Janet Ivey-Duensing

Janet Ivey-Duensing, Emmy award-winning children’s media creator, host of Janet’s Planet, Inc., and current President of Explore Mars, Inc. is author of "Daring to Dig, Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter" which is the first book in a planned series called "Unsung Genius" which celebrates scientists (especially women and other minorities) and highlights their genius.

Janet narrates the story of renowned nineteenth-center paleontologist Mary Anning in the first person as Mary writing a letter to her younger self (and to the GENIUS in the young reader) to remember and celebrate her accomplishments throughout her lifetime. In this way, Janet gives women (who did not have "a voice" in the time and era in which they lived) the opportunity to "speak" and tell their own story. The result is as historically and factual an account possible of Mary’s great discoveries, her friendships with notable scientists of the day, and her love of exploration and all things fossil. At the end of the book, "Mary" invites the reader to write “A Letter To Your Genius Self,” where the reader can create a vision of what genius she wants to bring forth in her lifetime.

Janet is an advocate, educator, communicator, and female role model of STEM/STEAM and is committed to sharing the joy of exploration and discovery with children around the globe. Janet’s mission is to encourage science literacy globally and particularly to embody female science mentors for the next generation of women in space and science.

Janet lives by a lake outside Nashville with her husband, her puppies, Dude and Bunny, and her grandkids who call her Jan-Jan.