Letter from the Editor

We live in a time when words like “women,” “gender” and “diversity” are banned or restricted in federal research grants, particularly at agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. 

Yet that has not stopped trailblazing women from searching for urgent, innovative, science-based solutions to the human-caused “climate crisis” (another phrase that’s been banned, along with “global warming” and “emissions”). 

These scientists are working to safeguard the safety of our water, air and soil. They’re seeking the smartest ways we can transition to clean energy. They’re pushing their limits to stop deforestation and curb greenhouse gas emissions. And they’re doing it within a system that – on top of the banned words and the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental protections — has long discriminated against them. Research confirms that women in science are paid less, given fewer leadership roles, and receive far less recognition than their male peers. 

We can help with that last problem. 

At The Story Exchange, we have long elevated women’s voices and achievements. Today, we are thrilled to spotlight these women scientists — nominated by peers — who are working tirelessly on our behalf. Their efforts alone will, of course, not be enough to save our natural world. We need thousands of committed scientists (and business and industries) like them. But their stories, dedication and perseverance can surely inspire others to try to do the same – and maybe just give the Earth a fighting chance. 

Kathleen Alexander

Making Butter in a Lab – No Plants or Animals Needed

At Savor, Kathleen Alexander is using organic chemistry to create fats and cooking oils that won't damage the planet.

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Marianne Cowherd

Searching for Snow in the Water-Strapped West

Marianne Cowherd, a snow hydrologist, is unpacking the shifting nature of snowfall – and what it means for water availability.

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Liz Dennett

Inspired by Alaska Upbringing, This Scientist is Exploring the 'Edge of Possibility'

Liz Dennett is the founder of Endolith, which uses microbes to extract critical minerals for clean energy.

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Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi

From Dew on Plant Leaves to Tropical Rivers, She Follows the Water

At Berkeley, Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi leads research on how climate change disrupts water cycles.

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Madeline Walker Miller

She Turns Textile Waste Into a Climate Solution

In Detroit,Madeline Walker Miller of NexTiles is giving a second life to fabric shreds from fashion, automotive and aircraft companies.

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Rebecca Peters

She Rowed Across Crocodile-Infested Waters – and Became a Better Leader

Rebecca Peters of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center translates science into practical action. Fieldwork is key, she says.

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Katherine Siegel

After Wildfires, This Scientist Reads the Future of the Land

In Yellowstone and beyond, Katherine Siegel blends high-tech data with on-the-ground conversations to help save iconic landscapes.

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Ada Smith

Protecting the Earth, One American Rancher at a Time

Rural sociologist Ada Smith helps ranching communities in the West adapt to climate change. The work is more mental than you’d think, she says.

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Paige Stanley

This Scientist Studies Better Grazing Practices – for Cows, and the Earth

Paige Stanley of Colorado State University studies carbon in the soils and works with ranchers to heal their land.

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Sarah Waickowski

She's Helping Cities Manage Stormwater Floods

In South Carolina, Sarah Waickowski investigates the use of green streets, rain gardens and permeable pavements to improve water quality and reduce flooding.

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Yagmur Yegin

Imagining a World Without Food Waste

Yagmur Yegin's biodegradable food technology, developed at MIT, could extend shelf life without refrigeration.

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The post Saving Nature: 11 Women to Watch in Science appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Editor’s note: This profile is part of our 11 Women to Watch in Science package.

Can we make butter without grass-munching cows, without – gasp! – heavy cream? What might sound like an existential question for veteran chefs, home cooks and foodies is really a straightforward one for scientist Kathleen Alexander. Her answer: Yes, and it’s delicious. 

At Savor, the San Jose startup where she serves as CEO, Alexander has spent the past four years developing a process that transforms carbon, hydrogen and oxygen – through a series of organic chemistry steps – into a sustainable, creamy yellow fat … one that most people are instantly familiar with in all its whipped, cubed, softened glory. But Savor’s version uses no plants or animals, destroys far less forests, and wastes far less water than the sticks in your fridge.

“If you think of the land footprint, our process is about a thousand times smaller than traditional agriculture, specifically if you’re looking at butter,” Alexander says. “There are ways that we already have of making food, but they happen to be very impactful in terms of ecosystem consumption.”

Alexander, who earned a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has long been interested in trying to fix the plant’s broken food system. “It’s actually a very magnificent food system, in that we humans have figured out how to feed so many of us on this little planet,” she says. But the environmental costs have been high. “Over the course of the last 10,000 years of scaling up agriculture, we’ve consumed over 70% of Earth’s primary forests,” she says. “Over 80% of the wild mammals mass on the planet has been lost.”

