Appendix D
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff
RAJUL (RAJ) PANDYA (Chair) is the director of the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Thriving Earth Exchange. The Thriving Earth Exchange helps volunteer scientists and community leaders work together to use science to advance community priorities related to sustainability, resilience, disaster risk reduction, and environmental justice. Dr. Pandya serves on the boards for Public Lab and the Anthropocene Alliance and is a member of the Independent Advisory Committee on Applied Climate Assessment. He helped launch the Resilience Dialogues, a public-private partnership that uses facilitated online dialogues to advance community resilience. Before working at AGU, Dr. Pandya led education, engagement, and diversity programs associated with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, led an international research and development project that used weather data to better manage meningitis in Africa, and held a faculty position at West Chester State University. For the National Academies, Dr. Pandya served on the Committee on the Review of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Education Program. Dr. Pandya is a founding member of the executive board of the Citizen Science Association, which is currently the only membership organization dedicated to the dissemination of scholarship related to designing and implementing citizen science. He holds a Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Washington.
MEGAN BANG is a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University and senior vice president of the Spencer Foundation. She previously held multiple faculty positions in the education department at the University of Washington-Seattle. Dr. Bang’s research
aims to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged children, families and communities, specifically through STEM education and the education of indigenous peoples. She is involved in three primary strands of work: the study of learning and development in everyday contexts, community-based design research that creates science learning environments based on indigenous systems of knowledge, and the study of child and teacher learning in novel environments. Dr. Bang holds numerous awards from the American Education Research Association, as well as having won the Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and Outstanding Advising Award from the University of Washington. She was also Cognitive Science Graduate Fellow for Interdisciplinary Research Projects at Northwestern University. She earned a Ph.D. in learning sciences and a certificate in cognitive science from Northwestern University.
DARLENE CAVALIER is a professor at Arizona State University’s Center for Engagement and Training, part of the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. Ms. Cavalier is the founder of SciStarter, an online platform for identifying, supporting, and participating in citizen science opportunities. She is also the founder of Science Cheerleader, an organization of more than 300 current and former professional cheerleaders pursuing STEM careers, and a cofounder of ECAST: Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology, a network of universities, science centers, and think tanks that produces public deliberations to enhance science policy making. She is a founding board member of the Citizen Science Association, an advisor at National Geographic’s Citizen Explorer Labs, and a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology. She is the author of The Science of Cheerleading and coeditor of The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science published by Arizona State University. Ms. Cavalier holds a master’s degree in liberal arts with a concentration on science history and policy from the University of Pennsylvania.
JESSICA COVINGTON is a senior program assistant with the Board on Science Education and is currently supporting the America’s Lab Report Update and Citizen Science projects. Before joining the DBASSE team, she was the administrative assistant to an architectural and interior design firm in Metro Center called VOA Associates, which is now known as Stantec Consulting. In 2015, she received her B.S. in psychology and is currently pursuing a B.S. in accounting with an expected graduation date in 2018.
KENNE DIBNER (Study Director) is a program officer with the Board on Science Education. She served as the study director for the National Academies consensus study Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and
Consequences, as well as the deputy director for Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education. Prior to this position, Dr. Dibner worked as a research associate at Policy Studies Associates, Inc., where she conducted evaluations of education policies and programs for government agencies, foundations, and school districts, including an evaluation of a partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Indian Education to provide citizen science programming to tribal youth. She has also served as a research consultant with the Center on Education Policy and served as a legal intern for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce. She has a B.A in English literature from Skidmore College and a Ph.D. in education policy from Michigan State University.
DANIEL EDELSON is the executive director of BSCS, a national center for research and development in science education. Dr. Edelson possesses significant experience as a curriculum and educational software developer, educational researcher, and advocate for science and social studies education. Prior to his work at BSCS, Dr. Edelson served as vice president for education at the National Geographic Society and executive director of the National Geographic Education Foundation, as well as a professor at Northwestern University, where he had a joint appointment in education and computer science. As a curriculum and software developer, Dr. Edelson is the lead author of a high school environmental science course and an author of units in two comprehensive middle school science programs. He has written extensively on the importance of geoscience, geography, and environmental science education, and he has published numerous research papers on motivation, instructional design, educational technology and teacher professional development. Dr. Edelson received a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University.
LETICIA GARCILAZO GREEN is a senior program assistant for the Board on Science Education. Since joining the staff in 2014, she has supported numerous studies focusing on issues related to criminal justice, science education, and climate change. Prior to joining the National Academies, she worked as a legal assistant with a law firm that specialized in security clearances and white-collar crime in Washington, DC. She earned a B.S. in psychology and a B.A. in sociology with a concentration in criminology from Louisiana State University, and an M.A. in forensic psychology from The George Washington University.
