Patricia Princehouse and “Brio”PATRICIA PRINCEHOUSEPatricia Princehouse, director of the evolutionary biology program and outreach director of the Institute for the Science of Origins at Case Western Reserve University, is no stranger to confronting anti-science policies. She helped found the nonprofit Ohio Citizens for Science in late 2001, when she and her colleagues were arguing against the teaching of creationism in the state’s public schools. “I’m a lifelong Ohio Republican from six generations of Ohio Republicans,” Princehouse said. “So this sort of thing gets a bit personal for me.”
Now, she’s organizing another demonstration: a March for Science in Cleveland.
The Scientist: You’ve long been active in science and education advocacy.
Patricia Princehouse: I never expected to be an activist of any kind, but when the creationists tried to take over the public school science curricula in Ohio, I had to say something. At first, when we went to Columbus, I said I would only do the science part—I had nothing to say about the legal things or the politics. We went down there, and we said what [they were] teaching . . . was wrong. And, basically, they said, We don’t care. It’s what our constituents want. I was very naive. I was completely floored by this. Eventually I had to look into ...
