Dr. Erin Cadwalader leads the Entomological Society of America's (ESA) science policy and advocacy efforts. She is a key liaison between ESA and many allied groups and leads the Vector-Borne Disease Network (VBDN), a coalition in which UCR is an important member. Before joining the ESA staff, Erin worked with ESA for several years as the leading voice for the organization on Capitol Hill as an external consultant and lobbyist.

 

While her background is in biomedical research, she transitioned from the bench to the science policy community in D.C. nearly a decade ago and has worked on a wide range of advocacy issues related to scientific research and workforce development, higher education, and social justice for organizations such as Research!America, the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), and Lewis-Burke Associates LLC. She is passionate about the importance of evidence-based policymaking and ensuring science and research are part of the conversation.

 

Erin earned her bachelor's degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. in neurobiology and anatomy from the University of Utah.

Dr. Marianne Alleyne is an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with an affiliation position in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. Her lab, the Alleyne Bioinspiration Collaborative (ABCLab), studies the multifunctionality of materials associated with insects such as cicadas, flies, beetles, and leafhoppers. The lab also studies the biomechanics of the click beetle jump. Insights from the ABCLab's fundamental research have informed the engineering of multifunctional materials and robotic systems.

 

Marianne has been an active member of the world’s largest entomological professional society, the Entomological Society of America (ESA). She will serve in the presidential line of the society from 2020 through 2024, serving as President in 2022-2023. Throughout her career, Marianne has been committed to science communication and science policy, and she was an ESA Science Policy Fellow from 2014-2016, advocating for entomology at the federal level with the mission to promote opportunities for entomologists globally and enable them to share their science. Marianne has also been a driving force for ESA, and the Entomology Department on the Illinois campus, to nurture entomologists’ creativity by supporting innovation. She has shown a strong commitment to enhancing diversity, inclusion, and equity in science by co-developing ESA’s Code of Conduct Statement, serving the EntoAllies program, and refining Ethics and Misconduct Policies.

 

Marianne grew up in the Netherlands but moved to the United States to attend college. She earned her bachelor's degrees in Integrative Biology from University of California-Berkeley, her M.S. in Entomology from the University of California-Riverside, and her Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Shelah Morita is trained as an entomologist with a background in plant-insect interactions and evolutionary biology. After transferring to UC, Riverside to complete her Bachelors of Science in Biology, she worked on fire ecology, studied mycorrhizal fungi and desert plant diversity, conducted seed predator research, worked in ecological genetics, and was an entomologist for biodiversity and pollination studies. During graduate school at the UC, Davis’ Population Biology Graduate Group, Shelah researched the potential co-diversification of long-tongued fly pollinators with the South African flora with support from a U.S. Student Fulbright Fellowship to South Africa. As a Fulbright, she won the Amy Beihl Award for best Fulbright Student to South Africa in 2002. At North Carolina State University, Shelah became co-PI on a 6 year NSF PEET grant that trained 3 new systematic biologists. Following an NSF International Research Fellowship to South Africa, she returned to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum as a Research Collaborator.

 

From 2012-2014, Shelah was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the USDA Biotechnology Regulatory Services and as a policy analyst for the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office on behalf of the White House National Nanotechnology Initiative. After three years as an Executive Secretary for the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Shelah joined USDA's Plant Protection and Quarantine in 2016 as a Trade Director for Canada, and parts of Central America. She now serves as Assistant Director for all certification-based offshore pest mitigation programs.