Further Together the ORAU Podcast

The United States is facing a rural health crisis that includes a shortage of healthcare workers, challenges in access to women’s health services and mental health services, and preparedness limitations in the event of a public health crisis. ORAU is hosting a workshop on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, to launch a Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster (RIC). The RIC will bring together members of ORAU’s University Consortium to focus on solving the complex problems that impact rural health and resilience while also focusing on the federal government’s rural health priorities. Brenda Blunt, senior director of health and resiliency strategy, and Casey Thomas, strategic partnerships and engagement manager in ORAU’s Research and University Partnerships Office, preview the August workshop and discuss why rural health is a priority topic for ORAU.



To learn more about the Rural Health Research Innovation Cluster and the priority areas to be discussed, check out our blog: https://www.orau.org/blog/projects/orau-to-address-nations-rural-health-challenges-with-research-innovation-cluster-meeting.html

Tara Fetherolf, Ph.D. is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the NASA Astrobiology Center at the University of California Riverside. Her research focuses on stellar variability, or how stars change with time. One example she uses is our sun. It has spots and it has storms. She studies those phenomena on other stars and how that affects other planets and their atmospheres, which she can compare to how similar activity affects earth. Fetherolf uses the example of the aurorae on Earth, which are beautiful and demonstrate the sun’s activity, but notes our sun is relatively quiet compared to other stars and their impact on their exoplanets. Fetherolf says studying the stars is part of scientists trying to answer the question, "Are we alone?"



To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program, or to apply in the November 2026 cycle, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html

Deborah L. Crawford, Ph.D., is chair of the ORAU Board of Directors. In her role, she has a front-row seat in shaping the future of the company. Crawford became chair as the selection of Meghan Millwood for president and CEO was being finalized, and has served on the board for eight years. In this episode of Further Together, Crawford talks to host Michael Holtz about her role as board chair, how she has seen ORAU flourish during her tenure on the board, and the exciting days that lie ahead for ORAU and all of Oak Ridge and region because of the nuclear renaissance. She also talks about the national research enterprise as a whole, her background as an electrical engineer who moved from Glasgow, Scotland, to the United States, and how she is really an introvert at heart.



Crawford is Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Tennessee and is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the full range of the university’s research, innovation, and economic development programs, and raising the university’s national and international reputation as a leading public research university.



Crawford works with UT faculty, staff and students to strengthen the institution’s contributions to research, scholarship and creative work, from the very fundamental through translation and implementation. Deeply committed to the integration of research and education, she understands that the university’s research portfolio must drive innovations in its academic programs, ensuring that every Vol has learning opportunities at the very frontier of knowledge.



Crawford harnesses the power of partnerships to advance UT’s research ambitions, and to ensure that the institution’s research outcomes make life and lives better for the citizens of Tennessee and others far beyond. She is an advocate for entrepreneurship and innovation, promoting the translation of research outcomes into new and established organizations, including new deep tech ventures incubated and accelerated in the university’s programs.



Learn more about Crawford here: https://orau.org/about/board/deborah-crawford.html

Gabe Grell, Ph.D., is a self-described geek. He is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow focused on high-energy astrophysics, which involves observing some of the most powerful objects in the universe, including massive stars (10 to 20 times bigger than our sun), black holes, galaxies and supernovae, all of which emit very strong radiation in the form of X-rays. Grell analyzed the data received from satellites measuring these X-rays to deduce the atomic makeup and physical properties of those objects. Grell says he has always a math and science geek and began taking an interest in astronomy in high school. He majored in astrophysics and physics at Harvard University, then pursued his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland College Park. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html.

Veronika Jercic, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. She studies structures in the solar atmosphere known as prominences or filaments. Jercic calls them clouds on the sun. These clouds are important to understand stretch through all of sun’s atmospheric layers. Unlike the clouds on Earth, these clouds are much denser, so they're very heavy clouds and colder than the Corona in which they are situated. These clouds occasionally erupt, expelling huge masses of particles and energy into the interplanetary space, which see them as the Northern Lights. These energy masses can also impact satellite transmissions, which negatively affect our technologically driven world. To learn more about the NASA NPP Program, visit https://npp.orau.org/index.html