Raven Baxter
Technical organisations need their science to be trusted, understood, and acted on by audiences who do not share the technical training. The talent pool that can do this credibly is small, and is even smaller for organisations trying to reach communities that have historically been excluded from science. Most internal communications functions are not built for that gap.
Raven Baxter is a molecular biologist and science communication executive who helps research institutions, healthcare organisations, and science-led companies translate complex technical content into communication audiences trust.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Raven Baxter
- She brings the credibility of a working scientist with a doctorate in the science of learning, which means her communication advice rests on evidence about how people actually absorb technical content, not marketing instinct.
- She has hosted Pfizer’s flagship podcast Science Will Win across two seasons, giving her demonstrated experience translating drug discovery and oncology research for general audiences inside a regulated commercial environment.
- Her body of work, including viral hip-hop science videos and TEDx talk “You Don’t Look Like a Scientist,” gives her unusual reach into communities most science communication never touches.
- She founded Fervae, the first social media management platform built specifically for working scientists, which positions her as a builder of the infrastructure science communication has been missing, not only a practitioner.
- Her recognitions, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, Fortune 40 Under 40 in Health, Ebony Power 100, signal credibility across science, health, and culture audiences in a way few single speakers can claim.
Biography highlights
- Founder and CEO of Fervae, a social media management platform for scientists, announced at Science Talk 2026.
- President and Executive Director of The Science Haven, a 501(c)(3) advancing STEM equity through programmes including Stellar Dreams, an astronomy education partnership with Celestron, CuriosityStream, and NASA.
- Host of Pfizer’s Science Will Win podcast (Seasons 5 and 6) and host of NASA’s International Space Station Research and Development Conference; creator-host of The Science of Life with Dr. Raven Baxter.
- Keynote and distinguished-lecture platforms including the National Science Teaching Association national conference, Princeton’s Amplifying Voices Distinguished Lecture, Virginia Tech’s Kelly Lecture on science and misinformation, and the opening keynote of the California Science Education Conference.
- Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science (2022), Fortune 40 Under 40 in Health (2020), Ebony Power 100 (2022), AAUW Woman of Distinction (2022).
- Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning, University at Buffalo, with a dissertation on culturally responsive science communication.
Biography
Most science communication still treats audiences as a problem to be managed: simplified, talked down to, or routed through a press release. The result is that technical organisations are surprised, repeatedly, by how little of their work is understood outside their own walls. Raven Baxter’s career has been built on closing that gap with method, not charisma alone.
Trained as a molecular biologist at Buffalo State College and as a learning scientist at the University at Buffalo, she earned her doctorate with a dissertation on culturally responsive science communication, anchoring her practice in research about how technical content actually lands. She went on to host Pfizer’s Science Will Win across two seasons, taking drug discovery and oncology research to audiences a regulated pharmaceutical company could not reach through conventional channels. She has since hosted NASA’s International Space Station Research and Development Conference and taken the question of scientific misinformation to stages including Virginia Tech’s Kelly Lecture and the California Science Education Conference, where the brief is not simplification but trust.
She is now Founder and CEO of Fervae, a social media management platform built specifically for working scientists, announced at Science Talk 2026. Alongside Fervae, she leads The Science Haven, a 501(c)(3) advancing STEM equity, and serves as Director of Development and Partnerships and Chair of the Ethics Consortium at the Association of Science Communicators.
The recognitions track her dual reach across science and culture: Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, Fortune 40 Under 40 in Health, the Ebony Power 100, the AAUW Woman of Distinction Award, and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. Her TEDx talk “You Don’t Look Like a Scientist” is her clearest single statement of why representation matters to the credibility of science itself.
Key speaking topics
- Science communication and public trust in evidence
- Identity and belonging in STEM
- Misinformation and scientific credibility
- Health and biomedical communication
- Culturally responsive communication and education
- Building infrastructure for science communicators
Ideal for
- Heads of communications, public affairs, and corporate affairs at pharma, biotech, and healthcare organisations
- Chief diversity officers and CHROs in science-led and technical industries
- University and research institution leaders responsible for public engagement and outreach
- Foundations and nonprofits investing in STEM education, equity, and workforce pipeline
Audience outcomes
- A clearer view of why technical credibility and cultural credibility have to live in the same person for science to be trusted across audiences.
- Specific examples of how working scientists and communicators are using digital platforms to reach communities that traditional outreach has missed.
- A working sense of what culturally responsive science communication looks like in practice, drawn from her own research and field work.
- A more honest read of where institutional science communication is falling short, and what infrastructure has been missing.
Talks
A working method for keeping science credible with audiences who start from doubt, drawn from her research and from stages including Virginia Tech’s Kelly Lecture and the California Science Education Conference.
Key takeaways:
- How misinformation takes hold with non-expert audiences, and where technical organisations lose trust before they notice it happening.
- What earning credibility actually requires when an audience is sceptical, beyond clearer messaging.
- Practical ways to meet audiences in the language and on the platforms they already use, without diluting the evidence.
Her TEDx talk on why who is visible in science shapes who trusts it, and how organisations widen access to STEM without lowering the bar.
Key takeaways:
- Why representation in STEM is a credibility and workforce question, not only a matter of fairness.
- The cost to public trust when the people communicating science do not reflect the people receiving it.
- Concrete steps organisations can take to widen who carries their science to the public.
How cultural forms an audience already trusts, from storytelling to social media, can carry accurate science to people that conventional outreach never reaches.
Key takeaways:
- Why culturally responsive formats outperform simplification when the audience is sceptical.
- How creative formats have delivered accurate science on subjects like COVID-19 and vaccines.
- What corporate and educational programmes can borrow from this approach for their own audiences.
Evidence-based translation for patients and the public, drawn from hosting Pfizer’s Science Will Win, turning complex medicine and research into language people can act on.
Key takeaways:
- Where health and science messaging typically loses patients and the public, and why.
- How to translate regulated, technical content without oversimplifying or overpromising.
- What communications and public affairs teams can reuse across campaigns and channels.
What scientists need to be heard, and the infrastructure the field has never had, drawn from building Fervae.
Key takeaways:
- Why individual scientists struggle to build a credible public presence, and what is missing.
- The tools and support that would let more researchers communicate well at scale.
- What institutions can do now to build communication capacity rather than outsource it.
For researchers and communicators building a public platform with integrity, a practical account of growing an audience that advances the science.
Key takeaways:
- How to build an authentic public presence without compromising scientific credibility.
- The habits and boundaries that keep a growing platform trustworthy as it grows.
- How institutions can support researchers who want to communicate in public.