Dr. Reyhaneh (Rey) Maktoufi is an Iranian-American National Geographic Explorer, researcher, and science communication (SciComm) trainer and strategist focused on popularizing the science of SciComm. She is also a delegate to the US-Japan Leadership Program (USJLP, 2025).

Her production work combines communication principles with engaging formats, including co-producing, hosting, and illustrating PBS|NOVA’s Sciencing Out, co-creating the SciComm Hotline podcast, and making explainers and comics on Instagram.

For over a decade, Rey has designed and led playful workshops on communication, trust-building, and storytelling, training scientists, students, and creators through The Story Collider and National Geographic Society, fellowships with HHMI and Tangled Bank Studios, and clients such as the Kavli Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, and universities including MIT and UNC Chapel Hill.

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As a researcher and evaluator, she has designed and conducted studies on curiosity and trust, social media campaigns, fellowship and workshop experiences. Her latest is a paper on sustained public engagement in digital spaces for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is currently working on Story Craft: The Stories We Tell and the Science Behind Them, a National Geographic-funded project with Science Communication Lab, connecting SciComm researchers and practitioners.

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Previously, Rey was a Misinformation Civic Science fellow at PBS|NOVA and a visiting researcher at the Adler Planetarium. She earned her Ph.D. in Media, Technology, and Society from Northwestern University and earlier worked in Tehran as a health communicator, grief facilitator, and cancer prevention campaign manager.

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Outside of work, Rey practices iaido and kendo and photographs her dog, Lulu-Khorkhore, obsessively.

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