I am a digital content creator and science communicator. I manage all social media accounts at the Prairie Research Institute (more than 25) across multiple platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and TikTok. I write and contribute to blog stories, most notably the "People of PRI."

Before PRI, I led two non-profits in Champaign, IL, the Orpheum Children's Science Museum from 2017 to 2020 and Champaign Center Partnership from 2020 to 2023.

Science Communication

• The race to save the little brown bat: How genomic research could rescue a species on the brink of extinction (2024 Oct 30)
• Endangered salamander mussel found alive in Illinois after nearly 120 years (2024 Oct 09)
• Beneath the surface: Charting the Mahomet aquifer for water security (2024 Mar 06)

Peer-Reviewed

• Hazel, A. M., M. P Donovan, P. G. Mueller, S. W. Punyasena, and L. M . Hanks. Using palynology to identify floral hosts of cerambycid beetles. In prep.
• Bolmin, O., L. Wei, A. M. Hazel, A. C. Dunn, A. Wissa, and M. Alleyne. 2019. Latching of the click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) thoracic hinge enabled by the morphology and mechanics of conformal structures. J Exp Biol 222 (12): jeb196683.
• Smith, C. R., P. L. Blair, C. Boyd, B. Cody, A. Hazel, A. Hedrick, H. Kathuria, P. Khurana, B. Kramer, K. Muterspaw, C. Peck, E. Sells, J. Skinner, C. Tegeler, and Z. Wolfe. 2016. Microbial community responses to soil tillage and crop rotation in a corn/soybean agroecosystem. Ecol Evol 6(22): 8075–8084

• M.S., Entomology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2017
• B.A., Environmental Science, Earlham College, 2014

• Urbana Arts and Culture Commission, City of Urbana, (2024-present)