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Searching for Snow in the Water-Strapped West

In 2022, she and co-founders Ian McKay and Henrik Bennetsen launched Savor with the goal of creating fats and cooking oils without animals and plants to address strains on agriculture and climate change. As their first product, they decided to tackle butter – the most complex, challenging and cultishly beloved fat around. “You know what a stick looks like, you know what it feels like to cut into it, you know what it looks like to spread it on your toast,” she says. If they could recreate butter, “we felt like it would be proving something.”

Their method, using thermochemical technology, creates a product that is chemically and nutritionally identical to butter – and behaves and tastes like it, too. The company announced its “butter made without agriculture” last March, noting that it had been tested (and taste-approved) by chefs and bakers in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

One is pastry chef Juan Contreras of three-Michelin-starred restaurant Atelier Crenn, who had removed dairy from the menu because he couldn’t find sustainable sources of it. He tried Savor to make brioche, a famously butter-laden bread, and could not tell the difference. “It’s an amazing product,” he says, in a video testimonial on Savor’s site. “If you can make something that’s buttery, airy, and has an amazing crumb texture to it, I think there’s nothing more delicious than that.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is also a fan – and an investor. Animal fat, like butter, “gives so many foods their richness, juiciness, meltability, unique ‘mouthfeel,’ and overall flavor,” he wrote in a 2024 blog post. “Unfortunately, it’s also a disaster for the climate.” To date, Savor has raised over $30 million from Gates and Synthesis Capital, a London-based venture capital firm that specializes in food technology.

Savor can replicate other fats besides butter, too. One is palm oil, which has been linked to massive deforestation but is still widely used in packaged products in U.S. grocery stores. Many food giants are looking for alternatives to meet their sustainability targets. Alexander wants them to be her customers. “Our business model is actually designed around being a specialty fats and oil supplier to large food companies,” she says. 

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The company currently operates a factory near Chicago that can make small batches of its products, but is looking to scale up 10 times that size with a 10,000-ton facility. Alexander and her 30-employee team hope to identify a North American location for that factory this year. 

Critical to Savor’s success will be the ability to mass produce. “The food system has such a huge impact because the scale is so enormous,” Alexander says. “When you can operate at those much larger scales, there are enormous returns” – for the company and its customers, and, also, for the planet.

Saving Nature: 11 Women to Watch in Science

View the Full Package →

The post Making Butter Without Agriculture – No Plants or Animals Needed appeared first on The Story Exchange.

It’s that time of year again — time to reflect on the stories that you, gentle reader, indicated you liked the best. And we are delighted to share that in 2025, perhaps due to shifting political winds at the beginning of the year, you were actually more in a defiant mood than gentle.

Stories about powerful women wielding political clout, or combatting climate disasters, or using their voices to stand up for others topped the list of “most popular.”

Below, we present our most popular stories, starting with our most-read story at No. 1.

1

Start placing your pre-orders. There are new books coming from Amanda Knox, Brooke Shields, Han Kang and more female authors in the new year. (Credit: Courtesy of Photo by Eman Ali on Unsplash)

10 Books By Women Authors We Can’t Wait to Read in 2025

We rounded up a list of the new year’s hotly anticipated releases from women authors, including Amanda Knox, Brooke Shields and Han Kang.

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2

Rep. Anita Somani, seen here, is one of several state-level legislators hoping to inspire refreshed discourse around anti-abortion laws – in a roundabout way. (Credit: Ohio House of Representatives)

A New Resistance Tactic: Proposals to Legislate Men’s Bodies

Two new state-level bills are designed to spark conversation — and force anti-abortion politicians to confront the reality of who they seek to control, the lawmakers behind them say.

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3

Terms like “women” are being increasingly erased from government forms like these, as well as websites and more – all for our protection, of course. (Credit: Jasleen Kaur, Flickr)

The Trump Administration’s Ongoing Effort to Literally Erase Women

Federal government sites are being scrubbed of any and all information, accolades and more that mention women, as part of a broader push against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

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4

Gov. Janet Mills is one of several women in power who are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s attempts to control, well, everything. (Credit: Gov. Janet Mills’ official Facebook page)

Women in Power Are Gumming Up the Trump Machine

As President Donald Trump and his team seek to secure yet more power by eroding American structures and norms, these women government officials have been fighting back.

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5

(Credit: Department Of Government Efficiency X account)

‘DEI’ is Not to Blame for What Ails Us — Dumb, Arrogant Men Are

Women and minorities didn’t start the fires that burn around us. Those were lit by the men in charge, Candice Helfand-Rogers writes.

