Tommy Nelson Email & Phone Number

Washington, Dc, Us

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

Responsible for the development and production of asynchronous courses that teach learners about machine learning and artificial intelligence. Built and launched courses teaching the fundamentals of generative AI with large language models that have reached over 2,000,000 learners. Manage relationships with subject matter experts and instructors, write course syllabi, create visual and hands-on programming lab content for long and short-format courses, coordinate the work of contract content developers, work with production and editing teams to create video lectures.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Co-taught PBHL 2036, a masters-level course in the School of Public Health, that focused on agent-based modeling for Public Health using the Epistemix Platform and the FRED modeling language.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

As the first Head of Learning and Community Development at Epistemix, designed and created the learning infrastructure for an agent-based simulation software platform. Utilized instructional design best-practices to create introductory tutorials for new users. Provided software training and support to internal teams and external clients. Worked with engineering and data science teams to advise on and prioritize new tool and feature development. Demonstrated software to investors, potential clients, and at conferences. As member of company leadership team, worked with CEO on product demonstrations, platform go-to-market strategy, and user onboarding experience.

Pittsburgh, Pa

Served as the Director of External Relations at City of Asylum, a literary non-profit that gives sanctuary to persecuted international writers and presents more than 150 arts programs each year. Led the organization's individual and corporate fundraising efforts, including multiple direct mail fundraising campaigns, annual gala, monthly donor program, cultivation and stewardship of individuals and small private foundations, and writing of corporate sponsorship requests. More than doubled individual giving in three years and increased the number of individual donors by more than 30%.Created institutional marketing materials for email, web, and social media. Oversaw the work of an administrative assistant, and marketing manager in areas of list management and institutional communications. Managed salesforce database and trained staff in its use. Created all reports for leadership and colleagues related to giving and event attendance. Led the redesign, building, and content creation of a new organization website that launched in December 2021.

Pittsburgh, Pa

Designed, funded, and executed research programs in astrophysics and higher education pedagogy. Principal investigator on grants from NASA, Smithsonian Institute, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Successfully implemented a $590,000 NSF program to develop and evaluate a new research project curriculum for college astronomy courses in collaboration with colleagues at Northwestern University and the Adler Planetarium. Taught large-format introductory courses in astronomy for non-majors. Led staff committee to overhaul department website. Participated in astronomy education outreach events in Pittsburgh, including a collaboration with the Carnegie Museum of Art as part of the 57th Carnegie International. Contributed to Astronomy on Tap PGH, a series of informal talks about astronomy at local breweries.

School Of Physics And Astronomy

Carried out research in the field of astronomy. Designed, funded, and executed observations of a class of astrophysical explosions known as novae. Won competitive proposal calls to obtain telescope time at space and ground-based observatories. Analyzed and interpretated data from telescopes and large data archives using Python and R. Communicated results in publications and at international conferences. Served on proposal review panels at NASA and the Smithsonian Institution.

School Of Physics And Astronomy

Taught introductory astronomy courses for non-majors, and an upper-division cosmology course for non-majors. Researched and implemented higher-ed pedagogy best practices to create an active learning environment for students in large-format lectures. Designed multi-part coding project for cosmology course. Partnered with other faculty on development of new curriculum for introductory astronomy labs. Participated in year-long Early Career Teaching program at universities center for teaching and learning. Taught small-class team-based learning sessions and created lecture content and homework assignments for honors introductory physics courses.

X-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory

Carried out quantitative research in field of X-ray astrophysics. Presented research in publications and at conferences, and wrote proposals to enable rapid response telescope observing programs. Participated in public education and outreach activities. Contributed to an astronomy podcast program called "Blueshift". Activated NASA science for families and community members at public open days as a science explainer.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Astronomy

Activities and Societies: Hoofers Climbing Club

Master Of Science (Ms), Astronomy, Minor In Physics

Bachelor Of Science (Bsc), Physics And Astronomy, 1St Class Honours

Activities and Societies: Kelvin Ensemble University Orchestra

Secondary School