Nancy Baron is the outreach director of the Communications Partnership for Science and the Sea, known as COMPASS. She designed and leads the communications trainings for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program. Nancy's new book, Escape from the Ivory Tower (Island Press, August 2010), is a frank, practical, and entertaining guide for scientists who want to engage their audiences, ace their interviews, promote their papers, and enter the political fray. She and her COMPASS team offer a wide range of workshops for academic scientists as well as scientists who work for government, and non-governmental organizations in North America and abroad. Her experience as both a biologist for Canadian National Parks and as a science writer inspired her to help bridge the gaps among scientists, journalists, and policymakers. Baron has won numerous science writing awards including National Magazine,Science and Society and Western Magazine awards in Canada. An ardent naturalist, Baron has led natural history expeditions around the world. She wrote the popular introductory field guide, Birds of the Pacific Northwest (Lone Pine Publishing, 1997), as a way to help people engage with the natural world. Nancy is based at NCEAS, the National Centre of Ecological Analysis in Santa Barbara.