Virginia Schutte

Virginia is an award-winning storyteller, strategist, and trainer who is unstoppably and loudly enthusiastic about how science makes life better. She decided to save the world in elementary school after she read A ring of Endless Light, with a heroine who saves sick dolphins by talking to them with her mind. While a career in dolphin telepathy ultimately didn’t work out, Virginia channeled her love of the ocean into earning an Ecology PhD in 2014. Since then, she has worked to diversify how people interact with science digitally. She has created and led digital engagement programs, designed communications and marketing strategies, and trained scientists to identify and meet their communications goals. Her expertise in telling stories using unexpected media spans platforms and includes outputs ranging from a science fashion campaign on Instagram to candidly connecting with an audience on Reddit.

Virginia received her PhD in Ecology from the University of Georgia. She also holds a BS in Biology and was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition, she holds a lapsed AAUS Scientific Diver certification (lapse caused by her 2 kids- hooray!) and a non-lapsed FFT2 qualification to work with wildland fire.

November 2022