Speaking

Talks for rooms that don't all start from the same premises

I speak to corporate leadership teams, conferences, and boards about science literacy, misinformation, and what it actually takes to lead people across a genuine belief gap, because I've lived on both sides of one.

2025–2026 marks 100 years since the Scopes Trial, a timely hook for any audience thinking about where the evolution-education fight stands now.

Signature topics

Keynote

Misinformation is a business risk, not just a classroom problem

How the erosion of science literacy shows up in your workforce, your customers, and your public trust, and what leaders can do before it reaches your organization.

Keynote

Leading people who don't start out agreeing with you

Lessons from a career spent moving between a creationist upbringing and a career defending evolution education: a working model for leading across genuine conviction gaps.

Panel / Fireside

The STEM pipeline starts earlier than you think

What's actually happening in U.S. classrooms around evolution and climate education, and why it matters to any organization that hires scientists, engineers, or informed citizens.

Keynote

Scopes at 100: what a century of litigating evolution teaches us about truth under pressure

Marking 100 years since the Scopes Trial, this talk traces the throughline from a 1925 Tennessee courtroom to today's misinformation landscape, and what it means for any institution defending evidence-based decisions.

Workshop

Changing a mind without losing the relationship

A practical session on persuasion and trust-building drawn from decades of evolution-education advocacy in some of the most resistant audiences in the country.

Audience fit

Best suited for

Leadership offsites

Executive teams navigating internal disagreement, culture change, or public trust challenges.

Conferences & summits

Innovation, education, science communication, and civic-engagement programming, including SXSW-style crossover audiences.

Boards & funders

Briefings for boards and philanthropic partners evaluating investment in science education and public trust.

Selected past engagements

2026

A Trial Without End: Why We Are Still Litigating Scopes a Century Later

Invited address, Binghamton University Evolutionary Studies Program, Binghamton, NY.

2025

You Can't Outrun a Warming Planet: Teaching Climate Science in a Changing World

K.D. Nelson Lecture Series, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.

2025

Evolution Education 100 Years Since Scopes

Invited address, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.

2025

The Science of Controversy: Understanding and Addressing Public Skepticism About Evolution

Spencer Mass Memorial Lecture, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY.

2025

Fearless Science

Keynote address, Association for Science Teacher Education International Conference, Long Beach, CA.

2021

A house on solid ground: science and faith in the evangelical South

Invited address, Samford University, Birmingham, AL.

2021

Overcoming Barriers to Scientific Literacy in the United States: Reflections and Vision for Evolution Education

Invited highlighted address, National Association of Biology Teachers National Conference, Atlanta, GA.

2020

Can science and faith truly co-exist?

Invited address, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, GA.

2020

Barriers, Beliefs, and Border Crossings: Worldview and the Pursuit of Scientific Literacy

Award keynote address, NABT University Luncheon, National Association of Biology Teachers National Conference, Baltimore, MD.

2019

Reflections of an Evangelical Evolutionary Biologist: Walking in a World of Science and Faith

Invited address, University of Texas at Tyler Darwin Week, Tyler, TX.

2018

Laboring for Souls, Laboring for Science

Invited address hosted by Qrious, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (SMNH), Washington, D.C.

2017

Unspeakable, forbidden, taboo: Conversations about evolution in the American Southeast

Invited address, Museum of Natural Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.

2016

Understanding, beliefs, and conceptual change: lessons from Southern culture and the evolution taboo

3rd Annual Darwin Day Lectures Program, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.

2015

Featured in "The Pot-Stirrer: Southern Evolution"

Macroscope video profile, NPR's Science Friday, filmed in Jacksonville, AL, while teaching high school science.

2015

Negotiating the Challenges of Teaching Evolution

Panel discussion, Science Friday Education.

Bring this to your stage

Tell me about your audience and the date, and I'll follow up with fit and availability.