Megan Bang is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University and is currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Bang’s research focuses on understanding culture, learning, and development broadly with a specific focus on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. Megan approaches her work through rigorous mixed methods – utilizing experimental design in her foundational cognition and development studies, to community based participatory design work in which she co-designs learning and teaching with communities, families, and youth as well as engages in the collaborative study of such environments. She conducts research in both schools and informal settings. She has taught in and conducted research in teacher education as well as leadership preparation programs. Dr. Bang has won several awards including the AERA early career award in Indigenous Education as well as the Division K early career award in Teaching and Teacher Education. She has published in leading outlets such as Cognition & Instruction, Science Education, and Educational Psychologist. She is currently serving on the Board of Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences and the editorial boards of several top journals.
Dr. Carrie Tzou is an associate professor in science education in the School of Educational Studies and a PI in the Goodlad Institute. She holds a PhD in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University and an M.S. in Teaching and Learning with a concentration in science education from Vanderbilt University. Her research has three major components, all connected with an interest in addressing issues of culture, identity, and equity in science and environmental science learning: 1) ethnographic work to understand how youth and their communities are positioned and position themselves through place-based education, 2) design-based research to design curricula to bring youths’ out of school science and cultural practices into science and environmental science teaching and learning, and 3) research and design of elementary and secondary preservice teacher education that explores how to orient preservice teachers to the sophisticated learning and identities that their students construct both in and out of school in order to make science more accessible to all of their students.
Veronica Cassone McGowan is a research scientist and instructor at the University of Washington Bothell. Veronica comes to the Goodlad Institute with a broad background in social, ecological and technical sciences. She received her doctorate in Learning Sciences and Human Development from the University of Washington Seattle where she worked as a graduate researcher for the Institute for Math and Science Education and the LIFE Center. Her research focuses on broadening participation in STEM fields, particularly K-12 engineering and computational modeling, with a focus on connecting learning across settings in ways that incorporate learners’ everyday interests, identities and community knowledges as foundations for sociotechnical learning. Prior to her doctoral work, Veronica received her Master’s in Biological Sciences and was a field ecologist as well as a middle school science teacher.
Jordan is a postdoctoral scholar on the Learning in Places project who holds a PhD in Education from the University of Washington. Coming to the work with a background in psychology, philosophy, and early childhood education, his research draws upon participatory design based methods to better understand how dynamics of culture, development, and identity mediate learning in early place-based education. Specifically, he studies the role of ethical speculation in supporting sophisticated socioecological inquiry, alongside pedagogical approaches that cultivate educators’ attunement to diverse forms of sensemaking to develop their capacities for ethical pedagogical mediation. Prior to his doctoral training Jordan received his Master’s in Education while working both as a curriculum specialist at the Childcare Quality and Early Learning Center and also founding Co-Director of a mixed-age family childcare center where he served for over a decade.
Elizabeth Starks (Shiwi/Diné) is an artist, developer, and education researcher with a background in Software-driven Systems Design, Museum Studies, and Studio Art. She is a Research Scientist at OpenSTEM research group at University of Washington Bothell. While living in Los Angeles as an artist, she imagined showing her contemporary work in museums only to see herself represented behind glass on display next to dinosaurs. This led her to pursue equity and innovation through museums, technology, and education. Her current work involves collaboratively designing informal STEAM education and technological innovation for the thrivance of Native people.
Shirin Vossoughi is an associate professor of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, where she draws on ethnographic and interactional methods to study the cultural, socio-political, and ethical dimensions of education and the relationships between human learning and social change. Dr. Vossoughi’s research centers on hybrid learning environments that blend formal and informal elements and support young people to develop, question and expand transdisciplinary and artistic knowledge in ways that nourish educational self-determination. She is particularly concerned with understanding the forms of pedagogical mediation, ethical relations, and developmental trajectories that take shape within these settings. Her current work looks closely at teaching and learning in making/STEAM environments, literacy learning in the context of political education, and the design of justice-oriented educator learning. She takes a collaborative approach to research, partnering with teachers, families, and students to co-design and study the conditions that foster educational dignity and possibility.
Christa Haverly began her career as an elementary school teacher in Maryland and Illinois, and she has also worked for a nonprofit environmental education organization in the D.C. metro area. Currently, her research focuses on teacher responsiveness to students’ equitable sensemaking in elementary science classrooms as well as systemic and organizational supports that work to sustain improvements in elementary science instruction in classrooms. She is also interested in the intersections of environmental education and science education in elementary classrooms. She received a B.A. from Boston College in Elementary Education, an M.S. from Nova Southeastern University in Environmental Education, and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Science Education.
