Outreach

Astronomy and academic outreach involvement

Programs

  • Co-Founder, Program Coordinator & Mentor — Preparing the Emerging Next Generation Using Inclusive Mentorship (PENGUIN)
    Mentorship organization Aug. 2025 – present
    PENGUIN is a cross-institutional network of astronomers committed to inclusive mentorship practices. The idea was developed in community at the CHOIR collaboration meeting in 2025. I am a part of the organizing team and a mentor/mentee in our pilot program. Mentorship in this program is centered in the evidence-based practices of near-peer and family mentoring structures with the goal of reducing the impact of individual power dynamics on early-career astronomers. Check out more about PENGUIN here.
  • Co-Founder — Community Of Feedback For Ethical Engagement — is a community initiative at UCLA Physics and Astronomy (COFFEE)
    UCLA Physics & Astronomy Aug. 2025 – present
    COFFEE is a group of astronomers who engage in public outreach and seek to collaboratively improve their program. Like PENGUIN, this idea was a product of discussions at the CHOIR collaboration 2025 meeting. I've been a founding member and regular participant in our meetings, including leading meetings, writing foundational materials, and web development. Learn more / join COFFEE here.
  • Peer Mentor & Program Coordinator — Marginalized Identities in Physics and Astronomy (MIPA)
    UCLA Physics & Astronomy Oct. 2021 – present (Coordinator: Jun. 2024 – Jun. 2025)

    Marginalized Identities in Physics and Astronomy is dedicated to building a more inclusive, accessible, and equitable environment for graduate students who identify with one or more marginalized groups, including but not limited to: women+; Black, Indigenous, & People of Color (BIPOC); LGBTQIA+ folks; neurodiverse and disabled people. The program strives to provide an intersectional support network for students who face systemic barriers to success in graduate school by building community, fostering camaraderie, and promoting allyship. I have been a member since Fall 2021 and served as program coordinator from Spring 2024 to June 2025.

    As part of my work with MIPA, I participate in the Critical MASS (Mentoring and Academic Strategies for Success) peer mentoring program, where a graduate mentor is partnered with both lower- and upper-division students in a group. We meet monthly both one-on-one and as a group to discuss topics designed to foster success in academic pursuits and beyond — getting involved in research, applying to grad school and jobs, careers in physics/astronomy, imposter syndrome, and more. My mentees include Ella Friess, Malena Bloom, Michaelia Fang (UCLA ’22), Abigail Lynch, Daphne Tenne, and Deniz Akin.

  • Peer Mentor — Physicists of Underrepresented Genders (PUGs)
    Carleton College Oct. 2020 – Jun. 2021
    As a member of Physicists of Underrepresented Genders (PUGs) [formerly Women+ in Physics (WIPS+)] I took part in peer mentoring, meeting with a lower-division student as an upperclassman to provide mentorship related to the Carleton Physics and Astronomy program. I was also part of various departmental events designed to increase inclusion, such as DiversiTEA discussion meetings and faculty panels.

Department Service & Professional

  • Referee — The Astrophysical Journal
    Mar. 2024 – present
  • Coordinator — UCLA Astro-ph Journal Club
    UCLA Astronomy Division Jun. 2024 – present
  • Co-Organizer — Naoz Research Group
    UCLA Physics & Astronomy Sep. 2022 – present
  • Co-Organizer — Graduate Program & NSF Application Database
    UCLA Physics & Astronomy Mar. 2025 – present
  • Graduate Student Representative for UCLA Physics
    Inclusive Graduate Programs (AGEP Pilot Program) May 2024 – May 2025
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee
    UCLA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Oct. 2023 – Jun. 2025
  • Graduate Student Webmaster
    UCLA Astronomy Division Jun. 2024 – Jun. 2025

Planetarium & Public Outreach

UCLA Planetarium

UCLA Planetarium projector

The UCLA planetarium is completely graduate-student run. Shows run for one hour, including a science talk at a public level and a night-sky showing on the dome. During the COVID-19 pandemic, shows were moved to a virtual format, livestreamed on YouTube. I am excited to share my interests in cosmology and astrophysics theory with any audience, as well as giving shows on topics related to inclusion.

