Caprice Phillips

Outreach and Service

Highlighted here are some of the long-standing outreach projects and programs I have been a part of. For further details about all the outreach programs, panels, and talks I have been a part of please check out my CV

Black In Astro

I am the part of the leadership team and vice-president of Black In Astro. Black In Astro is a grassroots movement designed to celebrate and amplify the Black experience in space related fields, inclusing astronomy & astrophysics. As part of these efforts, I have led and received grants from The Ohio State Univeristy and the Heising-Simons Foundation to support these efforts and to implement programs. Through our grants, I led the developement of the Black In Astro travel grants, and undergraduate and graduate student research showcases for members of Black In Astro. For the past four years, I have worked alongside the Black In Astro leadership team for the #BlackSpaceWeek programming which features panels, research showcases, and more duing the week of Juneteenth. As part of #BlackSpaceWeek, I initiated the collaboration with the American Astronomical Society to feature Black scholars in the field as part of the AAS Journal Author YouTube Series. For our work and efforts with Black In Astro, we received the Annie Maunder Metal for Outreach for astronomy or geophysics from the Royal Astronomical Society and have been featured in an Nature Astronomy article, 'The representation of Blackness in Astronomy'.

URSA

The Undergraduate Residential Summer Access program (URSA) is a two-week early arrival orientation program for undergraduates dedicated to forming a friendly community amongst historically underrepresented students in Physics and Astronomy majors before the school year starts. Some of the goals for URSA include (1) Modeling science as it is practiced (2) Building a peer and near-peer community (3) Teaching skills for effective group work (4) Building a metacognitive and meta-affective toolkit with participants (5) Sharing knowledge about diversity and equity in scientific institutions. Within URSA, for two years I was an academic facilitator responsible for instructing the URSA students on sessions and coding related to exoplanetary science. We also advised the student groups during their research project for end of program presentation. The lectures I developed can be found and downloaded here

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Throughout my academic career I have been able to particate in various speaking engagements about my academic journey and research. Below are some of the speaking opportunities throughout the years.

Education Experience and Teaching

Museum of Discovery

While working on my Bachelors in Arkansas, I had the opportunity to work at The Museum of Discovery, a science center where I became passionate about education. At the Museum of Discovery I worked as an educator in the Tinkering Studio, where I facilitated hands-on STEM activities with visitors. Along with my work in the Tinkering Studio, I worked on the mobile museum, Race for Planet X, which brought STEM education across Arkansas. I performed outreach services for the Museum including science demos at afterschool programs and visits to the Arkansas Children's Hospital.