Daniella Scalice is the Education and Communications Lead for the NASA Astrobiology Program. Ms. Scalice holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from UC Santa Cruz and worked in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School researching nervous system development. After pursuing an MFA in film production at Humboldt State University, in 2001 she joined the team at the NASA Astrobiology Program.
In 2005, she and her Diné colleagues co-founded the NASA and the Navajo Nation Partnership, an ongoing collaboration that has produced classroom materials, teacher trainings, and student summer camps which weave together Western and Navajo scientific knowledge. Ms. Scalice also currently leads the Astrobiology for the Incarcerated program and an international Working Group of Native and non-Native scientists and educators across NASA and beyond who work in Native communities. She has led a science communication training program for early career scientists called FameLab, and co-developed an Impact Assessment Method that facilitates the assessment of participant impact of educational programs.
Ms. Scalice currently lives with her family on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and co-owns a 16-acre farm in Northern New Mexico where she hopes to one day make her home.