As a planetarium coordinator (June 2022 – September 2024), I was part of the team running the facility — organizing weekly public shows and private shows for educational groups, recruiting and training volunteers, presenting shows, maintaining the website, and coordinating equipment maintenance. Our committee worked on a series of inclusive astronomy shows, outreach to Title I schools around Los Angeles, and upgrades to the planetarium's projector and public telescope facilities.

Left: The UCLA planetarium projector on the roof of the Mathematical Sciences Building.

  • "What is our Universe Made of?" (UCLA Women’s Faculty Club)Dec. 2025
  • "Hot Jupiters" — with Grant WeldonNov. 2025
  • "Our night sky and the cosmos beyond" (Women in Philanthropy @ UCLA)April 2025
  • "Dark Matter: Cosmic mysteries and future discoveries"June 2024
  • "Dark Matter"April 2024
  • "What is the Universe made of?"Jan. 2024
  • "Our Galaxy Neighborhood"Jan. 2024
  • "Butterfly Nebula: A Joint Poetry Reading and Planetarium Show" — with poet Laura HoganOct. 2023
  • "Discovering the first galaxies in the universe with Webb" (private show)Sept. 2023
  • "The James Webb Space Telescope’s First Year of Observations"Mar. 2023
  • "Webb’s First Look at the Universe" (Title I Careers in STEM Day at UCLA)Oct. 2022
  • "Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: The James Webb Space Telescope" (Spanish/English) — with Lizvette VillafañaSept. 2022
  • "Black Holes"June 2022
  • "The Big Bang: A Timeline of the Early Universe" — with Sahil HegdeMay 2022
  • "Celebrating Women’s History Month: Women Astronomers and their Discoveries" — with Nancy NingMar. 2022

Invited & Public Talks

Telescope Outreach

  • Outreach Volunteer — Goodsell Observatory Public Open House
    Carleton College, Northfield, MN Oct. 2019 – Jun. 2021
    The 16.2-inch John Brashear refractor at Goodsell Observatory I volunteered at the monthly public open houses of Carleton’s Goodsell Observatory, showing visitors celestial objects with the 16.2-inch John Brashear refractor in the main dome, the 8.25-inch Alvan Clark and Sons refractor in the small dome, and the 8-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain LX200 telescopes on the observing pad.
    Left: The 16.2-inch John Brashear refractor in the main dome of Goodsell Observatory.

Astronomy Introductory Coding Workshop

Foundational astronomy coding and research skills for undergraduate students.

Fellow grad student Sahil Hegde and I founded and teach the UCLA Astronomy Introductory Coding Workshop. The goal of the workshop is to teach foundational Python and astronomical coding skills to all levels of undergraduate students, addressing an issue we saw with many students in our department: python programming is not taught in astronomy classes, yet students are often expected to program in python when they start doing research. This problem is particularly acute for transfer students, who may not have followed the same core sequence and are looking for research opportunities in a shorter time frame. This program bridges the gap between students' physics and astronomy classes and their first research experience (i.e., an REU or individual project with faculty) in the course of one trimester.

We lead a series of weekly workshops drawing heavily on the excellent Python instructional notebooks by Imad Pasha. The workshop has run every Winter quarter since 2024.

Link to example course syllabus.

If you are an undergraduate student interested in joining the workshop, please email me.

Media

Recent highlights:

Anvil Science Highlight Jan 2026

Teaching Highlight (UCLA Teaching and Learning Center) Winter 2026

UCLA Newsroom press release on Williams et al. 2024, January 31st, 2024. Also: AAS Nova highlight — "Using Ancient Ultraviolet Light to Probe Theories of Cosmology," January 26th, 2024.