Four presenters holding science on tap glass beakers. They are standing in front of their posters for the presentation and are all smiling.
(From left) Science on Tap speakers Jenny Hall, Katie Burke, Marsha Craiger, and Craig Ramseyer explore how communities in Southwest Virginia are observing and experiencing climate change right in their own backyards. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

Have you noticed climate change in your own backyard? That question set the stage for a talk led by science journalist Katie Burke and three guests featured in Burke’s recent series, “A Warming World, a Rural Challenge in Southwestern Virginia.”

Speaker, Katie Burke, holding microphone to her mouth and talking to audience. She is wearing a maroon and white plaid top and standing in front of the CCS flag.
Katie Burke discusses audience perspectives on how climate change is impacting their health. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    Burke is no stranger to the Science on Tap crowd at Rising Silo Brewery. In fact, she was responsible for bringing the idea for the monthly outreach event to the Center for Communicating Science in 2017 as the center opened its doors. In a full circle moment nine years later, Burke began April's Science on Tap by asking the audience: " What environmental changes have you personally observed within your own community neighborhood?" and raised  the question of how climate change is affecting health here in Southwest Virginia.

    The audience’s responses reflected a wide range of local concerns, including the growing presence of ticks and the importance of understanding the diseases they carry. Southwestern Virginia was noted as having some of the highest tick-borne disease rates in the state. Participants also pointed to forest fires, food security challenges, rising energy costs, crop-related issues, and heat exposure. Flash flooding was also highlighted as the deadliest natural hazard in the region. Together, these responses showed how closely residents are observing and experiencing climate change-related health impacts in their daily lives

 

Marsha Craiger, a presenter at Science on Tap, standing next to her poster with her research and work. She is standing in front of a shelf and is wearing a black tee shirt. She is smiling for a picture with her poster.
Marsha Craiger engages with audience members, guiding them through her poster and the many aspects of her work with Mountain Empire Older Citizens. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    Building on this discussion, Marsha Craiger, Emergency Services Director at Mountain Empire Older Citizens, explained that her work began in case management, where she first identified the health and financial challenges facing individuals in the region. She went on to highlight several longstanding programs that address both heating and cooling needs for older adults. One of the most established is the Emergency Fuel Fund for the Elderly, created in 1975 to help cover the cost of electric bills and other essential sources. She outlined how eligibility for this assistance is based on factors such as age, location, and income level.

    Craiger also discussed the Senior Cool Care program, which provides fans and air conditioning units to those in need, often on a first-come basis. She emphasized the importance of the annual Walkathon, the program’s primary fundraiser, which generates significant community support each year and helps sustain services for older residents in the area.

 

Jenny Hall is talking to the audience and holding the microphone up to her mouth. She is holding her hand up expressing her words. She is standing in front of her table with activities and images of ticks.
Jenny Hall quizzes the audience with true or false questions about ticks and the diseases they carry. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    Jenny Hall, associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Healthcare Leadership at Radford University, shared how her personal and professional experiences with tick-borne illnesses led her to create the website ticksinvirginia.com. There are12 tick-borne illnesses circulating in the Southwest Virginia region, she noted, and asked how many audience members had been impacted. Many raised their hands, particularly for Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome. Hall described how difficult it can be for patients to receive an accurate diagnosis, explaining that some see dozens of doctors before getting clear answers.

    Hall also talked about lived experiences and quality of life, including her research related to Alpha-gal syndrome. Her lived experience research ultimately led her to focus on outreach and education tailored to diverse audiences, including healthcare providers, employers, teachers, school age children, and health profession students. One of her educational resources includes a children's book about ticks that promotes awareness and prevention.

Craig Ramseyer, another presenter, is holding up a chart with blue and yellow, which describes the rainfall patterns in Southwest VA. He is smiling for a picture and standing in front of the table.
Craig Ramseyer displays a multi-radar/multi-sensor system chart illustrating rainfall patterns across Southwest Virginia. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    Burke’s third guest was Craig Ramseyer, associate professor in the Department of Geography at Virginia Tech. His work centers on tropical rainfall in the Caribbean and how climate change is expected to influence patterns of drought and flooding. He also studies a range of related topics, including how weather conditions can affect football player mortality, how climate change shapes severe storm environments, and how moisture contributes to Greenland ice melt. His research reflects a broad interest in understanding how climate and weather systems impact both environments and human activity.

    Community members learned that the intensity of flash flooding has increased over the last 40 years due to warming oceans and that flash floods in areas like Southwest Virginia can evolve in as little as 15 minutes. Ramseyer explained that inaccurate or inconsistent input data are most responsible for error in rainfall forecasting and that better flash flood watches and warnings are dependent on increasing rain and tide gauges. Tide gauges are instruments that measure water levels in places like coasts, rivers, and tidal areas. By increasing the number of gauges, scientists and emergency managers can get more real-time information about rising water.

 

Photo of a white piece of paper on a wooden table that says passport. This is an activity sheet for audience members to use when talking to the speakers. It has the Science on Tap logo and also has the title of the presentation.
Audience members used a "passport" to collect information from speakers and enter a raffle for prizes. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    After the talks, audience members were tasked with completing a “passport” that included questions and prompts in each sub-topic, encouraging them to engage with each of the four guest speakers. Audience members used these questions and their own interests to enter into conversations with each of the speakers. Participants submitted their completed passports for a chance to win raffle prizes, including water bottles, journals, foldable fans, neck fans, tick safety items, and other giveaways.

An image of a plastic foot with fake holes in it for fake ticks. This foot is used for an activity that includes tweezing out ticks. The foot is sitting on a table where the presenter discusses her work about ticks.
An artificial foot allowed audience members to practice correct tick removal technique. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    One attendee noted that Hall’s tick-focused station was especially relevant to her and her daughter given their time spent outdoors. Her daughter enjoyed the interactive, true or false questions and the hands-on tick removal demonstration using a plastic foot, she said. They received a magnifying glass to include in their first aid kit to help detect and remove ticks that are too small to be seen unaided.

    Thank you to Katie Burke, Marsha Craiger, Jenny Hall, and Craig Ramseyer for sharing your stories and to Rising Silo Brewery for hosting! Science on Tap is a monthly event sponsored and supported by the Center for Communicating Science and by Virginia Tech's chapter of Sigma Xi. Come out to our next event at 5:30 p.m. on June 25, 2026, when you’ll learn about some of the exciting neuroscience research underway at Virginia Tech.

 

Picture of Prescott, a committee member for Science on tap, holding a colorful balloon. Prescott is wearing a maroon shirt and holding this up in front of the audience's seats. He is smiling for this picture.
Prescott Vadya, a Science on Tap committee member since 2022, attends his final Science on Tap event in April. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

As a special addition this month, we would like to recognize Science on Tap committee member Prescott Vayda, as this was his final Science on Tap event before moving to begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Vayda has served on the Science on Tap committee since fall 2022 and has been a valuable and passionate member of the team. We are grateful for his contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavors, and we were glad to share one last Science on Tap evening with him.

By Lauren Tucker, Center for Communicating Science graduate assistant