Julie Ann of Rohan

2 Feb 2025

Hi All! If you've been friended by me recently or find me here, I'm rebuilding from my move from twitter. This is going to be my Get to Know Me post so that hopefully we can build together from here! Hi my name is Julie Ann Fooshee and you probably know me from one of the following:

johnhorgan.orgScientific American and the Collapse of Science Journalism — John Horgan (The Science Writer)HOBOKEN, JULY 13, 2026. I shouldn’t write a eulogy for something that’s not dead. But I fear for the future of Scientific American --and science journalism as a whole. Attention must be paid. On Ju...

How your email finds me

Possum Every Hour@possumeveryhour.io

Julie Ann of Rohan reposted

Luke Bones 🦴🦴

@lukemeister.bsky.social

Face: Shocked

The New York Times@nytimes.com

Breaking News: OpenAI’s technology went rogue and meddled with three U.S. government websites this summer without the A.I. lab’s knowledge. nyti.ms/4y5MY7n

Julie Ann of Rohan reposted

Adam Rogers

@jetjocko.bsky.social

15 July

Thing is, the old science journalists couldn’t help but start writing about politics, because the politics got anti-science. And then we got iced.

John Schwartz@jswatz.bsky.social

“good science journalism, Vergano says, requires good science journalists.” Amen to that. johnhorgan.org/cross-check/...

15 July

So gender affirming care is fine and it’s for free as long as it’s for cis-men? Interesting…hm.

Matthew Gault@mjgault.bsky.social

Hegseth announced they're gonna start screening for T and administering testosterone treatment for warriors found wanting

Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave

7 July

Back in Scotland 🥳 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ….and two more days of partying until it’s back to work on my thesis 🥺🫣😬

Julie Ann of Rohan reposted

@wolven.blacksky.app

28 June

Told you. "Worse but cheaper" only works until it categorically fucking doesn't. "AI" cannot do these things and the people selling you on the idea that they can cannot be trusted.

Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans)@iwriteok.bsky.social

Some amazing quotes in this article about how Ford replaced hundreds of engineers with AI, which broke a bunch of shit causing billions in damage and forcing them to rehire those people. www.the-independent.com/tech/ford-ai...

ft.trib.alAI tools lead to ‘clear racial disparities’ in job hiringNew Stanford-led study finds candidates that fail AI-hiring tests face ‘systemic rejection’ across companies

9 June

I’ve been saying for months that the AI tools used in hiring are disproportionately rejecting various competencies and aren’t actually working. There is no way that I can skills match the job at 98%, BE BILINGUAL, and have a doctorate and not even get shortlisted. But I’m disabled. #bias #killAI

Financial Times@financialtimes.com

AI tools lead to ‘clear racial disparities’ in job hiring ft.trib.al/0XwHVpD

Julie Ann of Rohan reposted

Debbie Fong 🌲📬✨

@debbiefong.com

14 May

Wally has been nominated for an Eisner Award!!! 🥹 So proud of my little guy 💕

Julie Ann of Rohan reposted

The Horn Book

@thehornbook.bsky.social

5 May

THE FARAWAY FOREST: WALLY’S ROUTE by @debbiefong.com ; color by Kayla Catanzaro ( @chroniclekidsbooks.bsky.social ) www.hbook.com/story/2026-s... #HBSummerReading #SummerReading #HBFamilyReading #FamilyReading #kidlit #BeginningReaders #Primary

Julie Ann of Rohan reposted

Danielle Beckman

@daniellebeckman.bsky.social

11 May

For people outside the science bubble: over the last 3 years, NIH researchers like me were informally encouraged to avoid working with mRNA technology in grant proposals. Pharmaceutical companies rely heavily on discoveries made with public funding first. This is the result:

WIRED@wired.com

Since 2023, Moderna and Korea University have been developing a new mRNA vaccine for hantavirus. The work has been promising so far, but a finished product isn't likely coming any time soon. www.wired.com/story/a-new-...

wired.comA New Hantavirus Vaccine Is in the WorksSince 2023, Moderna and Korea University have been developing a new mRNA vaccine for hantavirus. The work has been promising so far, but a finished product isn't likely coming any time soon.

