A Career through Public Engagement and Science: Alumna Dr. Holly Menninger’s reflections at the University of Maryland Entomology Retreat

Photo Credit: Amy Yaich

written by: Margaret Ann Schaefer

​In her talk “Working at the Intersection: Reflections on public engagement in science,” Dr. Holly Menninger, Executive Director of the Bell Museum in Minnesota, discussed her path into a career of science communication.
 
Although Dr. Menninger is now deeply involved in public engagement, it was not her original plan when she started at the University of Maryland as a student of Dr. Margaret Palmer. She also states she “never had an ah-ha moment” where she suddenly realized that was what she wanted to do – her career has been a journey in different areas of engagement (including science policy and extension) that ultimately led her to the museum field. While she was at UMD, she studied the effect of the nutrient pulse from the 2004 Brood X cicada emergence (and subsequent input to many streams) on stream metabolism. These periodical cicadas took flight across the Washington DC Metro area after seventeen years of feeding on tree roots as nymphs. When they came out and generated interest in the public, Dr. Menninger – as part of a group of grad students known as the “Cicadamaniacs” -- found herself the spokesperson. She noted that she had her first foray in media outreach live on CNN’s American Morning because Dr. Mike Raupp, the ‘Bug Guy,’ was appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America.

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​Menninger has worked in a number of roles at the intersection of science. With each stage of her education and career, she took time to reflect and grow into the different roles she took on, including hosting the radio show “Science Cabaret on Air,” coordinating for the NY Invasive Species Research Institute, and directing the public outreach program Your Wild Life. All these steps led to her current job as executive director of the Bell Museum.
 
The Bell Museum is Minnesota’s state natural history museum and planetarium, located in St. Paul, Minnesota., This 152-year-old academic museum, which sits on the traditional and treaty lands of the Dakota people, is part of the University of Minnesota and is known for its large collections and scientific public outreach. The museum serves a diverse, intergenerational audience, and welcomes K-12 students on field trips throughout the school year and during their yearly summer camp. Since 2020, starting at the height of COVID, the Bell has distributed hands-on, materials rich STEM activity kits to students and families through partnership with community and social service organizations; in 2024, they distributed 15,000 kits!
 
As executive director of this museum, Dr. Menninger has become skilled at communicating with people from all walks of life about science. Regarding her time spent speaking to different policymakers about the need for federal funding for science, she called herself a “lobbyist for science.”
 
Dr. Menninger recommends we consider our audience when communicating with people outside our field. It becomes important to connect to their experiences, without being condescending. We need to be strategic and identify our communication goals and key messages, what we want people to take away from your interaction.
 
Dr. Menninger advises that for science communication with the public, it is best to have a clear main message, supported by no more than three talking points related to that message. Calling it the “message triangle,” she credits it for her success in the many interviews and talks with legislators she has done over her career.

Source: Holly Menninger

​People become more invested when they have a personal hook that sparks their interest in science and provides something easy for them to relate to – this philosophy has informed Menninger’s approach to citizen science programs (including the Belly Button Biodiversity project) as well as exhibit design at the Bell Museum. What people want to learn more about, or what they want to get out of an experience is not always what we expect. Many people go to museums not to learn, but to have a fun social experience. With all the extension at the University of Maryland’s Entomology Department, we often think of how to convey research and information to the public, rather than focusing on what the public is interested in learning or experiencing. Yet, we don’t always consider their personal experiences and curiosities they would like to know more about, or how they would like to engage with the information. This all flows into what Dr. Menninger calls a science engagement ecosystem. People learn information from a variety of sources and can experience science in many different settings, which generates an interest that can cause them to be more invested or seek out more information. We must all acknowledge that we are not the sole source of experience or engagement.
 
Dr. Menninger expressed delight at the continuing tradition of Maryland Day, where visitors can interact with arthropods from the Insect Zoo, one such scientific engagement that she remembers fondly from her own time as a student at UMD. However, excitement and interest do not need to come directly from scientific information and outreach. Other media, like art, can be used to reach the public in unconventional ways. Dr. Menninger stresses the importance of narrative and storytelling, as well as the immersive experiences and spectacles that draw people in. The 2004 cicada emergence generated an interest in insects that drew people in and catapulted Dr. Menninger out into the world of science communication.
 
Though we may not always anticipate how people come to us with questions regarding science and insects, we can use Dr. Menninger’s advice to help those taking those small steps into our world by encouraging that interest and reaching out with informative enthusiasm.
 
To learn more about Dr. Menninger, you can find the press release for her appointment as executive director of the Bell Museum here. She can be reached at [email protected], if you were unable to talk to her after her presentation due to the crowd that gathered around her with questions. The Entomology Department was lucky to have such a fabulous speaker at the retreat, which truly made the day stand out. If you want to read about the rest of the 2024 Entomology Retreat, you can find Jenan El-Hifnawi's post covering the event here.