Make science feel like it belongs to everyone.
Raven Baxter
MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST
AWARD-WINNING SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR
STEM CHANGEMAKER & EDUCATOR
SPEAKING FEE: $20,000 - $25,000
Meet Raven the Science Maven
Molecular biologist with a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, & the Science of Learning
Science communicator reaching more than 650,000+ followers across digital platforms
Combines scientific expertise with culturally responsive communication to build public trust and make science meaningful to diverse audiences
Dr. Raven Baxter is an established, award-winning leader, partner, and voice for science, health, and culture.
Trained as a molecular biologist, Dr. Baxter worked in drug discovery while building an audience as a hair and beauty creator on YouTube. In 2016, she turned that platform toward science to build public trust and engagement. She is known for making science joyful and memorable, pairing deep expertise with humor, music, and pop culture. Today, as Dr. Raven the Science Maven, she shares science with more than 660,000 people on social media. Her videos, spanning biology, health, chemistry, and the natural world, reach millions each month.
Her work is dedicated to building public trust in science and health, from a child's first experiment to what adults learn and act on in their lives and communities. She leads with play, authenticity, and delight. She meets people where they spend their time, in their feeds, classrooms, and neighborhoods.
Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science and Fortune 40 Under 40 in Health, Dr. Baxter became a trusted voice during the COVID-19 pandemic. She went on to host Pfizer's award-winning podcast, Science Will Win, and to write a national vaccine science curriculum for the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA.
An educator who has taught in K-12 and university classrooms, with a doctorate focused on science communication, she now leads The Science Haven, a nonprofit expanding access to science, while hosting her own podcast, The Science of Life with Dr. Raven Baxter. She has spoken on more than 100 stages and counting, including as an invited speaker for Disney, PepsiCo, Princeton University, and the Smithsonian.
SPEAKING TOPICS
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Exploring art and storytelling through science
When Dr. Baxter posted about Coquita, a crocodile who had a virgin birth, and about clownfish that change sex, thousands of adults argued in her comments about faith, gender, and what nature should look like. Their arguments started where their science lessons had stopped.
A former high school chemistry teacher, Dr. Baxter sees every science teacher as teaching two people. One is the child in the room. The other is the adult that child grows into, who votes, serves on juries, and sits in parent conferences. In this keynote, she shows educators how to take a lesson one fact further through the stories and movies children already love. Ideal for educator conferences, school districts, and museums.
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Misinformation spreads fastest when trusted voices are missing from the conversation. In this talk, first given as Virginia Tech's Hugh and Ethel Kelly Lecture, Dr. Baxter looks at how the scientific community earns public trust. Science communication, she says, is "about speaking with intention, empathy, confidence, and understanding."
She covers how institutions can identify, prepare, and support the people best suited to speak to the public, and how every scientist can strengthen trust within their own corner of the field. Ideal for universities, research institutions, and professional societies.
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"You don't look like a scientist" is a sentence Dr. Baxter heard for years. It became the title of her TEDx talk. In this keynote, she shares her journey in STEM, from a rocky first try at college to earning a doctorate and sharing science with millions of people. She talks about what that journey taught her about who feels welcome in science and how to make more room for others.
The talk is personal and honest. Audiences leave with practical ways to open the door for someone else. Ideal for conferences, commencements, student audiences, and heritage-month events.
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There is chemistry in your coffee, your hair, and the smell of the air after it rains. Dr. Baxter walks audiences through the molecules behind an ordinary day, with the same honest science and delight she brings to her audience online. Audiences leave seeing the science in their everyday routines. Ideal for general audiences, museums, schools, and family or community events.
