GMM Team - Mission Mosquito

Cassie Soeffing

Campaign Coordinator and Informal Science Lead

Senior Science Educator, IGES

Ms. Soeffing’s expertise includes inquiry-based learning and employing geospatial technologies in K-12 education, undergraduate, graduate, and professional development programs. She was the first recipient of the AmericaView K-12 GIScience Educator Award. Prior to joining IGES in 2009, she was a classroom science teacher, the first recipient of the AmericaView K-12 GIScience Educator Award, recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, and was an Einstein Fellow in the NASA Science Mission Directorate Earth Science Division.

She leads the GLOBE Partnership at IGES, is a GLOBE Trainer, and GLOBE teacher. Ms. Soeffing is engaging formal and informal education audiences - including K-12, outdoor education centers, Girl Scouts, 4H, and other groups – in authentic NASA science investigations, using GLOBE and NASA data.

Dr. Russanne Low

Campaign Scientist​​​​​​​

Senior Scientist, IGES

Dr. Low has been working at the forefront of citizen science and its application for vector-borne diseases - in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and North America - through IGES projects funded by NASA, NSF, USAID, and Department of State/UCAR. These initiatives demonstrate how educators, students, scientists, public health officials, and citizens can work together to reduce risks from mosquito-borne diseases. Dr. Low is a member of the NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team, as well as a volunteer scientist on the GLOBE International STEM Network.

Prior to joining IGES in 2009, Dr. Low was an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, School of Natural Resources. Working with UCAR, she oversaw the completion of more than 50 GLOBE protocol tutorials and virtual lab and fieldwork interactive learning assets, in conjunction with three NASA science teams; She also served as the GLOBE Program Desk Officer for Africa and the Middle East,is a GLOBE master trainer and and Science Lead for the NASA GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper (GO MHM).

Liz Burck

Science Educator​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Senior Science Educator, IGES

Ms. Burck joined the IGES team in 2015. Prior to that, she taught science, served as an Einstein Fellow in the NASA Science Mission Directorate Earth Science Division, managed the Einstein Fellowship Program, and worked at Goddard Space Flight Center. 

Her love of both science and writing has led to the creation of several IGES resources including Beyond the Bite, The Mission Mosquito Notebook, and Phenomena Based Student Investigations with NASA Earth Observations.

During her science teaching career, which spanned middle school, high school, and college, she received several awards, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching and the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award.

Dorian Janney

Lead for Adult Learners​​​​​​​

NASA GSFC

Ms. Janney is a Senior Education and Outreach Specialist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and outreach coordinator for NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission. She works with the GPM science team and other scientists to better understand the ways in which NASA Earth-observing data can be used for a wide range of applications. Ms. Janney is currently leading an effort to bring together both researchers and end-users of NASA Earth observations who are working to better understand and respond to vector-borne and water-related diseases.

A former classroom science teacher and a GLOBE master trainer. Ms. Janney worked on the GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaigns (2015-2018) that brought together scientists, teachers, and students to collaborate on investigations that used both ground-based observations and NASA Earth observations data. She is a volunteer docent for Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World, a new exhibition at Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History.