Staff

Chelsea Du Fresne – Co-Lead OrganizerChelsea Du Fresne is a senior at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities majoring in microbiology and genetics. A self-professed twitter addict, she’s one of the two Co-Lead Organizers for Skeptech. She served on CASH’s 2011/12 board as its public relations director and organizer of the 2011 homeopathy protest. After her undergraduate studies are completed, Chelsea plans on pursuing a Ph.D in evolutionary biology. She enjoys pretending she’s French and eating steak tartare (raw meat, raw eggs, and spices). She may be a cat owner but is more of a dog person. Don’t be afraid to say hi!

Brendan Murphy – Co-Lead OrganizerBrendan Murphy was a graduate in mathematical biology, class of 2011, from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He served as the Finance Director for Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists – CASH for two years. He lives in Minneapolis and serves on the Board of Directors as Treasurer for the national Secular Student Alliance. Brendan also hosts the Nowlikephotographs radio show, plays the piano and drums, bikes a lot, and sometimes writes at brendanbikes.org.

Ben Blanchard – Conference Specialist

Ben Blanchard is a graduate of Biomedical Studies Major (microbiology focus) at St. Cloud State University, where he served as president of SSA at SCSU. Ben aspires to make the world a better place by first creating plastic eating bacteria, then becoming a pediatric oncologist. In his little free time, he enjoys absorbing random knowledge from the internet, friendly debates with devout theists, doing science, and amassing nerd-cred. He also blogs at TheSweaterVest.com.

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Xandra Best – Stage Manager

Xandra Best is a junior student at St Olaf College. She’s pursuing a double major in mathematics and computer science with a concentration in statistics. She’s also involved in her campus’ SSA affiliate group. When Xandra’s not busy playing with numbers and logic, she’s usually singing, swing dancing, or cycling. She hopes to spend a good part of next year studying math in Budapest, Hungary.

Joshua Brose – A/V Specialist

Josh is the A/V Specialist for Skeptech, and formerly served as Activities Director for CASH. He was raised as a particularly devout LCMS Lutheran with a passion for ministry, which later became a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. He now spends his time carefully considering the problems with both. Josh hopes to find a career where he can make the human experience more fulfilling by encouraging scientific and creative thought. He is particularly fond of interesting gadgets and Science Fiction.

Kate Donovan Kate is a psychology student at Northwestern University who runs on coffee and snark. At some point she’d like to make people sit on couches and tell her about their feelings, but right now she writes on the internet and makes silly faces when she doesn’t know what to say. She has interned previously at Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance and blogs at Gruntled & Hinged on Freethought Blogs.