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6

Print. Zitkala-Sa, Sioux Indian, by Gertrude Kasebier. PG*69.236.104. Image modified by curatorial staff.

She Fought for Her People’s Rights — And to Safeguard Native American Culture

Zitkála-Šá was a prolific writer and activist who co-founded the National Council of American Indians. And she penned the first ever Native opera.

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7

View of a fire, from a rooftop in West Hollywood, on Jan. 8. (Credit: Wikimedia)

How Did the Los Angeles Wildfires Happen?

We asked wildfire expert Heather Hansen to tell us exactly how the fires started and explain how our changing climate got us into this deadly predicament.

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8

Pete Hegseth speaking in 2018. (Credit: Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons)

Here’s How Military Women Reacted to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Speech

The decorated members of the U.S. military — who also happen to be women — said there is no “male” or “female” standard when it comes to serving their country.

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9

(Credit: Valerisa Gaddy)

Her ‘Indigenous Knowledge’ Almost Cost Her a PhD. Now, She’s Using It to Help Desert Communities

Valerisa Gaddy heads up Cool Tucson, and is helping the Pascua Yaqui Nation develop rain gardens.

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10

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Credit: nrkbeta, Flickr)

The Bold & The Autocratic: 12 Women in Politics to Watch in 2025

We’ve rounded up a list of women, from seasoned elected officials to up-and-comers, to keep an eye on this year — be they progressive role models, or regressive change agents.

Read Now

The post Wrapped 2025: The Story Exchange’s 10 Most Popular Stories appeared first on The Story Exchange.

It can’t be said that Jane Goodall’s death this week – peacefully, in her sleep, while on a speaking tour – was entirely unexpected. She was, after all, 91 and had already (for decades, even) cemented her status as a rock-star scientist and planet advocate extraordinaire.

But somehow, many of us never thought we’d lose this unexpected crusader with the small stature, quiet demeanor and simple ponytail. Her groundbreaking work, first with chimpanzees in the 1960s and much later, on the climate crisis, inspired generations of women to explore careers in science. It inspired generations of women, period. 

Young women today may not realize how remarkable it was that Goodall, then just in her 20s, headed into the African jungle to study chimps, living with them for months and observing their behavior. When she noticed one chimp – who she nicknamed David Greybeard – use a stalk of grass to fish termites out of a mound of dirt, it was a scientific revelation. “It was obvious that he was actually using a grass stem as a tool,” she later wrote, a challenge to the assumption that humans were the only tool-making animals. 

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A word that might describe Goodall is “unconventional.” She chose a non-traditional career path at a time when the majority of women in the U.K., her home country, were housewives. Not yet a trained scientist, her methods of study were unusual – and one might argue, perhaps the sort of value a young woman might bring to a male-heavy field. Rather than number the chimps, she gave them names: Flo, Fifi, Mr. McGregor. It made a difference, she asserted.

“Breaking down this perceived sharp line between us and other creatures,” Goodall told Scientific American in 2010, “helped people understand that we are part of and not separated from the animal kingdom, and that has opened the way to having respect for the other amazing beings with whom we share the planet.”

Despite her significant contributions and early notoriety, Goodall batted sexism – she endured comments about her blond hair and “nice legs”  – but persevered by focusing on her work and scientific data.

“I had to work 10 times harder than the average man just to get the same level of recognition,” Goodall told Rolling Stone in 2020. “But once I had made a name for myself, I let the data speak for me.”

In her later years, Goodall worked tirelessly to protect nature. Her Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1977, continues to protect chimps but has expanded over the years to champion human rights, animal welfare and environmental conservation. 

While Goodall has passed on, her legacy certainly hasn’t – and her ability to inspire women in science to fight battles might be more important than ever. Her approach could be summed up as less anger, more soft touch. More hope, more commitment, even as the world, in some cases, literally burns around us. This is not the time to give up, she reminded us. “I have days when I feel like not getting up,” she told the Guardian in 2021, “but it doesn’t last long. I guess because I’m obstinate.” She continued: “I’m not going to give in. I’ll die fighting, that’s for sure.” 

And she did. One of her last appearances was just a week ago, at New York Climate Week, where she reminded people: The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time—but if we act with courage and hope, change is still possible.

Thank you, Jane. 

The post RIP Jane Goodall, Role Model for Women in Science and More appeared first on The Story Exchange.

After 35 years of working in organic pest control, serial entrepreneur Pam Marrone is on a new mission to eradicate invasive species using alternatives to terrible chemicals. In particular, she’s on a quest for what she calls “the holy grail” – an eco-friendly herbicide that will zap out non-native weeds.

