We are thrilled to welcome JoAnna Klein to Blue Chalk as our inaugural Ochre Fellow. In this position, JoAnna will be the first researcher and writer for Blue Chalk's new digital publication, Ochre.

JoAnna Klein is a writer and scientist from North Carolina where she received her master’s degree in general/experimental psychology from Appalachian State University in 2009. 

She spent the past four years at New York University working in the world-renowned lab of Dr. Joseph E. LeDoux where she investigated the neural correlates of emotional learning and memory. Throughout her career, she has found ways to weave storytelling through teaching, mentoring and writing for the public.

This fall she will begin her studies at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University in the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Her goal is to humanize science through solid storyline, compelling visuals and immersive multimedia experiences. She is currently working on an independent project investigating one man’s story at the intersection of art, behavioral theory and neuroplasticity. 

JoAnna runs two personal science blogs that stem from her love of writing, relentless curiosity and new infatuation with life behind the camera lens.

Photo (above): A lab technician's setup to process neural tissue in a histology lab at New York University. The freezing microtome (center) is a like a deli slicer—instead of olive loaf or provolone, it cuts brains. The technician sections each brain into slices about 50 microns thick, which is half the width of a piece of paper. She mounts these slices onto glass slides, then dries and stains them. This delicate and tedious process allows her to visualize experimental manipulations in the brain and verify if an experiment reached its aims. Photo by JoAnna Klein.