Michelle is a geophysicist and science educator who has worked in industry, academia, and government. Her company promotes science and technology literacy. While studying for her Ph.D. and then as a faculty member, she felt there was a big gap between what undergraduates were learning in their courses and the real world of the workplace. Book learning did not prepare one for the workplace. So she developed the first GIS-based curriculum that taught fundamental concepts in geosciences by analyzing data, rather than reading about them. Her SAGUARO curriculum has been used in over 135 colleges and universities. That project sealed her interest in a career pursuing geoscience education and the art of translating science into accessible forms. When not working she enjoys running, reading, and cooking.
Michelle is a recipient of the Excellence in Geophysics Education Award, American Geophysical Union (2012). She was also awarded the Roy L. Shafer Award from the Association of Science and Technology Centers in October 2018. The award recognizes her leadership as a CEO.
Following early career phases in academia and at NASA, Mike spent many years as a program manager in geophysics, and later geoscience education at the National Science Foundation. His chief interest is in fostering public understanding of science. He travels regularly to New Mexico from his home in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Mike is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020), and recipient of the Excellence in Geophysics Education Award, American Geophysical Union (2010). Check out Mike's CV for more details on his background.
Jan Mokros is a Senior Researcher at Science Education Solutions, where she leads an NSF-funded project “Data Clubs for Middle School Youth” and co-leads another NSF project that encourages rural Teen Science Café adult leaders to do research on their programs. Prior to that, she worked for 10 years at the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, where she worked to develop community-based STEM ecosystems, led the Reach Center program to enhance in and out-of-school STEM learning for rural Mainers, and engaged in a range of projects involving teacher professional development. Jan is a developmental psychologist, who worked for 25 years at TERC doing research and curriculum development focused on children’s and teachers’ understanding of mathematics, especially in the area of data science education. She also launched the Center for Science and Mathematics Teaching at San Francisco State University.
Tammy is a geophysicist, programmer, and educator. She has worked in seismology outreach for the last 10 years.
Scott started working with GIS in 1991 with the state of Arizona, and earned his M.A. in Geography from Northern Arizona University in 1996. After a two-year stint as a GIS coordinator at Point Reyes National Seashore in California, he moved back to Arizona to develop GIS-based educational curricula on topics in the earth and environmental sciences at the University of Arizona. A GIS teaching position at NAU, and a library position at Oregon State University came next, with Scott joining the Harvard Map Collection in the fall of 2006 as their digital cartography / GIS specialist.
Jacob is a researcher and educator with a background in classical music. He earned a doctorate in music history from McGill University, where he worked as a research assistant on a range of projects and taught undergraduate courses. He has also worked with high school and middle school students and taught at several colleges in the Boston area. Jacob cares deeply about high-quality, research-based education, in multiple disciplines and levels. He is excited to be focusing on Teen Science Cafés and Data Clubs for middle school students in his role at Science Education Solutions.
Sara has seen first-hand what amazing things can be achieved by a group of individuals who are truly committed and passionate about what they do. In 2003 she began by mobilizing people to volunteer and fundraise millions of dollars for the Weekend To End Breast Cancer and then the Canadian Cancer Society, then focused her own love of lifelong learning on the field of quality education, re-training as a Pre-K-12 educator. Now in Los Alamos, New Mexico she is Coordinator for the growing network of amazing individuals spearheading Teen Science Cafés across the USA. She wants to bring on board even more people passionate about STEM and education in order to ignite in young people a deep, long-lasting interest in how STEM affects them and the world. In Sara’s spare time she does a lot of wrestling on the floor with her two preschooler sons and gets her endorphin fix trail running, swimming, rock-climbing and skiing. (Sadly, Sara moved to her homeland of Canada, but we miss her so much we keep her on this page.)