@whysharksmatter.bsky.social

11 May

Honestly this. I don’t want MORE papers, I don’t want MORE conferences to attend, and I don’t want MORE meetings scheduled. I want a quality papers. I want a few good conferences that are representative of the field and an EMAIL summary not a zoom 🙂‍↔️

Hakeem Jefferson@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social

FWIW, I don’t think the major problem in my field, or related ones, is that people need to move faster & produce more. I read a lot of papers as part of the job, and I’m increasingly convinced we’d benefit from fewer papers and better ones, not more mediocre work produced ever more “efficiently.”

Julie Ann of Rohan reposted

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈

11 May

National Academy of Sciences experts denounce Trump’s NSF board purge

scientificamerican.comNational Academy of Sciences experts denounce Trump’s NSF board purgeIn an open letter, thousands of researchers criticized the White House’s firing of the research agency’s board as ‘an alarming attack’ on U.S. science

And some of you who are here from my #FWA #furryweekendatlanta thread might be like “what do you know!” I mean great question. So anyways I have a Masters in Communication and Public Engagement, a second Masters in Science and Society; and am finishing a Doctorate in Science Communication rn.

And if you’re reading this and thinking “gosh do you help people that are smaller events/smaller brands” yes I do! I’m always happy to chat with small creatives and brands about their work and have been trying to create a tiny tool kit just for that! DM me!!

One of my goals is trying to find ways to create tool kits that are free/no/low cost for queer, minority, and disabled creatives to use that help them with different aspects of their work! The most recent one is around branding/marketing that I want to get launched by summer. 💕

So when I talk about events and events management, community building and serving others, I really *am* an expert. I’d also be happy to walk through how @furryweekend.com can make changes in their business structure and future management to improve the experience for everyone.

However, I want to be clear I’m not doing free work or labour for an organisation that has the capacity to pay for that kind of thing. 🙂

Then I worked for NASA in Houston as an outreach and engagement coordinator before COVID axed my position and I decided to go back for my doctorate. 🙂‍↕️ while at Uni instead of JUST studying I’ve also run a massive philanthropic outreach project

I’ve served on multiple internal and external committees, been a funding reviewer for science organisations in the EU, published a few papers and presented my work internationally, OH and I won Colours in sports because I guess it’s not enough to be academically gifted 🏇🏻

I also did grant writing and grants oversight (running a grant program where we got a large grant from private funder then did pass through funding to multiple other organisations for activities). I ran multiple national events of my own and did evaluation.

I was responsible for rebranding our annual meeting, rebranding our website, rebranding our annual report, growing our network over 441% in my time there and I was our social media manager and ran all the web stuff bc we were on a TIGHT budget.

In that job I was fully in charge of a multi million dollar non-profit budget that was reported to the feds so when it comes to looking at #FWA and their tax returns… let’s just say I have some questions ;)

Then I went on to work 6 years at MIT in another non profit office where I managed a network of large scale science events across North America and liaised with international partners on best practice in event creation and event management.

I did outreach and engagement in marine science in undergrad but finished with a BA in History; then went on to program manage an NSF funded project in a museum around informal learning and how people learn in museums (social learning/communication)

n.prKeir Starmer's party lost big in U.K. local elections. Here's what comes next.U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour party suffered major losses in local elections held across Britain last week. So far, Starmer has rejected calls for his resignation.

It’s time, Keir

NPR@npr.org

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour party suffered major losses in local elections held across Britain last week. So far, Starmer has rejected calls for his resignation. n.pr/4nhSwaO

The follow up this morning from the director of @furryweekend.com was about as bad of a non-apology as anyone could ask for. They stated that there were 15 staff on the con and despite having a full time dedicated office and being a for-profit con 🧵

Julie Ann of Rohan@ocaptmycapt.com

Capping this off to say, it’s a real eye opener when events fail. Vendors are in many ways your staff. They’re collaborating to make your event better and are a selling point to your event. People come to an event for good vendors. As an event - failing your vendors is a HUGE deal @furryweekend.com

alongside mismanagement of the event itself they would be gone. But I generally don’t hire incompetent people - what can I say I run a strict program #eventmanagement #furryweekendatlanta

Oh, and trying to once again silence vendors from complaining out to the community so that the community is aware of the problems is a huge red flag and as a director not immediately owning those criticisms and trying to fix them is a MASSIVE problem that is even more unfixable. #fwa2026

Julie Ann of Rohan@ocaptmycapt.com

there wasn’t an inherent need for the new venue, the new venue was a consequence of poor planning. The director has effectively not done an audience evaluation and is not building a convention that meets audience need.