Alejandra Frausto Aceves is a science teacher and educational leader currently working on a PhD at Northwestern University in the Learning Sciences. Her research interests include transformative collective [science] learning, intergenerational & international co-constructions, imaginations, and praxis, as well as learning and pedagogies towards thriving and sustainable present-futures.
Miguel Angel Ovies-Bocanegra is currently pursuing a doctorate in Learning Science at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. His research interest investigates the development and maturation of culture, cognition, ethics and political sense-making that emerge in moment-to-moment interactions. Specifically, he aims to design, sustain and promote epistemological alterity using a sociohistorical approach that advances and strengthens learning partnerships in and out of school settings. Miguel holds an M.Ed in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and MPA from Southern Utah University.
Anna Lees (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, descendant) began her career as an early childhood classroom teacher in rural northern Michigan. Now, an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Western Washington University, she partners with schools and communities for early childhood teacher education. Anna is committed to developing and sustaining reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities to engage community leaders as co-teacher educators, opening spaces for Indigenous values and ways of knowing and being in early childhood settings and higher education. She is currently engaged in research around a land education professional development model led by tribal nations and a relationship-based site embedded professional development model with tribal early learning programs. Her scholarship has been recognized by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, and the Spencer Foundation; she currently serves as editor of the Tribal College and University Research Journal.
Nikki McDaid-Morgan (Shoshone-Bannock) is a doctoral student in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. She is interested in designing land-based learning environments in formal and informal contexts for Indigenous youth. She also is exploring the relationship between how youth conceptualize agency of more-than-humans and youth beliefs and decisions regarding the natural world. Nikki earned her M.A. in Teaching from Pacific University and her B.S. in Sociology from Northeastern University prior to attending Northwestern. She also has experience as a middle school and high school classroom teacher and has two young children of her own.
Michelle Salgado is a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction. Her research interests focus on children in primary grades engaged in authentic and collaborative inquiry practices within interdisciplinary science learning opportunities. She focuses on co-designing equitable learning environments with teachers and which include family engagement with science concepts to support and elevate a diversity of student participation. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and has taught elementary school for close to a decade. She has also worked as science curriculum developer, professional development provider, and instructional coach.
Ananda Marin is an Assistant Professor of Social Research Methodology in UCLA’s Department of Education and faculty in American Indian Studies. As a learning scientist, she uses video-ethnographic methods and participatory design research to explore questions about the cultural nature of teaching, learning, and development. A primary goal of her work is to desettle and broaden conceptualizations of cognition and learning in ways that are consequential to the communities she partners with and the field of education. To do this, she draws upon Indigenous ways of knowing and sociocultural theories to: (1) develop research on learning across a variety of activities including the everyday (i.e., forest walks) and the professional (e.g., teaching, ensemble performances) and (2) co-design learning contexts with communities that are in right relations with Indigenous lands/waters. Within both of these strands of research she examines the multiple ways that multigenerational groups of people coordinate attention and observation in order to participate in joint activity, collaborate, and improvise. She also engages in micro-ethnographic analyses of the moment-to-moment unfolding of interaction, accounting for the role of relationality, embodied movement, and place in science-related education and teaching/learning more generally. She has widespread experience designing and learning with Indigenous communities and organizations to cultivate educational contexts that center Indigenous futures. She also applies her expertise to participatory and collaborative evaluation projects.
Leah Bricker is a Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University and the Spencer Foundation. She is a science educator and a learning scientist who studies children and youths’ science-related learning trajectories in schools and in other learning environments, such as museums, gardens, and zoos. She is really interested in connections between language (verbal and nonverbal communication) and science learning. Leah also uses design-based research to design science curricula in partnership with youths, families, and teachers, and then studies the curricula in action. Leah’s undergraduate and Master’s degrees are in the biological sciences (from the University of Arizona and Purdue University, respectively), and her PhD is in the learning sciences from the University of Washington. She was a middle school science teacher in Indianapolis, IN before working on issues related to science education policy at the Indiana Department of Education and at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Project 2061. Bricker has also helped preservice science teachers learn to teach science, and has designed and facilitated professional development experiences with and for practicing science teachers.
Sharon Siehl joined Seattle Tilth (now Tilth Alliance) in July 2013, after completing her Master’s in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University. She is a Program Director working with Youth Education, and has held several leadership roles around Garden and Adult Education. She co-facilitates the School Learning Garden Network with Seattle Public Schools and is co-leader in the Washington Farm to School Network. Sharon is an informal outdoor educator working with children, students, teachers, parents and community members in school gardens and outdoor spaces in Columbus, OH, Houston, TX and Seattle for 14 years. She is passionate about creating a just food system through food policy and community work, and is a co-founder of the Houston Food Policy Workgroup. She, her husband, and two sons enjoy planting, eating, traveling, reading and local adventures.
