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In this episode, host Kacie speaks with Heather Adams, owner of Snapology of Atlanta East, the show's first civic science entrepreneur to build through a franchise. Heather shares how a career in early childhood education and years as a preschool franchisee led her to buy into a STEM enrichment brand, and what it takes to make an established model succeed in your own community. They discuss choosing a franchise that fits your values, why she prioritized program quality over short-term profit in year one, the challenge of knowing when to delegate during rapid growth, and how a mobile business model helps her reach kids across Atlanta who haven't yet discovered STEM is for them.

In this episode, host Kacie speaks with Minista Jazz, founder of Much Different World and a self-described liberation technologist, about building cooperative digital infrastructure that turns cultural communities into economies. Minista Jazz explains why she draws a hard line between a platform and a home, how the earliest support for her venture came from the people closest to her, and how she thinks about measuring impact when the goal is changing how people relate to technology itself. It is a conversation about founder conviction, ownership, and imagining a different way of building online.

Host Kacie talks with Lauren Gregory, founder of the PAT app, about building a women's health platform from a background in market research and consumer insights. Lauren shares how a personal health journey became the catalyst for entrepreneurship, why she uses content as a working prototype to test ideas and build trust, and how she scrutinizes a trillion-dollar industry one ingredient at a time. She also speaks candidly about reworking her business model in real time and the kind of generational impact she hopes to have on public health research and policy. A conversation for anyone looking to turn a personal spark and existing skill set into a mission-driven venture.

In this episode, host Kacie speaks with Myiedra Miles Adams, an educator, communicator, and storyteller working to turn a deeply personal project into a consulting practice. What began as a resource Myiedra created for her own family grew into a bigger question: why are so many educational materials built to explain learners to others, rather than to help learners understand themselves? Myiedra shares how she identified that gap, why she's embracing the uncertainty of the early idea stage, who she wants at the table to shape and validate the work, and how she defines success not in metrics but in stories of partnership between families, educators, and the learners they support. A grounded look at the very beginning of an entrepreneurial journey.

https://www.myiedraspeaks.com/

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.

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.

In this episode, host Kacie speaks with Meagan Naraine, co-founder and executive director of Culturally Relevant Science, 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

In this episode of Science Engaged, Dr. Kristel Tjandra speaks with Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase, a senior scientist and senior education and communication specialist at the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports a distributed network of planetary scientists. She is also the co-creator of the 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 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 to access the full analysis of the conversation.

In this episode of Science Engaged, Dr. Kristel Tjandra speaks with Citizen Science Manager, Haley Davis, from the International SeaKeepers Society, 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 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.

In this episode, I speak with Dr. John Besley from Michigan State University, whose work focuses on public opinion about science and scientists’ opinion about the public. John is a co-author of the book Strategic Science Communication: A Guide to Setting the Right Objectives for More Effective Public Engagement and another open access book, published in 2025, called Science Communication for Scientists. John explains 3 key questions that help people decide whether they want to participate in a science project: Is it worthwhile? Do I have the means to do it? Are the scientists trustworthy?