Administration

Tamara Jeffries is the Co-Production of Knowledge Program Manager at the Center for Science and Society. She oversees the Co-Production of Knowledge Initiative, which helps advance the Center’s goals to build community relationships. Tamara received her Masters of Public Administration in environmental science and policy from Columbia University, and holds a bachelor's degree in environmental geology and anthropology (photography minor) from Case Western Reserve University. Professionally, she aims to address environmental justice issues, particularly within BIPOC communities, through research, advocacy, and storytelling. In her free time, Tamara loves being in nature, running, yoga, oat chai lattes, and all things related to the arts and culture.

Rhiannon Stephens is Professor of History and Co-Director of the Center for Science and Society at Columbia University. She specializes in the history of precolonial and early colonial East Africa from the first millennium CE through the twentieth century. Her research focuses on gender, economic difference, and political organization. She has written on the history of motherhood and its intersection with politics and economics in precolonial Uganda. Her new book, Poverty and Wealth in East Africa: A Conceptual History (Duke University Press, 2022), traces the history of poverty and wealth as economic and social concepts in Uganda over the past two thousand years. Most recently, her research has turned to engaging with historical climate change and how East African communities responded to the challenges and opportunities it posed. At Columbia, she is a faculty affiliate at the Earth Institute, the Institute of African Studies, the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. Her work has been published in The American Historical Review, The Journal of African History, Past & Present, and the African Studies Review.

Rhiannon Stephens co-leads the Environmental Sciences and Humanities Research Cluster and serves as an Executive Committee Member.

Pamela H. Smith is Seth Low Professor of History at Columbia University and Founding Director of the Center for Science and Society. At Columbia, she teaches history of early modern Europe and the history of science. She is the author of The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire (Princeton 1994; 1995 Pfizer Prize), and The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution (Chicago 2004; 2005 Leo Gershoy Prize). Her work on alchemy, artisans, and the making of vernacular and scientific knowledge has been supported by fellowships at the Wissenschafts-Kolleg, as a Guggenheim Fellow, a Getty Scholar, a Samuel Kress Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts in Washington, DC, and by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Pamela Smith leads the Making and Knowing Research Cluster and serves as an Executive Committee and Advisory Board Member. 

Madi Whitman is the director of undergraduate studies and assistant director of curriculum development in the Center for Science and Society and a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology. As a sociocultural anthropologist and science and technology studies (STS) researcher, Madi studies how technologies, institutions, and subjectivities are made together. This research is currently animated by questions about surveillance and marginality in changing regimes of data collection in higher education in the United States.

Madi’s pedagogical work includes supporting interdisciplinary co-teaching at Columbia, developing curricula in science and society, and investigating the landscape of STS education in the U.S. Prior to coming to Columbia, Madi was involved in collaborations with the National Science Foundation Center for Science of Information in creating critical data modules for students. Madi earned a PhD in anthropology from Purdue University in 2020, completed a BA in anthropology at the University of North Dakota, and was previously a Visiting Research Fellow in the Program on Science, Technology and Society at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Jozef Sulik is the assistant director of the Center for Science and Society and Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience program. Jozef manages events, grants, communications, and budgets. He also provides administrative support for the postdoctoral scholars affiliated with the Center and their research projects. Before joining Columbia University, Jozef worked in the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships at Harvard College and spent several years as an agent in talent management in the UK. Jozef received his BA in government from Harvard University Extension School. 

Caroline Surman is the Project and Communications Manager with the Center for Science and Society and the Making and Knowing Project. She assists in planning events, administering the Center's grant programs, and oversees communications and social media. She is also responsible for training and overseeing the Center's Work Study Administrative Assistants. Caroline studied anthropology with a minor in environmental science at Barnard College and holds a masters of science in nonprofit management from Columbia University. Previously, she worked for Bank Street School for Children and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Anamika is an undergraduate work-study student at the Center for Science and Society, studying civil engineering with a minor in computer science. She is passionate about leveraging engineering to bridge socio-economic disparities. At Columbia, she's a member of Engineers without Borders and the Society of Women Engineers, and served as an orientation leader for the New Student Orientation Program, and a recruitment liaison for the Muslim Student House. Back home in Georgia, Anamika interned at community-centered organizations such as Live Healthy Gwinnett. In her free time, Anamika loves to explore NYC, go on food crawls with friends, and create art.