“I’m like guacamole, baby. I’m extra.”

Sammy Ramsey’s interests have always been wide, but many mentors told him to keep those passions private and choose one professional lane. On The Ampersand’s final episode of season one, Ramsey, who is an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, discusses how he navigated these pressures, chose to embrace his full self even if it got him kicked out of graduate school and how fighting to bring his entire identity to work and life generally has helped him become a stronger biologist, speaker, graduate student mentor, researcher and human being.

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For more on his research and speaking opportunities, visit Dr. Sammy’s website and the Ramsey Research Foundation.

 

Music by Nelson Walker.

Written and produced by Erika Randall and Tim Grassley.

Episodes recorded at Interplay Recording in Boulder, CO.