“We have the team that can really execute it,” says Marrone, whose 2-year-old startup, Invasive Species Corp., known as ISC, is already helping the state of California find a sustainable way to deal with golden mussels, which clog waterways and damage water treatment facilities. “There’s nobody doing exactly what we’re doing with invasive species.”

But it’s the product that specifically knocks out invasive weeds without damaging the environment that has the potential to be a blockbuster, Marrone says, especially as weeds have evolved to tolerate even harsh chemicals. In the U.S. alone, invasive weeds are responsible for over $30 billion in damages each year and cover 100 million acres, about the size of California. More startups are now in a hot race to develop bioherbicides – derived from natural materials, such as bacteria or fungi – but not many have made it to market, as the process is expensive and time-consuming. 

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And that’s where Marrone believes her new Davis, California-based company has an advantage. It has raised $3.25 million and identified several bio-based herbicide candidates that will be field-tested in the next year. That research will be funded in part by two products that ISC has already developed, Zequanox (which targets invasive mussels) and Piscamycin (which controls invasive fish). Plus, there’s Marrone herself, who was recently named to Forbes’ “50 Over 50: Innovation” list and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (she holds more than 400 patents). “We can do it faster than anybody,” she says. “Nobody is taking the approach that we’re taking.”

Solving Big Problems 

When talking to Marrone, it’s hard not to get excited about agricultural/aquatic pest control – a topic this reporter, a longtime New York City dweller and former English major – doesn’t think about all that much. But Marrone, an entomologist by training who frequently wears insect-themed jewelry (today she’s wearing a butterfly necklace and earrings) can speedily and enthusiastically talk about invasive species and ways to control them.

“Asian citrus psyllid came in from China and spread citrus greening disease. Spotted winged drosophila invaded fresh berries,” she says, without skipping a beat. Weeds are considered a “pest” in agriculture as they compete with crops for water, nutrients and sunlights, leading to diminished yields. “The worst weed, Palmer pigweed, is ….resistant to all the chemical herbicides,” she says. “That’s why everybody’s trying to control it.”

Before ISC, Marrone had started her own organic pest-control company, Marrone Bio Innovations Inc., which she successfully took public in 2013. By 2020, the company’s stock price had dipped, and Marrone and another executive, Jim Boyd, left. They co-founded ISC after a three-year non-compete agreement expired. (Marrone Bio has since been acquired by Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp.)

In this 2018 video, we share the story of how Pam Marrone began her career in organic pest control. (Credit: Sue Williams)

Marrone serves as executive chair at ISC while Boyd is CEO, and a third former Marrone Bio executive, Amit Vasavada, is chief science officer. The team was able to get off to a fast start because they had already developed Zequanox, a natural bacterial formula that kills invasive zebra and quagga mussels, while at Marrone Bio – and they were able to take it with them to ISC as their base product. 

Marrone says she decided to focus on invasive species after reading a 2023 UN report that found non-native plants and animals cost the global economy at least $423 billion each year. “It basically said everything we were thinking,” Marrone says. “Trillions of dollars of damage to date. It’s getting worse with climate change. And we don’t do a good job of managing them.”

Her current customers include utility companies that need to destroy invasive mussels in their cooling bays, and golf courses who want to clean out their irrigation pipes and ponds. ISC also has partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey “to save the whitefish, which are going extinct from the mussels destroying the Great Lakes,” Marrone says. “It’s just an amazing, impactful project.”

Looking Toward a Greener Future 

The impetus for Marrone’s science-based work, as it has been throughout her long career, is to provide natural alternatives to dangerous chemicals, which is better for the environment – not to mention, human health. Glyphosate, a widely used herbicide, has been linked to increased rates of cancer, as has 2,4-D. Rotenone, used to kill invasive fish, is linked to Parkinson’s disease, as is Paraquat, another common herbicide.

A current challenge is doing that work while there are massive cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump administration. And earlier this year, DOGE targeted the U.S. Geological Survey’s aquatic labs for budget cuts, although it has reversed course in some areas. “I think they’ve been educated that invasive species are so destructive to commerce,” Marrone says. 

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While “I was worried about our grants being affected,” she adds, ISC was recently approved for a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant testing Zequanox on invasive snails. “So far, we’ve been lucky,” she says.

As she looks toward the future, Marrone says her 9-employee company’s focus will be on developing the eco-friendly herbicide, which so few have been able to crack. “It’s considered technically challenging to get to the price point and the performance of chemical weed killers,” she says. “Now, with the new tools of AI, machine learning and precision fermentation, we believe we can.”

