CTN #20 – Kacie talks to Greg Hemmings about building a film company that engineers community impact

CTN #20 – Kacie talks to Greg Hemmings about building a film company that engineers community impact

Greg Hemmings is the founder of Hemmings House Pictures, a certified B Corp film production company based in New Brunswick, Canada. In this episode, Greg talks about using documentary film as a replication tool — finding civic programs that work somewhere in the world, documenting them, and building the infrastructure to transplant them at home. He shares how becoming a B Corp gave him the structural backbone to say no to work that didn't align with his values, and what it looks like to collaborate with scientists as a storyteller rather than a subject matter expert.

CTN #19 – Kacie talks to Christopher Matos-Rogers about making green homeownership a viable business

In this episode, host Kacie speaks with Christopher Matos-Rogers, an Atlanta-based real estate professional who has spent over a decade helping buyers navigate sustainable housing. Christopher shares how he translates building science, energy systems, and policy into practical guidance for everyday homeowners, and why leading with financial benefit rather than environmental ideology has been central to reaching broader audiences. They discuss the equity gaps in green homeownership, the challenge of serving renters alongside buyers, and how Christopher has taken his work into local policy, industry education, and community coalitions. Christopher also reflects on what long-term affordable housing actually requires, beyond the purchase price.

CTN #18 – Kacie talks to Meagan Naraine about building the Atlanta non-profit called Culturally Relevant Science

In this episode, host Kacie speaks with Meagan Naraine, co-founder and executive director of Culturally Relevant Science [https://www.crsci.org/], an Atlanta-based nonprofit developing K-12 science curriculum that centers students who have historically been left out of it. Drawing on nearly a decade as a classroom biology teacher, Meagan discusses how her founder story became a competitive advantage, why proximity to your audience is a strategic asset, and what aspiring civic science entrepreneurs should know about building a venture while still working in the field

SE #3 - Milky Way Project co-creator Grace Wolf-Chase shares lessons learned from the participatory science initiative (S1:Ep3)

In this episode of Science Engaged, Dr. Kristel Tjandra speaks with Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase [https://www.psi.edu/staff/profile/grace-wolf-chase/], a senior scientist and senior education and communication specialist at the Planetary Science Institute [https://www.psi.edu/], a nonprofit organization that supports a distributed network of planetary scientists. She is also the co-creator of the Milky Way Project [https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/povich/milky-way-project], a participatory science initiative that contributes to the understanding of how stars form.  In 2024, Dr. Wolf-Chase was elected as an American Astronomical Society fellow [https://aas.org/grants-and-prizes/aas-fellows] for outstanding and sustained work to bring the wonders of astronomical research to the general public. In our conversation, she explains why she views public engagement as integral to scientific practice itself, not separate from it. Drawing on her experience designing and sustaining citizen science projects, she highlights one of the central design constraints that practitioners often underestimate: while many people are motivated to contribute to science, participation is limited less by interest than by time. This reality shaped the Milky Way Project and similar initiatives to allow flexible, low-commitment participation without requiring long-term obligations. Click here [https://civicsciencemedia.org/milky-way-project-co-creator-grace-wolf-chase-says-public-engagement-is-every-bit-as-important-as-excellent-scientific-research/] to access the full analysis of the conversation.

SE #2 – Haley Davis on SeaKeepers’ mission to advance marine citizen science (S1:Ep2)

In this episode of Science Engaged [https://civicsciencemedia.org/audio-programs/], Dr. Kristel Tjandra speaks with Citizen Science Manager, Haley Davis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-davis-addison/], from the International SeaKeepers Society [https://www.seakeepers.org/], an ocean conservation nonprofit that advances marine research by engaging the yachting community. Davis explains how private vessels can serve as research platforms through citizen science programs and scientist-led expeditions, including contributions to the Seabed 2030 [https://seabed2030.org/] effort to map the world’s ocean floor. She shares key insights with me on how distributed vessel participation expands data collection, why well-designed protocols enable non-scientists to gather usable data, and why many boat owners choose to support research. She also discusses practical challenges, including aligning expectations between scientists and yacht crews, protecting private vessels during fieldwork, and addressing skepticism about the quality of citizen-generated data.