Stories that connect art and discovery

Aaron Guest is a socio-environmental gerontologist and an inaugural Assistant Professor of Aging within the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation and a Senior Sustainability Scientist within the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University.

Aaron McGee is a Professor of Translational Neurosciences at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix. He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco. His research focuses on how neuroplasticity can be modulated for therapeutic applications.

With over 15 years of experience in museums and informal education, I am passionate about leading engaging and educational experiences for diverse audiences. As the Director of Dorrance DOME Experiences at Arizona Science Center, I lead the strategy, programming, and operations of the world-leading 18-meter LED dome, powered by COSM’s CX system, along with related immersive experiences throughout the Science Center. I have a Master of Arts in History and a Master of Science in STEM Education, as well as a National Certificate for STEM Teaching. I leverage my academic background and professional skills to develop and deliver innovative and interactive shows, events, and exhibits that showcase current science and engaging educational stories. I also supervise and collaborate with talented teams across departments, and support a multi-million-dollar annual operating budget. Through my work, I aim to inspire curiosity, wonder, and learning among guests and partners.

My name is Alexandra Bowers, and I was born and raised in the Sonoran Desert. As an artist focusing on the natural world, my intention is to find ways the environment and our personal lives intersect and converse with one another. Utilizing the wood burning process technically known as pyrography, allows me to illustrate with heat the indigenous plants and animals that live within our neighborhoods and urban streets. Over the years I’ve witnessed technology and made-made structures detach us physically and psychologically from our arid surroundings. Urban sprawl has forced our habitat to either vanish or move away. As we pave, develop, and grow our urban cities, the natural environment diminishes and is forced to change and adapt to its human neighbors. My work is concerned with highlighting these beings, to bring our awareness and emotional empathy back to them before they move on, or permanently disappear.

Alison Lane is an artist and first-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix. Working primarily through portraiture and traditional media, her practice explores the human condition and its intersection with healthcare, with attention to empathy, identity, and lived experience.

Dr. Peckham leads actionable research to guide enhanced care quality, care coordination and integration of health and social care services for older adults and complex populations (i.e., older adults living with dementia or co-morbid conditions, those living with a serious mental illness (SMI), and unpaid caregivers). She relies on co-design and integrated knowledge translational approaches where people with lived experience (patients, caregivers, care providers, decision makers) are actively involved in her research.