The World Science Festival’s Pioneers in Science program gives high school students from around the globe rare and intimate access to some of the world’s most renowned scientists in a town hall-style discussion. Meet Jo Handelsman, Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and Associate Director for Science, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she launched the National Microbiome Initiative. Her research at Yale at the Handelsman lab focuses on understanding diversity in microbial communities and their role in infectious disease and the genetic basis for the stability of microbial communities; the role of a gut community as a source of opportunistic pathogens; and the soil microbial community as a source of new antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes.