Gifted Science/Math/Independent Investigations Specialist
Comprehensive Gifted Program
Mohave Middle School

I have multiple undergraduate degrees, a Masters in Secondary Education with an emphasis on science education, and am endorsed as a Reading Specialist, a Gifted Specialist, a Middle School Specialist, and am fully ELL Endorsed. For the last 17 years of my teaching career, I have been a classroom teacher and have also been deeply involved in a wide range of NASA’s national education and public outreach programs. These include conducting teacher professional development: as a NASA Educator Ambassador for NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Division, a MESSENGER (mission to Mercury) Fellow, a Heliophysics Ambassador, a GRACE (Gravity Research and Climate Experiment)Fellow, a JPL Solar System Ambassador, a Beyond the Solar System Fellow for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; a National Science Digital Library teacher trainer; a Facing the Future Fellow, and a Teacher Academy Participant/Master Teacher for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. I have delivered presentations at local, state, regional, national, and international venues. I have also field-tested and authored educational materials in space science, engineering, and social studies, and taught courses in Inquiry-based Science and Space Science at the college level. At the local level in Arizona, I was the academic lead for a multi-year NSF/WEA grant funded program aimed specifically at increasing the involvement of girls and underrepresented minorities in math and science. I have both a passion for learning and a passion for sharing the excitement of exploration.