There has been repeated feedback to the director about the dealer head, their inappropriate behaviour, poor decision making, and attitude towards vendors that is outright hostile. If I were in charge of an event this size and my weakest link was doing this much reputational damage

Julie Ann of Rohan@ocaptmycapt.com

Let’s keep going! The director also blamed the expensive new venue for the issues arising in vendor set up and expectations but the director, dealer director, and their communications liaison failed to review policies and layout of the new venue and relay these to their vendors.

That’s all on the staff and director. Also, choice of venue was on the director - no one but the director and dealer head chose this new venue which by and large most of the vendors did not want. Trying to chalk up that there was a need for more vendors to cover the cost of the venue means

Julie Ann of Rohan@ocaptmycapt.com

The director blamed a number of issues on the lack of staff but failed to address the fact that staffing of the con is the direct fault of the director. No one chooses the amount of staff, staffing allocations, or who is doing what other than the director.

Further, the director also blamed many of the issues on having 300 vendors. Again, other vendors pointed out that having that many vendors was a choice by the director and not staffing to support that number of vendors is again a choice BY the director.

timeshighereducation.comResearch careers ‘losing appeal as trust in academia falls’Universities struggling to compete with the opportunities offered by the private sector as potential doctoral candidates question value of PhDs, summit hears

I would also argue a large reason people aren’t applying to academic vacancies is because jobs in Higher Education mean …. Working in Higher Education. The systems which have failed them for anywhere from 4 to 10 years depending on the length of their program.

Rage Against the Miocene@organiccarbon.bsky.social

This is entirely reasonable - but very sad - response to the crisis in academia. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/researc...

There’s no reason for me to return to that system until there are repercussions against the power systems that make institutions safe for people like me. Until then why go there? And the pay is abysmal. So I have to take a 70% pay cut to be abused??? I think not

I’d rather work for an IGO, NGO, non-profit, government org, or private. There’s nothing in academia and until they make efforts to address systemic inequalities and the crisis of abuse disabled students and staff face it’s actually dangerous to work for them .

Rage Against the Miocene@organiccarbon.bsky.social

This is entirely reasonable - but very sad - response to the crisis in academia. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/researc...

Why would anyone want to go back into a system where they were abused only to continue that cycle of abuse? For disabled scholars and other minority scholars there is no reward to returning to academia - there is only further hardship.

I have had nothing but years of consistent abuse from my institution, lack of support from our internal disability services, outright hostility and assault from campus housing, and more and despite repeated reports with supporting evidence have had no recourse.

KayCat 🔜 FurPoc C16@kaycatsart.com

The visible proof that taking suggestions from experienced vendors can make from Friday. After they were told they should open a second door to let more people in. (also horrifying there wasn’t another open for fire safety reasons?)

Is where you’re screwing up. They’re the reason you HAVE a venue. Those $500 to $1000 table fees are paying for your spaces. And it’s time you treated them like the equal collaborators they are. If not you can start lowering the value of your con and audience forever.

But what do I know I’m just an expert

KayCat 🔜 FurPoc C16@kaycatsart.com

These are businesses that invest capital into showing up for your event and put time, energy, marketing and more into pushing your event. That’s why you typically pick the best vendors - but treating vendors like they’re a problem to be solved and not like they’re an equal stakeholder in the con

Shutting down communication because it becomes critical isn’t helpful and shows no intent to resolve the issues. If FWA isn’t going to assist vendor staff and are actively making the shopping experience impossible for con-goers then I would consider boycotting. @furryweekend.com

ALEKIVZ ✨@alekivz.bsky.social

anyway as an update: the den lead turned off screenshots & sharing/forwarding posts from the chat, the only way to receive information, then completely turned off the chat to any new messages when people said that this looks bad & makes communication even more difficult. i was compiling feedback.

This comes on the tail of two YEARS of them failing to address a registration issue that makes it impossible to get into events (based on further feedback from attendees). It’s clear they need an experienced events and community liaison and have settled for ….whatever they have 🙄

There’s a fire and accessibility risk being created for no reason which seem bizarre. Only one door open for the AmericasMart room which is bottlenecking traffic and making it difficult for people to egress (for any person with a disability this HAS to be a nightmare) @furryweekend.com

ALEKIVZ ✨@alekivz.bsky.social

vendor hall hours aren’t listed on the website or in our emails, only thru the fwa app or secondary schedule site, they only have one entry/exit point to the room so they meter and choke the attendee line for 2-3 hour wait times in the atlanta streets & rain but there’s no one in the room.