And retirement, for anyone who was wondering, is out of the question. Marrone notes her mother, a lifelong naturalist, turned 99 in the past year. “I have a ways to go yet,” she says. “There’s such big problems to solve and I can help do it.”

The post An Innovator in Pest Control Has Her Sights on Invasive Species appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Annie Chun is the co-founder of Gimme Seaweed. (Image: Courtesy of the company)

The Woman Behind Those Seaweed Snacks in Your Kids’ Lunch Box

Korean-born Annie Chun grew up watching her mother roast seaweed on the stovetop. She’s now the co-founder of Gimme Seaweed, a popular, healthy and sustainable brand.

September 9, 2025

By Colleen DeBaise

Fun fact: “Gim” means seaweed in Korean. 

And “gim” is something that Annie Chun remembers well from her childhood in Seoul, near South Korea’s west coast. Growing up, she often ate foods from the ocean — including the seaweed that her mother would roast on the stovetop with a touch of sesame oil. It was delicious, with fresh flavor and umami characteristics, and Chun thought of it often, long after she moved to California as an adult.

“That memory stayed with me, and years later, it inspired the idea for Gimme Seaweed – taking something that I loved as a child and reimagining it for a new audience,” says Chun, a longtime food entrepreneur who has worked in restaurants and the food industry for over 30 years. (She sold her previous company, Asian food brand Annie Chun’s, for $6 million in 2009 to CJ Corp., a big Korean food manufacturer.) In 2012, she and her husband, Steve, who had been developing seaweed-based product ideas, “recognized an opportunity” to make the traditional Korean side dish more mainstream in the U.S. – and launched Gimme Seaweed (a play on “gim”) as an organic, non-GMO, sustainable brand.

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Seaweed is considered a regenerative crop, a nutrient dense “superfood” that can absorb carbon dioxide and make the ocean cleaner. In recent years, the industry has exploded in popularity, and startups are not just making food with seaweed (like imitation bacon) but also turning the eco-friendly plant into biofuels and plastic alternatives. 

Chun’s company, which is USDA-certified, has partnered with rePurpose Global to reduce plastic pollution, as well as the Sea Turtle Conservancy and the Climate Collaborative. Its seaweed snacks are sold in grocery stores and large retailers like Target, Walmart and Costco.

Below, Chun answered our questions about where she sources her seaweed, what keeps her motivated, and how she plans to make seaweed a regular part of American diets. 

(Answers, provided via email, have been lightly edited for length and clarity). 

In the late 1970s, you immigrated to San Francisco, where your family owned a Korean restaurant. Were you surprised that seaweed wasn’t widely eaten in the U.S.?

Seaweed consumption has evolved in the United States, and it seemed to gain some popularity around the time that the famous 1980 miniseries “Shōgun” was screened here. Sushi also grew immensely during this period, and seaweed is a core part of sushi, so seaweed is widely eaten, just not in the form that we typically eat in Korea. 

It was a bit surprising how unfamiliar roasted seaweed was to Americans. For many Americans, seaweed is what they see washed up on the beach, so there is a real “yuck factor” that we have had to overcome. 

At Gimme Seaweed, we realized that we needed to make seaweed feel exciting, modern and relevant, particularly for younger, more adventurous snackers. It’s amazing that children have been early adopters. We focus on bold, unexpected flavors like chili lime or our newest, Korean BBQ. We found that when you meet people where they are, with flavor and fun, they’re far more open to trying something new.

When you and your husband founded Gimme Seaweed some 13 years ago, was it difficult to source your product? 

In 2012, there were no USDA-organic seaweed snacks, so we had to do extensive work to convince the farmers to convert to organic farming and get both the Korean and U.S. governments to approve our organic seaweed. We wanted to create a product that honored the integrity of the ocean and represented seaweed in a way that felt authentic, clean and meaningful. That’s why we chose to source our red porphyra (nori) seaweed from South Korea, where the minerals along the coastal waters create ideal growing conditions – producing seaweed that’s both nutrient-dense and incredibly flavorful.

South Korea also offers the infrastructure and generational expertise needed to ensure quality and consistency. The farmers we work with have been harvesting seaweed for decades using regenerative methods that we were passionate about preserving.

Can you tell us about those regenerative methods?

Seaweed requires no fresh water, soil, fertilizers or pesticides to grow – just sunlight and the ocean. That makes it a true zero-input food. Unlike land-based agriculture, which can be resource-intensive, seaweed actually improves the environment it grows in.

