In the first year of the pandemic, Fortune split its annual 40 Under 40 into five lists of 40, with health among them
Baxter's portrait on Fortune's 2020 40 Under 40 in Health list. Photo: Fortune
Fortune named Raven Baxter, a 27-year-old science communicator, to its 2020 40 Under 40 list in health on September 2, 2020. Her listing named her company as Raven the Science Maven, her stage name.
That year Fortune published five lists of 40 instead of one, in finance, technology, health care, government and politics, and media and entertainment. "It's been a year of monumental challenges and change, and just one list of 40 emerging leaders wouldn't be enough," the magazine wrote on the list's main page.
Many of Baxter's peers on the health list were working on the pandemic. They included Trevor Bedford of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, whom Fortune called "one of the most closely watched pandemic analysts anywhere." Syra Madad led the special pathogens program at NYC Health + Hospitals. Adar Poonawalla ran the Serum Institute of India, and Christos Kyratsous led COVID-19 antibody research at Regeneron.
Baxter was named for how she communicates science. The World Health Organization said on March 11, 2020, that COVID-19 could be characterized as a pandemic. On March 24 she posted "Wipe It Down," a song Fortune described as "a COVID-19 primer" that "went viral."
Trust in science was in the news that spring. A Pew Research Center survey published May 21 found that 43% of U.S. adults had a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the public interest. It also found that 53% of Black adults viewed medical research scientists positively, compared with 68% of white adults and 67% of Hispanic adults. On June 9, Nature ran the headline "Thousands of scientists worldwide to go on strike for Black lives."
Fortune's profile traced Baxter's path from space camp to molecular biology in college and graduate school. She then did project work for pharmaceutical companies at a contract research organization, where Fortune reported she was for a long time the only Black person at her office. She left that job for STEM education, "developing a next generation of talent that looked more like her and the rest of the country," the magazine wrote.
Fortune described her as "a trained pianist and a self-taught sound engineer." It said she made the rap video "Big Ole Geeks" "to challenge the notion of who could wear a lab coat." She went on to produce an album's worth of science education rap videos. She also launched The STEMbassy, a web series "featuring scientists of varying genders, races, and disciplines."
At the time, Baxter was a University at Buffalo doctoral student whose research used hip-hop to communicate science.
Fortune's profile of Baxter and the full 2020 list are on its website.
Cohort Sistas presented Dr. Raven Baxter with its Living Legacy Award and heard her keynote at the doctoral support network's fifth anniversary gala in Washington on March 7, 2026.
The Creative Collective NYC named Dr. Raven Baxter to its 2025 Creative Class, a list of 63 Black culture-shifters revealed by Essence on Feb. 3, 2025.
The Williamsville Education Foundation inducted Dr. Raven Baxter, a 2010 graduate of Williamsville North High School, into the Williamsville Wall of Fame on Nov. 8, 2024.