Nat completed a Master’s in Education Policy at the UW College of Education in 2016, one year after receiving a Bachelors of Arts in Comparative History of Ideas, also at UW. He is also currently the Outreach Coordinator for the Comparative History of Ideas Department at UW and the Board President of The Common Acre, a 501(c)(3) organization that creates space for science and stories across cultures. Nat comes to Learning in Places after coordinating children’s gardens for Tilth Alliance, and his research interests include facilitation design, posthuman learning, and plant consciousness.
Priya Pugh is a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Washington Bothell and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She comes to this project as both an environmental educator and a researcher. Priya received a certificate in Education for Environment and Community from IslandWood in 2011, and has directed, designed, and been a field instructor for environmental education and STEAM-focused learning programs here in Seattle. Priya’s research focuses on how people learn about science when they are outside. More specifically, she studies how youth, adults, and families understand and actively make sense of complex ecological phenomena, and the social and cultural influences on this sense making.
Rebecca Holbert holds a M.A. of Education specializing in science education from the University of Washington, and a certificate in Education for Environment and Community from IslandWood. She loves working alongside children as they bring out her own inner child and curiosity. Rebecca has been teaching in classrooms and outdoor settings for over 10 years and has found that learning happens best when it’s fun! To stay connected to her own sense of fun- Rebecca enjoys spending time outside, reading, writing, and cuddling with her dog. Currently, Rebecca works in education leadership as a supervisor and mentor at SEED Early Childhood School- collaborating with children, teachers, and families to create sustainable learning communities for life-affirming education.
Mary Margaret Welch serves as the K-12 Science Program
Manager for Seattle Public Schools.
Formerly, she served as secondary instructional science specialist for
the Seattle School District supporting teachers to improve their pedagogy,
assessment and curriculum. Ms. Welch is
a celebrated science educator who has served as a classroom teacher, a
curriculum leader, dean of academics, student advisor, professional development
coach and school administrator. In her
tenure she has taught children from kindergarten through college. MaryMargaret was named the National
Outstanding Science Education Leader for 2019. Ms. Welch has been recognized
for her excellence in teaching with several awards including Puget Sound ESD
Teacher of the Year, Washington State Outstanding Biology Teacher, Amgen Award
for Science Teaching Excellence, Pacific Science Center’s Excellence in
Education. Welch has earned both a BS and MS in biology, a MEd in Educational
Administration and completed the Non- profit Management Certification Program
at the University of Washington.
MaryMargaret’s mission and passion is to act as a catalyst to
empower all youth with knowledge and skills, through equitable inspirational
educational opportunities, to ensure all children can realize their full
potential and serve as a contributing member of our multicultural global
community.
Christine’s teaching experience includes 8 years as the E-STEM Program Manager at Hazel Wolf K-8 School. She earned her Master’s of Science Education from the University of Houston and holds Bilingual (Spanish) and ELL teaching endorsements. Christine believes science learning encompasses the full breath of learning opportunities for all students. Science taps into all students’ curiosity and their need to make sense of their surroundings and this creates meaningful opportunities for collaboration, reading, and communicating. Science is a social endeavor for no scientist works alone. Christine is excited about supporting teachers in their shift in practice to create more equitable opportunities for students to engage in relevant science learning through the outdoors.
I am a doctoral student in Learning Sciences and Human Development. My research interests are in early childhood science learning and family/community leadership and engagement. Utilizing participatory design research methods, I am interested in co-creating equitable spaces for families, communities, educators, and researchers to design and implement (and re-design) early learning environments that foster expansive forms of science education. I am a research assistant on the Family Leadership Design Collaborative project and the Learning in Places project. I am also a mom of two vibrant, amazing girls.
Anna Johnson is a Research and Education Associate for Tilth Alliance. Before becoming an informal educator, she received a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a Minor in French from Calvin College in 2012. She has worked with community members of all ages around growing and cooking food. For four years, she served as a community partner on a research project around food access and food security in Michigan. In 2017, she returned to the Pacific Northwest and continued her work in informal education with Pacific Science Center and now with Tilth Alliance. She enjoys learning about the natural world through place-based science investigations.
Maren Neldam is the Youth Education Program Manager at Tilth Alliance. She has been working in place-based environmental and food systems education for 10 years, and previously worked in sustainable agriculture and river restoration. In her roles at Tilth, she has worked with people of all ages to steward land, grow food, and cook in community. This includes leading science-based outdoor education in school gardens and public green spaces, facilitating workshops for teachers and families on sustainable school garden program development and outdoor education, and supporting design and development of school and community gardens. She is passionate to learn about complex systems and participate in community driven solutions to environmental and food issues.
Alice Tsoodle is a proud mom of three amazing children. She comes from the Kiowa people of Oklahoma and is also descendent of Irish settlers. Her interests and experiences include walking with and learning from children as they reclaim their relationships with lands, waters and more than human relatives. She holds a masters degree in education (UW), a bachelors in environmental studies (UWB) and certificates in education for environment and community (IW), restoration ecology (UW), and permaculture (OSU). Her work specializes in community outreach, program development, outdoor environmental education, curriculum design, and learning sciences research.
Creative Kids Learning Center at Viewlands Elementary
Creative Kids was recently featured in the Washington Post as one of the first educational centers to participate in the Seattle Public Preschool Program. We have a second preschool location at the Carkeek Park Environmental Learning Center. During summers, I work with preschool through fifth grade students implementing and participating in their outdoor summer daycamp adventures. The Viewlands students and their families help us maintain the garden and outdoor learning areas each summer at the school. We harvest berries and apples at Carkeek Park and use them in our classroom. At Creative Kids we explore ways to eat and make better-tasting, fresher and healthier foods while learning about science and the environment.
Kate Bedient
Director of Urban School Programs, IslandWood
Kate’s formative years were spent on the ancestral land of the Oneida people of Upstate New York, collecting fireflies and cooking up batches of mud soup. These experiences, coupled with a life-long interest in scientific and nature-based inquiry, eventually led Kate to the National Park Service, The Pacific Science Center and The North Cascades Institute. On becoming a land-owner in Seattle, Kate’s focus within the field of environmental education shifted. This pivotal life moment lead her down the path of exploring the many layers and complexities of urban environments (both built and natural) and the systems of inequities that continue to affect how (and by whom) land is used in cities. At IslandWood (where she has worked since 2010), Kate leads our Urban School Programs team and is honored to work with a rock star group of individuals who are committed to up-ending the dominant narrative and addressing the inequities in both the environmental and education fields. Kate is also a mother, an experience that has solidly reinforced her views on the importance of empathy, compassion, and mindfulness in learning environments. If asked what single food item she would bring with her to a deserted island, there would be no question that the answer would be a jug of Grade A Dark Maple Syrup from the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.
Cheri Bloom
Les Dames d’Escoffier Green Tables
Cheri Bloom’s expertise is in horticulture education and delivering agriculturally focused curriculum to the classroom. Her award winning Greenhouse and Sustainability Program at Montlake Elementary School provided K-5thgrade children with the essentials for a healthy diet and sustainable gardening education for over sixteen years. Presently Cheri is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier Green Tables which supports projects centered around funding programs focused on education on all aspects of growing, sourcing and preparing nutritious food.
Belinda Chin
Seattle Parks and Rec
Belinda Chin is the Program Coordinator for the Urban Food Systems (UFS) Program at Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR). She oversees 23+ acres of SPR public space dedicated to growing food. Gardens and orchards are used for community-building efforts built on diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. By working in partnership with community organizations and other city departments, their collective actions aspire topromote public health and culturally relevant food access; support local economic development; provide services to improve the quality of life for residents through engagement with their environments and neighbors; and lead efforts to restore a healthy environment. This is particularly meaningful for Ms. Chin, the daughter of immigrants who fled their homeland to escape a war shattered environment and agonizing poverty. Her family’s pursuit of culturally relevant food resulted in lasting impressions about boundaries, specifically those that discriminate by race, class, and place. Ms. Chin is a long-time advocate of the City of Seattle’s Race & Social Justice (RSJ) Initiative and is a co-lead of SPR’s RSJ Change Team.
The advisory board includes national leaders in science education, ecological cognition, design research, and learning gardens.
Douglas Medin
Professor, Cognitive Science and Learning Sciences, Northwestern University
Douglas Medin has expertise in culture, ecosystems cognition, and science education.
Heidi Carlone
Associate Professor, Teacher Education and Higher Education, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Heidi Carlone has expertise in science learning and identity and a focus on outdoor environment science learning.
Dilafruz Williams
Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy at Portland State University (PSU)
She has served as Chair of the Board of the Council of the Great City Schools, Director of Community-University Partnerships at PSU and is cofounder of Portland school district’s Environmental Middle School and Leadership for Sustainability Education at PSU, where she established a master’s level academic program, and initiated, designed, and supported Learning Gardens at several schools addressing local farm-to-school food and nutrition issues and integration into major curricular goals.
