E1: Nurturing Communities | Nadja Cech

Summary

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Nadja Cech, who is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and a leader in the field of medicinal plant research. In addition to being a scientist, she’s a writer, mother, teacher, mentor, community builder, and manager of an urban community garden. We’ll discuss all of these things, and the power of connection, wonder, and inspiration that a community can bring to an urban setting.

Full Bio

Among other notable achievements, Nadja’s research lab was the first to show that endophytes – which are bacteria and fungi living within plants – are responsible for much of previously demonstrated immune-stimulating properties of the plant echinacea....you know, like the herb infused tea!

Having experienced first-hand the obstacles of succeeding as a woman and mother in a male-dominated field, Nadja is a committed advocate for the advancement of women and marginalized groups in science. She successfully led an overhaul of the parental leave policies at the university where she works, and her excellence in mentorship with students was recognized with a Board of Governors Teaching Excellence Award – the highest distinction for teachers in her university system. 

I know Nadja to be a gifted science communicator, and she is equally at home in front of an audience of kids at the local elementary school or speaking at research conferences around the world. A hallmark of her work is a blurring of the boundaries between science and lived experience. In 2019, she organized a multimedia exhibit, The Underground Railroad Tree, which merged artistic, historical, and scientific perspectives about a single tulip tree located near Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

The tree, which towers over the Guilford Forest, is considered a living monument to the Underground Railroad, which was the underground network of routes, people, and safe houses for slaves as they made their way northward to freedom. I was very fortunate to have helped coordinate that project! Nadja has given two TedX Talks, one called People do Science and one entitled We are all Scientists, and she was co-host along with Omar Ali of the podcast Yes, And Café, which I was fortunate to have produced.

When she’s not speaking at a podium or in the research lab, Nadja can be found pushing wheelbarrows and weeding at the Dunleath Community Garden, a non-profit organization where she is volunteer manager. Inspired by her upbringing in the Oregon wilderness, she believes access to nature is both the best pathway to science education and a human right. She puts this belief into practice by bringing her students – many of whom have never held a hoe or planted a seed – with her to the garden. Here, working side by side with community members, they nurture a sense of poetic wonder informed by science and illuminated by the infinite diversity and miraculous beauty of the natural world. 

Related Links

Cech Research Lab - The lab at the University of North Carolina Greensboro where Nadja and her team do their research

“People Do Science” TEDx Talk - One of the public talks Nadja has given on how science is relevant to all of us and everyday life

“The Underground Railroad Tree” project and exhibit - An exhibit I worked on with Nadja and Dr. Omar Ali which featured artwork, live musical and dance performances, spoken word, a short documentary video, a website, and science experiments all based on a single tulip tree in the Guilford Woods near Greensboro, North Carolina

Credits

Many thanks to singer-songwriter Abigail Dowd for permission to use her song, Beautiful Day, as theme music for this episode. You can find Abigail and her music at:

Abigail Dowd’s website

Beautiful Day album link

Abigail Dowd’s Instagram

Through the Pines and Nature’s Way by Alsever Lake and Autumnal Dreams by Reveille used by permission via Soundstripe.

Nadja works the soil in her plot inside the Dunleath Community Garden.