Further Together the ORAU Podcast

Tracy Boatner, President and CEO of the East Tennessee Economic Council, is also a member of the ORAU Board of Directors. She says she was honored to be invited to join the board and has tremendous appreciation for ORAU’s long-standing role as a force for workforce development in Oak Ridge and across the country. In this conversation, Boatner and Further Together host Michael Holtz discuss how these are exciting times for a city that stands at the center of the nuclear renaissance and how ETEC helps foster relationships among all of the stakeholders in the community. To learn more about ETEC, visit https://www.eteconline.org/

Patrick Shober, Ph.D., NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, uses Doppler weather radar to detect and characterize meteorite falls in North America. Getting more information about meteorite falls increases the ability to collect these rocks that may have come from the moon or Mars or elsewhere. The goal of Shober’s fellowship is to improve the ability to track and locate meteorite falls, potentially automate the process, and improve the amount of information that can be extracted from Doppler weather radar. Shober is nearing the end of his fellowship. His immediate plans include a trip to Antarctica to search for meteorites, and in 2027 will go to work for the NEO Surveyor, a NASA space-based infrared telescope designed to detect and track potentially hazardous asteroids and comets near Earth. Earlier this year, Shober had a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal on studying asteroidal activity among meteor datasets. The paper can be found here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae4bde To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and to apply for opportunities during the November 2026 application cycle, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html To learn more about ORAU, visit https://orau.org/

September is National Preparedness Month. What better time to talk about EM360, ORAU’s comprehensive emergency preparedness platform designed to help organizations manage the full cycle of preparedness activities in one place—from planning and exercise development to evaluation, corrective action tracking and continuous improvement. In this episode, Mary Connelly, ORAU manager of emergency management, discusses how EM360 can help any organization streamline the work of conducting emergency exercises without adding administrative burden. To learn more about EM360 or to request a demonstration, visit https://www.orau.org/technology-products/emergency-manager-360.html

Maggie Weng, Ph.D., NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, studies how life survives in super salty environments. She says one of her favorite things about doing this research is going to extreme environments to take samples from places on earth that exhibit the kinds of conditions that we're interested in studying. Those samples serve as analogs for what conditions might be like on other worlds or might have been like in the past. For example, Mars used to have a warmer and wetter climate, so she can study places on earth that might have resembled ancient Mars. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program and apply for the November application cycle, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html.

People travel from all over the country to run the Secret City Half Marathon and 5K, a cool-weather race that starts on the waterfront at Melton Hill Lake and takes runners and walkers through the scenic streets of Oak Ridge. ORAU has been a proud sponsor of the Secret City races for many years. In this episode, host Michael Holtz is joined by fellow communications colleague and unofficial race ambassador Bryan Campbell and race director Hannah Fatheree for a conversation about the race, including talk about the course, how to train for a half marathon, the great organization that benefits from race proceeds, and more. BTW, you can still register for the race here: Secret City Half Marathon and 5K

Rural, underserved and minority populations are often not included or not represented in clinical and scientific research. Youssef Roman, PharmD, Ph.D., created the Community Advocacy and Research Empowerment (CARE) Coalition to change that. Youssef received an ORAU Innovation Partnership Grant while at Idaho State University to create the coalition, which brings together stakeholders committed to including rural, underserved and minority populations in research. Youssef hopes to replicate the CARE Coalition in Arizona where he is associate professor of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacy specialist at the Phoenix VA Healthcare System. Youssef says he feels called to address rural, underserved and racial disparities in research. Roman’s interest aligns with the work of the ORAU Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster, which also is discussed in this episode. To learn more about and connect with Dr. Roman, visit https://www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/person/youssef-roman To learn more about the ORAU Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster, visit https://www.orau.org/blog/programs/orau-rural-health-research-innovation-cluster-workshop-aims-to-bridge-the-rural-health-gap.html

Vit Ruzicka, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow who works with hyperspectral satellite images to detect methane signatures in the atmosphere. Methane is a transparent gas that cannot be seen by the human eye but hyperspectral satellites, along with machine learning models, can help determine if there are leaks in facilities or pipelines that store methane. Because methane is a greenhouse gas, detecting large emissions is important. In addition to his research focus, Ruzicka shares his journey from the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom to the United States, and how working for NASA was dream that became a reality. Applications are now open for the November cycle for the NASA Postdoctoral Program. Learn more and apply: https://npp.orau.org/index.html

The United States is facing a rural health crisis that includes a shortage of healthcare workers, challenges in access to women’s health services and mental health services, and preparedness limitations in the event of a public health crisis. ORAU is hosting a workshop on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, to launch a Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster (RIC). The RIC will bring together members of ORAU’s University Consortium to focus on solving the complex problems that impact rural health and resilience while also focusing on the federal government’s rural health priorities. Brenda Blunt, senior director of health and resiliency strategy, and Casey Thomas, strategic partnerships and engagement manager in ORAU’s Research and University Partnerships Office, preview the August workshop and discuss why rural health is a priority topic for ORAU. To learn more about the Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster and the priority areas to be discussed, check out our blog: https://www.orau.org/blog/projects/orau-to-address-nations-rural-health-challenges-with-research-innovation-cluster-meeting.html

Tara Fetherolf, Ph.D. is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the NASA Astrobiology Center at the University of California Riverside. Her research focuses on stellar variability, or how stars change with time. One example she uses is our sun. It has spots and it has storms. She studies those phenomena on other stars and how that affects other planets and their atmospheres, which she can compare to how similar activity affects earth. Fetherolf uses the example of the aurorae on Earth, which are beautiful and demonstrate the sun’s activity, but notes our sun is relatively quiet compared to other stars and their impact on their exoplanets. Fetherolf says studying the stars is part of scientists trying to answer the question, "Are we alone?" To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program, or to apply in the November 2026 cycle, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html

Deborah L. Crawford, Ph.D., is chair of the ORAU Board of Directors. In her role, she has a front-row seat in shaping the future of the company. Crawford became chair as the selection of Meghan Millwood for president and CEO was being finalized, and has served on the board for eight years. In this episode of Further Together, Crawford talks to host Michael Holtz about her role as board chair, how she has seen ORAU flourish during her tenure on the board, and the exciting days that lie ahead for ORAU and all of Oak Ridge and region because of the nuclear renaissance. She also talks about the national research enterprise as a whole, her background as an electrical engineer who moved from Glasgow, Scotland, to the United States, and how she is really an introvert at heart. Crawford is Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Tennessee and is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the full range of the university’s research, innovation, and economic development programs, and raising the university’s national and international reputation as a leading public research university. Crawford works with UT faculty, staff and students to strengthen the institution’s contributions to research, scholarship and creative work, from the very fundamental through translation and implementation. Deeply committed to the integration of research and education, she understands that the university’s research portfolio must drive innovations in its academic programs, ensuring that every Vol has learning opportunities at the very frontier of knowledge. Crawford harnesses the power of partnerships to advance UT’s research ambitions, and to ensure that the institution’s research outcomes make life and lives better for the citizens of Tennessee and others far beyond. She is an advocate for entrepreneurship and innovation, promoting the translation of research outcomes into new and established organizations, including new deep tech ventures incubated and accelerated in the university’s programs. Learn more about Crawford here: https://orau.org/about/board/deborah-crawford.html