Quilt presentations

Presentations at academic conferences are listed on my curriculum vitae. The following are presentations given to quilt guilds, community groups, and at outreach events. Quilt presentations of note include ones given at TEDxPSUBrandywine (recording), The Story Collider (description, recording), and Ignite@AGU (recording).

Presentations for quilt guilds

Because I am an educator with a background in geology and oceanography, all of my quilts and the talks I give will be a combination of earth science content as well as science stories told through quilts I have generated. The following topics are ones available for me to present on at quilting guilds. In-person presentations would involve myself bringing the relevant quilts for show. For online/Zoom presentations, I would show images of the quilts and provide guilds with a resource page containing links, images, and additional information behind each quilt.

  • Quilting Science Stories of Land and Sea — an overview of my journey into quilting and how I started quilting science stories from my field experiences at sea, and highlights of my quilt collections relating to global warming solutions and the Endangered Species Act.
  • An Oceanographic Research Expedition via Quilts — this presentation will focus on one of my oceanographic research expeditions, where I spent two months at sea in the South Atlantic Ocean collecting deep-sea material. I created an entire quilt collection that describes living and working at sea to advance our knowledge about our own ocean.
  • Stitching Hope for the Louisiana Coast — this presentation is a combination of coastal science and quilts created to showcase stories of coastal optimism in southern Louisiana.
  • Data Visualizations Beyond the Temperature Quilt — this presentation highlights how I have taken different data sets, ranging from the earth sciences to sporting events, and generated quilts to engage viewers with their own data literacy.
  • Solving the Puzzle in Gamified Quilts — this presentation will address how games can be stitched into quilts to further engage and educate audiences in the earth sciences.

Upcoming presentations

Brandywine Valley Quilters (June 2026); Centre Pieces Quilt Guild (August 2026)

Completed presentations

Heartstrings Quilters Guild (Bryn Mawr, PA, Oct. 2025); Lancaster Modern Quilt Guild (Gordonville, PA, June 2025); Homemakers Country Quilt Guild (May 2025); Lebanon Quilters Guild (Lebanon, PA, May 2025); York Quilting Guild (York, PA, Sept. 2024); Colonial Piecemakers Quilt Guild (via Zoom to Williamsburg, VA, Aug. 2024); Undercover Quilters Guild (Brookhaven, PA, April 2024).

Presentations for community groups and outreach events

  • Quilting science stories of land and sea. Indian Valley Public Library, Pennsylvania, July 15, 2024.
  • Quilting climate science solutions. Amity Friendship Circle, Douglassville, Pennsylvania. May 2, 2024.
  • Quilting science stories of land and sea. The Garden Club of Springfield, Pennsylvania, September 27, 2023.
  • Quilting Science Stories from Alaska to the South Atlantic Ocean. Science on Tap, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 10, 2023.
  • Quilting climate science and solutions. Delaware County Master Gardeners, Penn State University, February 21, 2023.
  • Textile Talk (The Quilt Alliance webinar, online), December 14, 2022. I shared a pre-recorded presentation and was in Zoom for a live Q&A.
  • Gallery walk of Stitching Climate Science and Solutions. Jenkins Arboretum & Gardens, December 2, 2022. One-hour session on science communication and Project Drawdown solutions for high school students.
  • Quilt Your Science – Introducing participatory textiles project. Summer Solstice Polar SciArt Soirée. Polar Educators International. [virtual]. June 20, 2021. (w/B. Wilkening)
  • Stitching Through Science Communication – With Quilts. Ignite@AGU, sponsored by NASA. [virtual]. December 2, 2020.
  • Invited speaker on coastal optimism for The Story Collider/Disaster Response Event, organized by The Story Collider with the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), San Francisco, CA. December 12, 2019.

Presentations for academic institutions/museums

  • Creative Data Visualizations. Data Storytelling Workshop and Data Art Jam. Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts – University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, January 13, 2025.
  • Quilting climate science & solutions. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (talk plus 12 quilts on display), St. Michaels, MD, January 4, 2024.
  • A Creative Approach to Science Storytelling With Quilts. Lattman Lecture, College of Earth & Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, November 9, 2023.
  • Visualizing sky color and cloud cover observations during ocean expeditions. Start Talking Science, Science History Institute, Philadelphia, PA, November 3, 2023.
  • Telling science stories with quilts. Saturday Speaker Series, Science History Institute, Philadelphia, PA, September 14, 2019.
  • Stitching Hope for the Coast: Communicating coastal optimism for Louisiana. Start Talking Science, Science History Institute, Philadelphia, PA, September 27, 2018.

Select media mentions/interviews