Who We Are
Mission
HumorFuse fills professional spaces with warmth, joy, and connection by providing professional development training that empowers people to be their funniest and most authentic selves.
Vision
We envision a world where professionals embrace playfulness and joy, leading to deeper and more meaningful connections with our colleagues and our work. So often, professional spaces take on certain norms that are not only cold, but also disempowering for diverse voices. We want to see a world in which our professionals - doctors, scientists, engineers - communicate in a way that helps us feel connected to them.
Values
Humor sparks human connection by signaling shared knowledge, perspectives, and emotions. Everyone has lived a beautiful and interesting life, with their own unique challenges and triumphs. Since humor comes from our lived experiences, we believe that everyone is funny. Using humor successfully can make your work more memorable and impactful, and we believe that this extra effort will benefit your colleagues, clients, and students. (Bonus: You’ll have more fun, too!)
HumorFuse Lore
On a dark and stormy night in 2017,
Vita and Jas both attended a game night hosted by comedian friends. Previously unknown to each other, the pair were seated next to each other and began the standard, “Hi, what do you do?” conversation. They then progressed into a series of, “Wait, what?! Me too!!” regarding their professional goals, interests, and ambitions, including but not limited to their love of ecology, comedy, teaching, and bats (yes, the animal).
Thus, HumorFuse was born.
Our Team
Vita wears many hats (and boy does she look good in them!). They have been doing improv comedy for 10 years, with light dabbling in stand-up, sketch, and comedic storytelling. As a scientist, Vita earned her PhD (finally!) in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder after completing a project that explored the human dimensions of bat conservation. Nowadays, Vita’s “science-ing” mostly manifests in mentoring undergrad and high school student research, as well as contributing to the body of literature that argues “Comedy is good! You should try it!” At their core, Vita is an educator with a student-centered and equity-focused approach to teaching. Vita is prone to bouts of whimsy and accidentally cooking enough food to feed 20 people.
Vita
After discovering a new species of Ebola and teaching through a global pandemic, Jas figured her life could benefit from being a little more un-serious. While she still loves ecology and education, her work these days focuses more on finding the joy in the everyday experience of being a curious human. She teaches workshops in oral storytelling and improv comedy, mentors budding science communicators, and plans her day around her dog, Bennet’s, nap schedule. She values rest and play – along with a healthy dose of discovery and adventure – and believes that we are so much more than what we achieve and accomplish professionally. Jas believes the world would be a better place if scientists loosened up and spoke like regular people, and if regular people used their big, beautiful brains to explore the world more scientifically.