Our nori is grown on nets suspended in the water and supported by buoys, rotated regularly to expose it to sunlight and fresh air – an organic way to preserve the ocean ecosystem without chemical additives.

Seaweed farming has also been shown to boost oxygen production and absorb carbon dioxide, contributing to the fight against climate change. Our team of scientists and researchers in Korea carefully monitor each step to ensure the highest organic standards.

We believe seaweed is not only a superfood for people, but also a super solution for the planet – and we’re proud to lead the way in responsible, organic seaweed farming.

What do you want people to know about seaweed?

It’s the most nutrient-dense vegetable on the planet – period. The fact the children love it is especially encouraging, so that they can integrate savory green vegetables in their diets. This should portend to a healthier future for the American public.

What has been the biggest challenge?

Getting more people – especially in the U.S. – to try seaweed and see just how versatile and nutrient-dense it really is. In many Asian cultures, it’s a staple, but for a lot of Americans, it’s still unfamiliar or even a little intimidating. Changing that perception takes time, especially when you’re introducing a food that doesn’t naturally fit into traditional Western eating habits.

At Gimme, we’ve focused on education, sampling, and partnering with influencers to show how delicious seaweed can be. Bringing a traditionally Asian food into the American mainstream has been a journey, but it’s also been incredibly rewarding.

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What keeps you motivated to do this work?

It really comes down to two things. First, it’s the opportunity to help transform the way people – especially children – eat in this country. So much of the American diet revolves around processed foods, sugar and animal products, and we see seaweed as a simple, delicious way to bring more balance and nutrition into everyday eating. 

Second, it’s the chance to do that in a way that’s truly sustainable. The future of food lies in the ocean, but we have to protect it if we want it to keep sustaining us. I feel incredibly fortunate to work with partners around the world to bring a product to market that supports healthier lifestyles while also respecting and preserving marine ecosystems. Knowing we’re making a positive impact on both people’s health and the planet – that’s what drives me every day.

The post The Woman Behind Those Seaweed Snacks in Your Kids’ Lunch Box appeared first on The Story Exchange.

(Editor’s Note: The deadline for nominations has passed. Please check back in December for our list.)

The Story Exchange, an award-winning nonprofit media platform dedicated to elevating women’s voices, is seeking nominations for its Cutting-Edge Women in Science list. 

The list will spotlight U.S.-based women with a deep background in science whose work is driven by the dangerous realities of the climate crisis. We are specifically looking for women who are motivated to find urgent, innovative, science-based solutions as global warming impacts the safety of our water, air and soil; disrupts food systems and communities; and poses significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystems. 

“We particularly encourage nominations of early- and mid-career female scientists, whose work might benefit the most from this recognition,” said Sue Williams, executive director of The Story Exchange. “Our mission is to support and highlight these remarkable professionals, at a time when women – and especially women in STEM fields – still face barriers to advancement.”

The focus on women also comes as more research indicates that women are disproportionately impacted by climate change. An Association of American Medical Colleges analysis in 2024 found that women around the world are more likely to experience injury and death as a result of catastrophic weather events, often in the form of pregnancy complications and sexual violence. UN Climate Change earlier this year called for more integration of gender into climate policy and action. 

The 2025 Cutting-Edge Women in Science list will be chosen based on nominations from members of the scientific community and an assessment by The Story Exchange editors. Final picks will be recognized this fall on our site, shared with media partners, and potentially featured in video and podcasts. As an example, please see our video (below) and podcast on Kerry Kelly, a University of Utah professor of chemical engineering who is an expert on air quality and the founder of Tellus, a maker of air quality sensors.

To nominate a candidate, please head to our form. Please note: You cannot nominate yourself. 

Candidates must be U.S.-based scientists with advanced degrees in the fields of physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, agronomy, environmental science, meteorology or closely related fields; or entrepreneurs with advanced degrees who are creating science-based products and technologies to help mitigate/reduce the impact of climate change through innovative practices.

“For many years, we have highlighted the incredible accomplishments of women in science, who are often racing against the clock to adapt our world to the dangers of climate change,” said Victoria Wang, co-founder of The Story Exchange. “At a time when there is little reason to be optimistic about the environment, these women stand out as beacons of hope.”

The post DEADLINE PASSED: Nominate a Trailblazer for Our ‘Cutting-Edge Women in Science’ List appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Journalist Norah O’Donnell has penned a new book honoring unsung women in American history.

“We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America” is set for release in February, ahead of the official kick-off of the 250th anniversary of the United States. The book features profiles of American heroines including Mary Katharine Goddard, who printed the first signed Declaration of Independence, and female members of the Forten family, considered the “Black founders” of Philadelphia who were active in the abolition and suffrage movements.

