Brought up in a creationist home, a scientist fights for evolution [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://www.science.org/content/article/brought-creationist-home-scientist-fights-evolution

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE), known for fighting to defend evolution’s place in school curricula, has a new leader who knows how hard that work can be. Amanda (Glaze) Townley, who next month becomes executive director of the Oakland, California–based nonprofit, grew up in rural northeastern Alabama, where she learned firsthand how religion and culture can collide with one of the central tenets in biology.

“I grew up in a young Earth creationism home, with a worldview that was based in evangelical Christianity and a literal translation of the Bible,” recalls the 42-year-old Townley. “And when I took honors biology in high school, my teacher said she’s not going to teach evolution because she doesn’t believe in it.”

Townley decided to find out what she was missing. “When I looked at the part of the book we didn’t cover in class, it made sense to me,” she says. It also shaped her choice of a career.

“The challenges of having those conversations with people in my own community—family members, teachers, ministers, and the like—sparked my desire to not only become a scientist, but also sent me on a path toward evolutionary biology and science education,” says Townley, who is giving up a tenured faculty position in the education department at Georgia Southern University to lead NCSE.

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