Merry Bruns, CASC's Director, is an editor, writer and producer for the science Web sites. Her background includes Web producing at Proxicom, Inc.(www.proxicom.com), the American Society for Microbioloy, and the EPA. She's currently Consulting Editor for the NIH/National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Web site (www.niaid.nih.gov), and a news correspondent in Anthropology for online news services.

She's a member of the National Association of Science Writers (www.nasw.org), and has both written and done research on the problems of reporter/anthropologist relations. Her acive role in anthropology communications has involved annual AAA workshops on "Communicating Anthropology with the Web," which demonstrate methods and goals for public anthropology sites, as well as hosting roundtables where anthropologists and local science media can share problems and views.

Her background has included working in TV, publicity and media relations, and newspaper/magazine writing in both New York City, where she lived for almost 25 years, and in Texas. During this time she gained an MA in Anthropology from Hunter College, NYC, (due 1998), with an emphasis on Historical Archeology, and British Prehistory. She maintains a great interesta in Biological Anthropology as well. Her thesis was an examination of reporter/anthropologist reltions, and is a first in its field for a study of this kind.

S has done years of volunteer work with the American Anthropological Association's Press Dept., in both online and traditional media relations, and newsroom management.

Merry's focus on communicating anthropology has been the basis for developing the former Center for Anthropology and Journalism (CAJ, founded by Randolph FIllmore in 1987), and merging it into The Center for Anthropology and Science Communications' Web site. Having used the Internet as a journalist since 1994, making the transition to a Web environment for CASC in early 1995 was a natural. The limitless reach and the potential for making communications information available worldwide was the impetus for this site, which continues to grow and change as the Web evolves. It's been a tremendously exciting challenge.