can also find us at:

Website: www.thosenerdygirls.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dearpandemic/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thosenerdygirls
Twitter: @DearPandemic
Instagram: @ThoseNerdyGirls 

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People

Jenn Dowd, PhD

@drjenndowd
Professor of Demography & Population Health, University of Oxford. Exploring data on mortality, infectious diease/immunity, aging, biosocial science and more.

Malia Jones, PhD MPH

@maliajones
Dr. Malia Jones is an Assistant Professor at UW-Madison. Her research focuses on vaccine hesitancy and herd immunity. She's also the accidental co-founder and Director of Research at Those Nerdy Girls.

Aparna Kumar

@aparnakumar
Aparna Kumar is an Associate Clinical Professor and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) at Emory University/The Carter Center. She loves to break down stigma around mental health and serve up truth with a side of laughs.

Sara Gorman

@saragorman
I'm a public health and behavioral science expert with experience writing about misinformation and science denial.

Hall, Alexandra

@hallalexandra990183
Trained as a physician and an educator, Dr. Hall is passionate about interpreting science and communicating it to people in ways that can help them understand their bodies and make good health decisions.

Elisabeth Marnik

@fromthescienceclass
Elisabeth holds a PhD in genetics and immunology. She recently left her university faculty position to focus on science education and outreach to the public. She is also a wife, mother, hiker, runner and avid reader.

Daphne Berryhill

@daphnediscloses
GenX diary-inspired stories and long-form interviews. Elsewhere, I'm an oncology pharmacist, medical writer and reviewer.

MacKenzie Isaac

@mackenzieisaac548178
MacKenzie (Kenzie) is a health educator currently studying at the University of Oxford. She is passionate about positive youth development and culturally sustaining health communication and promotion.

Ashley Z Ritter 

@ashleyzritter518858
Aging Squad Lead at Those Nerdy Girls. Director of Research at NewCourtland, a housing, health, and service coordination provider in Philadelphia, PA. She integrates clinical knowledge, health policy, and research to translate science to daily life.

Clara Ke

@clarake148573
Clara is a registered nurse interested in exploring the care and wellbeing of older adults. Find us here too! https://thosenerdygirls.org/

Katherine Cartwright

@katherinecartwright
Katherine Cartwright is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist. She has an interest in the integration of evidence-based medicine and patient education, both individually in the exam room and on a broader community health level.

Megan Reilly

@meganreilly2
Megan Reilly is an MD/MPH candidate at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She is interested in battling misinformation, healthcare access, community outreach, reproductive health, and health literacy.

Irini Hadjisavva @dririnih

@ihadjisavva
PhD Scientist in Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Science Communicator, and Author who focuses on gut health and the gut microbiome.

Alison Buttenheim

@alisonbuttenheim
Philly Nerdy Girl, Behavioral Scientist, LEGO Serious Play obsessed.

Gayle Mendoza

@gaylemendoza
Gayle (she/her) is a public health program manager, communications director, and registered nurse. Her interests include infectious disease, maternal and child health, and leveraging AI for health. BU SPH, UPenn, and UMiami alumn.

Ilana Gerjuoy

@ilanagerjuoy
Ilana Gerjuoy, MPH, works on health policy and communications for a community coalition in Western Massachusetts.

Gabriella Kountourides

@gkcom
Dr. Kountourides completed her PhD in Repro Health at the University of Oxford. In her professional capacity, she works at Ofcom as a statistician, focusing on illegal harms in the online sphere. She loves to talk about science and her pet rabbits.

Rachel Spahnn

@rspahnn
Public health professional and research guru located in Madison, WI. UW-Madison MPH and UCLA alum with experience in Alzheimer's, Schizophrenia, global health, women's health, and bioinformatics research.

Those Nerdy Girls 

@thosenerdygirls
We are an all-female team of PhD researchers and clinicians whose mission is to educate and empower individuals to successfully navigate science and health information.

Sarah Coles

@sarahcoles400608
Dr. Sarah Coles is a family physician and program director for the Family and Community Medicine Residency at North Country HealthCare and associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Chana Davis @FueledbyScience

@chanapdavis
Scientist (PhD genetics) with a passion for using science to make healthy choices. Lover of nature and fitness. Mom of three kids in Vancouver, Canada.

Amanda M. Simanek, PhD, MPH

@amandamsimanekphdmph307130
Dr. Simanek is Associate Professor in the Chicago Medical School and Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at Rosalind Franklin University. She studies how social inequities in health develop across the lifecourse and over generations.

MK Haber, FNP-C

@mkhaberfnp
MK is a nurse practitioner, a lactation consultant, & founder of Charm City Wellness Collaborative in Baltimore, MD. Interests are reproductive health, care of LGBTQ+ families, & health equity for people marginalized due to intersecting identities.

Andrea Harmony

@andreacrnp
Andrea Harmony is a Nurse Practitioner in Pediatric Urgent Care and a Public Health Professional.

Roopa Seshadri

@roopas
Roopa Seshadri is a quantitative social scientist who studies the impact of human services programs on health and wellbeing outcomes in at-risk and underserved populations.

Megan Madsen

@megancmadsen
Family and geriatric medicine physician, osteopathic enthusiast, mom to 2 boys. My philosophy for patient care is 1) evidence based medicine first, then 2) common sense when evidence isn’t available. I am a lifelong believer in causing good trouble.

Lauren Hale

@laurenhale605704
Lauren Hale, PhD (Stony Brook University) studies the social patterning of sleep health. Dr. Hale is the Immediate Past Chair of the National Sleep Foundation and founding Editor-in-Chief of Sleep Health.

Brianna Morgan

@briannamorgannp
Brianna is a Geriatric and Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner and researcher with over a decade of nursing experience caring for older adults living with serious illnesses including dementia, cancer, and severe brain injury.

Sandy Laping

@sandylaping
Sandy Laping is a Physical Therapist, who is now shifting her career into the public health domain. She is studying for a Masters of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Ashley Sever, MPH

@ashleymsever
Ashley is a health communications strategist focused on creating and implementing health and science education programs and social marketing campaigns.

Aja Sutton, PhD

@ajasuttonphd
Aja Sutton is a computational social scientist focused on population health. Currently, she's a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Population Research Center at Portland State University.

Sandra Albrecht

@sandraalbrecht147317
Dr. Sandra Albrecht is a bilingual social and nutritional epidemiologist who studies the barriers that prevent people from eating in a healthy way and that make it difficult to prevent and manage nutrition-related diseases like diabetes.

Christina Whitehouse

@christinarw
Christina Whitehouse is an Assistant Professor at Villanova University Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, Villanova, PA. She is an adult health/gerontology primary care nurse practitioner and certified diabetes care & education specialist.

Sarah Clifford Glapa

@sarahglapa
Sarah Clifford Glapa, MS, MPH (she/her) is the Associate Director of Marketing & Health Communications for University Health Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a Faculty Instructor in the School of Medicine & Public Health.

Parvati Singh

@parvatisingh
Psychiatric Epidemiologist at The Ohio State University, also interested in maternal child health.

Rebecca Raskin-Wish

@rebeccaraskinwish
Rebecca Raskin-Wish is a former nonfiction book editor. She currently attends medical school at Drexel Univeristy College of Medicine and researches the impact of medical misinformation.
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