Mónica Feliú-Mójer’s Puerto Rican heritage is the whole of who she is as a decorated scientist and science communicator.

“It’s everything,” Feliú-Mójer said. “Being Puerto Rican is my most important identity. It shapes not just who I am and how I identify and how I carry myself through the world, but it is the main motivation of my work. Being Puerto Rican is my most important identity, both personally and professionally.”

Feliú-Mójer came to Colorado State University March 6 to visit CSU’s Center for Science Communication. During her time on campus, she gave a keynote presentation, visited classes and connected with the next generation of science communication students.

“Science communication is important because communication is a critical part of the process of science,” Feliú-Mójer said. “You can make the most amazing discovery, and if you can’t communicate it, it doesn’t happen. For science to really connect with people’s lives, it needs to be communicated in ways that are effective, in ways that are inclusive, in ways that are equitable.” 

Feliú-Mójer grew up surrounded by animals in a rural working-class community in Puerto Rico. The only path for those interested in biology, as she was, was medicine. 

“In retrospect, it inspires and motivates a lot of my work because a lot of my work as a communicator is giving visibility to a Puerto Rican scientist in science because I wasn’t seeing that when I was growing up,” Feliú-Mójer said. “I would’ve loved to know that there were researchers in Puerto Rico. We’re doing different things that are very cool. A lot of my work centers around kind of disrupting narratives and quote-unquote traditional notions of who’s a scientist, who does science, who belongs in science.”

“I think of science as a tool for liberation. Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States, and colonialism is ever-present in everything that happens in Puerto Rico: mindsets, systems, discourse, everything. I see my work as an effort of flipping those and disrupting and dismantling those colonial narratives and really giving people the tools that they need to live, not to just survive but thrive and live prosperous lives.” -Mónica Feliú-Mójer, director of communications and science outreach for Ciencia Puerto Rico

Feliú-Mójer came to the United States to research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She then continued on to get her Ph.D. from Harvard University and had to reassess what her culture meant to her profession. 

“Before I moved to the States, I was always very proud to be a scientist from Puerto Rico,” Feliú-Mójer said. “And when I moved to the States, I was in all of these spaces I felt like I had to tune down the Puerto Rican. I had to be a scientist where all that mattered was the merit and my ideas, but I think who we are and where we come from really influences what we do (and) how we approach problems.” 

In her career, Feliú-Mójer was a filmmaker, who worked extensively with the media and trained scientists. Most of her work focused on highlighting the research and scientific advancements in Puerto Rico with a company called Ciencia Puerto Rico, where she serves as the director of communications and science outreach after 9 1/2 years of volunteering with the organization.

Her most challenging project was called “Aquí Nos Cuidamos,” which translates to “here we help each other.” The project, started in 2020, aimed to provide accessible and actionable information to marginalized communities about COVID-19, vaccines and mental health.

“I would say that’s perhaps the most important, most challenging project I’ve worked on because it’s allowed me to bring many things that I’ve been doing for a long time: culturally relevant science communication, some things that I’ve been interested in, working more directly with communities, … it’s allowed me to bring all those things together,” Feliú-Mójer said. “It also has fundamentally changed how I think about communication. We’ve been able to work with the deaf community in Puerto Rico, and that’s been transformative for me. It’s been the beginning of a new stage of my career.”

Feliú-Mójer’s advice to future science communicators is to embrace the difficulties and triumphs that come with the job.

“Communication is very hard,” Feliú-Mójer said. “It needs to be active, intentional and thoughtful. I think especially for scientists, it’s an afterthought. I would say there are so many challenges that science faces today, (and) I think communication needs to play a key role in addressing them. We need communication, interdisciplinary communication (and) solutions for those problems. There’s a lot of opportunity.” 

Her work with radio, film, research and media has taught Feliú-Mójer the importance of other perspectives and collaboration in communication. 

“The most important skill you have as a communicator is to shut up and listen,” Feliú-Mójer said. “Communication is not about saying things; it’s about listening, really.” 

Feliú-Mójer’s future work with CienciaPR includes a community science lab, an institute focused on community science projects. It’s a place where any community leader in Puerto Rico can bring a scientific project for support and guidance around sustainability and create projects that are participatory and meet the needs of the community, Feliú-Mójer said.

“Sometimes people ask, ‘What do you want your obituary to say?’ When I think about (that), about what I want people to say about me, I want people to say that I was consequential,” Feliú-Mójer said. “I think I still have a lot left to do to make sure that science is seen as a part of Puerto Rican culture.” 

The work of Feliú-Mójer and Ciencia PR is focused on bringing awareness and attention to the science research efforts in Puerto Rico and the cultural implications of research and science in the country. 

“I can probably say that our work has changed the science media landscape in Puerto Rico, and I hope we continue to do so,” Feliú-Mójer said. “One of our goals as an organization is that science is going to be part of (Puerto Rican) culture as much as sports or food or music. When people think about Puerto Rican culture, they (may) think about all the musicians that Puerto Rico has produced or, like, the food or dance. And I want people to think (about) science when they think about Puerto Rican culture, and there’s still a lot of work to do there. I think of science as a tool for liberation. Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States, and colonialism is ever-present in everything that happens in Puerto Rico: mindsets, systems, discourse, everything. I see my work as an effort of flipping those and disrupting and dismantling those colonial narratives and really giving people the tools that they need to live, not to just survive but thrive and live prosperous lives.”

Reach Allie Seibel at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @allie_seibel_.