Elizabeth Weaver

Liz is the rare Atlanta native. Coming from a long line of Elizabeths (6 generations) here in Atlanta, Liz's roots are deep within the Atlanta community. In the spirit of reaching out to her community, and before entering a graduate program at GSU, Liz started her own consulting firm, TOGA (we Take Over, you Get Accepted) dedicated to helping high schoolers in the Atlanta area get into college. Skills acquired while running TOGA include fundraising, operation management, process workflow, market strategy development and business plan development. While working toward her Master's here at GSU in Neurobiology, Liz was a fellow with the Center for Disease Control in the Healthy Brain Initiative as well as an intern at Child Neurology Associates. Toward the end of her graduate program, Liz found a way to incorporate her love for science with her passion for education. NI faculty member, Dr. Kyle Frantz, gave Liz the break she needed as a coordinator for the Atlanta Neuroscience Expo. After completion of her degree, Liz knew she wanted to work outside the lab developing interdisciplinary policy and science education initiatives and translating science journalistically. With the development of the Neuroscience Institute, Liz found a niche as an education specialist for the Brains & Behavior Area of Focus. While continuing to work on outreach programs like BRAIN, NET/work, and ION, Liz eventually took over management of Brains & Behavior (B&B) and stepped up to the position she now enjoys as Associate Director. Going on 13 years here at GSU, her duties now include Editor & chief of the B&B Potential magazine, overseeing and building policy to fit the ever changing neuroscience landscape at GSU, leading professional development and team building workshops /seminars /symposia, developing retreat curricula and undergraduate course work, tracking student and alumni progress /research /presentations, developing software infrastructure & databases to understand trends in student progress and demographics, recruiting a diverse student body at national conferences, website management, streamlining and managing annual seed grants, managing social networks, branding, and artwork for both Brains & Behavior and the Neuroscience Institute. In addition, Liz sits in a leadership position for the Neuroscience Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee; is an advocate for disability rights; and is currently collaborating on a book project highlighting the patient-centered revolution shaping policy for people with chronic illness surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.