Aspen Institute's Our Future Is Science names Dr. Raven Baxter to its Advisory Group
Dr. Raven Baxter joined the Advisory Group of the Aspen Institute's Our Future Is Science initiative in October 2025 and gave the keynote at its 2025-26 kickoff.
Science Communication Consortium on Ethics holds its first meeting under founder and chair Dr. Raven Baxter
Founded in 2015 as Science Talk Northwest, the Association of Science Communicators calls itself the hub of the professional science communication community
Baxter describes a new ethical framework for science communication in an interview the association recorded in February 2026. Photo: Association of Science Communicators video
Dr. Raven Baxter founded the Science Communication Consortium on Ethics at the Association of Science Communicators. The consortium held its first meeting online on Jan. 26, 2026, with Baxter as its chair.
The consortium brings together a small invited group of science communication researchers, trainers and practitioners. They come from universities, foundations, professional associations and policy networks. Together they are building a standards framework, a consensus statement and a best-practice toolkit for ethics in science communication. The group meets monthly.
Its work runs in three streams. One puts ethics principles into practice through decision trees, checklists and case studies. A second develops standards that can support science communication curricula. A third takes up policy.
The first meeting came 11 days after Pew Research Center reported that 77% of U.S. adults had at least a fair amount of confidence in scientists to act in the public's best interests, down from 87% in April 2020. A Pew fact sheet from November 2025 found that 38% of adults ages 18 to 29 regularly got news from news influencers on social media.
In an interview the association recorded in February 2026, Baxter said the effort draws on research. "I'm using a scholarly body of work to undergird a new ethical framework for science communication," she said.
Baxter discusses the line between a science communicator and an influencer. Image: Association of Science Communicators video
"We've yet to define what does it mean to be an ethical science communicator on social media," she said. "And what is the difference between being an influencer versus a communicator? We really need to have that distinction."
She pointed to incentives. "I don't want people to become distracted by individuals who may be more incentivized by the algorithm or personal gain, such as selling a product, a course, a book," she said.
Ethics, in her account, is also a question of who gets heard. "A lot of voices are missing from science communication," Baxter said. "A part of that really comes down to equipping scientists who truly have the passion of simply communicating science with the tools that they need to share their science ethically."
The association began in 2015 as Science Talk Northwest. Its first conference met in 2017 at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The group became Science Talk in 2018 and took its current name in 2022. The volunteer-run nonprofit describes its mission as being "the hub of the professional science communication community."
Lindsey Ramirez interviews Baxter for the association's Thought leaders in sci comm series. Image: Association of Science Communicators video
Baxter is a molecular biologist known online as Dr. Raven the Science Maven. She holds a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo, where her research focused on science communication. She has sat on the association's board of directors since September 2025, and in March 2026 she gave the closing keynote at SCIENCE TALK '26.
The full interview is on the association's YouTube channel. More on the organization is at the Association of Science Communicators website.