“This was such a passion project,” O’Donnell, a senior correspondent for CBS News, said Wednesday on the network’s morning show. “I love history, but in school I did not learn a lot about women in history.”

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O’Donnell said she spent much time researching the book, uncovering little-known women who played major roles in the country’s formation, particularly in the American revolution, the Civil War and World War I and II. “This is a way to sort of uncover those heroes, share them with people, help us all fall in love with history again,” she said. 

It was a “treasure hunt” to find the women, she said. “You know, women’s stories were not considered important and so their diaries, their letters were not saved. Luckily, there are – in the past few decades – historians that have focused on women’s history. So, we reached out to them.”

Other women in the book include Katharine Wright, who if she had been a male would have been considered one of the Wright brothers, inventors of early aviation. Another is Emily Warren Roebing, who completed the building of the Brooklyn Bridge when her husband, Washington, was incapacitated. 

O’Donnell calls the book a “retelling” of American history through a female lens. She hopes young girls will pick up the book and believe that “anything is possible.”

“It’s not a perfect democracy, and it’s a fight to continue to include more people [and] to enfranchise more people in the voting process,” she said. But “the story of creating a more perfect union, the greatest democracy in the world, has been driven by ‘we the women’ and all people, truly.”

And particularly for those who feel discouraged, the book is inspiring, she said, as it highlights achievements during historically inequitable times. “These women had such grit, such courage at times when they had very few rights,” she said.

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Dana Thompson is the founder of Heti, which means "home" in the Dakota language. (Credit: Shelly Mosman)

Her New Line of Drinks Is Inspired By Nature

Dana Thompson, who built the celebrated Owamni restaurant, is now turning her attention to functional beverages. Her social-impact brand, Heti, also plans hempcrete housing.

July 28, 2025

By Colleen DeBaise

Dana Thompson traces her Dakota bloodline through her mother, and she has a vivid childhood memory of picking blueberries with her mom near a river’s edge in Northern Minnesota. “She was teaching me about how our ancestors would collect them through their growing season, and wind dry them or smoke dry,” she says, “and how they were packed with antioxidants and vitamins.”

Today, Thompson has taken that Indigenous knowledge of traditional plants and love for natural flavors like cedar, maple and wild bergamot and turned them into Heti, a health-conscious brand of low-dose THC beverages. The name itself means “home” in Dakota. That works on many levels, she explains, as not only do the drinks “transport you to a place in nature,” but once the 15-month-old company is profitable, it will dedicate a portion of proceeds to building affordable, climate-friendly hempcrete housing on tribal lands. 

Heti represents a first foray into consumer packaged goods for Thompson, co-creator of the James Beard Award-winning Owamni restaurant in Minneapolis. Owamni is known for showcasing Indigenous foods and culture. The sleek modern restaurant, perched above the Mississippi River, excludes ingredients brought by European settlers (such as wheat flour, cane sugar and dairy) and features a majority Native American staff.

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Thompson, who has a background in branding and marketing thanks to an 8-year stint at Target Corp. early in her career, was instrumental in Owamni’s growth. She professes to love “looking at P&Ls and balance sheets” and “optimizing any efficiency that we can find.” While at Owamni, she gained culinary experience, too, before exiting in 2023. 

“One of the biggest pleasures I had was working with the team there to create an incredible mocktail list,” she says. “It was really fun to start thinking about the Indigenous ingredients of North America, the flavors and the functionality of those ingredients.”

Thompson spent many years researching Native health and wellness, including how culturally relevant foods impact a person’s DNA sequence as it’s formed. At Owamni, she had anecdotally noticed how customers with Native ancestry often seemed to find healing in the eatery’s menu. While historical scars run deep – Thompson’s own grandfather attended a forced-assimilation boarding school – she and others believe access to Indigenous ingredients can help restore some of what was lost.  

Two years ago, as she looked for new opportunities, Thompson realized she could bring her unique background to the “exploding” functional beverage market – non-alcoholic drinks are expected to grow to $30 billion by the end of 2025 – and address an “unmet need” in the marketplace. 

“I wanted something that resonated with what the people I know were asking for,” she says, especially women who wanted to relax with something other than wine. Too many of the cannabis beverages that have come on the scene since Minneapolis (and other states) relaxed marijuana laws were off-putting, she thought. “In fact, they tasted like weed. They were very inelegantly marketed. They were packed with sugar.”

Instead, Thompson researched how to create something low-dose – just 3 milligrams of THC per can  – and began developing gluten-free products that celebrate natural ingredients and contain no refined sugars. “River Path” features the blueberry and rosehip she remembers from early hikes with her mother. “Meadow Cat Nap,” more like a tea, blends wild mint, lemon balm and dandelion leaf. 

Her favorite is “Woodland Edge,” which contains two tree species (cedar, held sacred by many tribes, and maple). “I think of it as Champagne bubbles at the forest edge,” she says. “I want to raise awareness about the beauty of these plant relatives that we have.”

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Since she started her self-funded lean operation – aside from herself, Thompson has a fractional CFO and one person who helps with social media – she has “blasted through” about 22 pallets of product, or roughly 55,000 cans. She sells through a variety of channels, including online and in stores via distributors. She is currently raising a seed round, and expects to raise a Series A and B in coming years. “We’re on track to scale to over $3 million in revenue within the first five years,” she says. 

But perhaps most rewarding of all, Thompson says, will be the social-impact piece, once her startup becomes profitable. 

Heti products are derived from “big bushels” of hemp, and once distilled down, the waste usually goes to landfill, she says. Thompson wants to use it instead to make hempcrete bricks. “It’s an absolutely incredibly efficient insulator in both hot and cold climates,” she says. “It absorbs carbon in the atmosphere.” 

She hopes to use hempcrete for housing projects on the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska, where her grandfather was born. “There’s a huge housing shortage,” she says, forcing many to move to Sioux Falls or Omaha – “which are lovely cities,” she says, but “it separates them from their families, from their culture, and it’s not good.”

Meanwhile, Thompson is enjoying building a brand from the ground up, similar to her experience at Owamni. “Unfortunately for me, I get my identity from the things I create,” she says with a laugh. While learning the ropes in the beverage industry hasn’t been easy, “I just know that [if] you grind and make good decisions and learn from your mistakes,” she says, “it’s going to turn into something amazing.”

In this 2022 video, we share the startup story of Owamni restaurant in Minnesota. (Credit: Sue Williams)

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Editor’s Note: This June 2025 episode has been nominated for a 2026 Webby Award, in the News & Politics category.

It’s been three years since the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, and we’ve seen startling and disturbing consequences.

A recent study by Ohio State, for instance, found that infant mortality immediately rose 7 percent in the months after Dobbs. More babies died from genetic abnormalities, which suggests that mothers were forced to carry non-viable pregnancies to term. As the researchers put it: “When you restrict access to health care it can cause a broader impact on public health then can be foreseen.”

Other research shows an alarming spike in sepsis, especially among women suffering late-stage miscarriages. A Pro Publica analysis of the abortion ban in Texas identified miscarrying women who died after doctors delayed common procedures to empty their uteruses. Doing so would have been considered an abortion.

The situation – strictly from a health care perspective – seems incredibly dire. But there’s also been another development — one that’s quite surprising. 

In the three years since Dobbs, there’s actually been an upward trend in abortion. In 2023, there were more abortions than in any year since 2011, meaning, more women seem to have access to abortion than ever before.

“I think the anti-abortion rights movement is really struggling with — you finally get the thing that you’ve been fighting for, for decades — and actually the number of abortions goes up,” says Angel Foster, a university professor who runs a shield-law practice out of Massachusetts that providers mifepristone and misoprostol to abortion seekers in all 50 states.

Foster is one of two abortion care providers we spoke to for this podcast. The other is Julie Burkhart, a reproductive-rights advocate and clinic operator who throughout the years has seen a colleague assassinated and her clinic fire-bombed. Combined, Foster and Burkhart have helped thousands of women secure safe abortions in the three years since Roe fell.

To many listeners, their stories will inspire and provide hope — although the future is uncertain. Abortion opponents are doubling down with criminal indictments and lawsuits. “They’ll come after us. I’m sure,” says Foster. Meanwhile, Burkhart, who’s long dealt with intimidation, harassment and violence, shares her thoughts on managing fear. “If we can walk through it, even though it’s so frightening and scary and paralyzing, it’s okay on the other side,” she says. 

 In addition to the podcast above, we’ve also featured both women in these Q&As below.

Angel Foster

A Conversation About Abortion Care — and It’s Not All Bad News
Angel Foster of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project on how abortion with pills is here to stay, even as anti-abortion forces double down.

Julie Burkhart

The Resilient Provider Who’s Survived Arson, Death Threats and Supreme Court Rulings
Before Julie Burkhart could even open Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic, an extremist tried to burn it down. That hasn’t stopped her. Neither has the Dobbs ruling.

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