LOUIS GOMEZ is the MacArthur Chair in Digital Media and Learning at Univeristy of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA’s) Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Before joining the UCLA faculty, he was the
Helen S. Faison professor of urban education and senior scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Gomez is also currently serving as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Palo Alto, California. His scholarship focuses on understanding how to support organizational change in schools and other institutions. Dr. Gomez has been dedicated to collaborative research and development with urban communities to bring the current state-of-the-art instruction and support for community formation to traditionally underserved schools. Most recently, Professor Gomez has turned his attention to problem-solving research and development. He received a B.A. in psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.
JOE E. HEIMLICH is codirector for the Center of Science and Industry’s (COSI) Lifelong Learning Group, and director of research for COSI. His research and evaluation work focuses on projects related to informal learning and capacity building for zoos, nature centers, parks, gardens, science centers, and other museums. He is also an academy professor emeritus with the Ohio State University where he was an extension specialist in museums and organizational capacity building and held appointments in the School of Environment and Natural Resources, the Environmental Science Graduate Program, and the College of Education and Human Ecology. Dr. Heimlich received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the Ohio State University.
LEKELIA “KIKI” JENKINS is an associate professor at Arizona State University in the School for the Future of Innovation. Dr. Jenkins has worked as an environmental consultant for the Natural Resource Defense Council, while also actively participating in the burgeoning field of Studies in Expertise and Experience. Dr. Jenkins was awarded a Ford Foundation Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship and the David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship, which is granted to rising conservation scientists who have the potential to change the face of conservation through entrepreneurial approaches. She became an assistant professor at the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington and during this time was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Ocean Sciences. Dr. Jenkins has published extensively on adult science learning through fisheries learning exchanges (FLEs), in which representatives from different fisher communities collaborate to build capacity and share knowledge. FLEs are regarded as useful for developing and sharing fisheries solutions (which are often conservation technologies) and empowering fisher leaders. Dr. Jenkins received her Ph.D. in marine conservation from Duke University.
BRUCE V. LEWENSTEIN is professor of science communication and chair of the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. He is active in international pursuits that contribute to education and research on public communication of science and technology, and has published frequently on evaluation and other aspects of citizen science. Trained as a historian of science, he works across the field of public communication of science and technology, including informal science education and communication training for scientists. Dr. Lewenstein is a faculty-elected member of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and serves on the board of directors of Embarcadero Media, Palo Alto, California, which produces community newspapers and related digital media. For the National Academies, Dr. Lewenstein cochaired the Committee on Learning Science in Informal Environments and was a member of the Committee on Communicating Chemistry in Informal Settings, as well as the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of Life Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.
CHRISTINE MASSEY is a research psychologist in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her major areas of concentration include cognitive development and learning in mathematics and science. She was previously the director of research and education and head of a research lab at the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked to link recent theory and research in cognitive science to education efforts in public schools, cultural institutions, and higher education. She has led a number of major collaborative research and development projects that combine research investigating students’ learning and conceptual development in science and mathematics with the development and evaluation of new curriculum materials, adaptive learning technology, and educational programs for students and teachers—from preschool through graduate school and across both formal and informal education. For the National Academies, Dr. Massey served as a member of the Committee on Defining Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills. Dr. Massey earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
JOHN C. MATHER is a senior astrophysicist and is the senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. His research centers on infrared astronomy and cosmology. As a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (New York City), he led the proposal efforts for the Cosmic Background Explorer, and joined the Goddard Space Flight Center to be the study scientist, project scientist, and the principal investigator for the Far IR Absolute Spectrophotometer
(FIRAS) on COBE. Dr. Mather is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics (2006) with George Smoot, for the COBE work, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2007). He is a member of many professional societies including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Mather currently serves on the National Academies’ Board on Science Education and served on the committee that developed the Framework for K–12 Science Education. He also served on the National Academies’ Review Committee for the Koshland Science Museum, as well as the Board on Physics and Astronomy and the Task Group on Gravity Probe B, in addition to a number of other committees and National Academies activities. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.
JULIA K. PARRISH is the Lowell A. and Frankie L. Wakefield professor of ocean fishery sciences at the University of Washington, where she also serves as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of the Environment. She also directs the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST), a citizen science project with more than 1,000 coastal residents monitoring beach-cast marine birds, and marine debris, as indicators of nearshore ecosystem health. Dr. Parrish is a marine biologist, a conservation biologist, and a specialist in citizen science. She is an elected fellow of the Ecological Society of America and of the American Ornithological Union. In 1998, she was honored as a NOAA Year of the Oceans Environmental Hero by Vice President Al Gore for the development of the COASST project; and in 2013 was recognized by the White House Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP) as a Champion of Change for her citizen science work with COASST. In 2015, COASST was cited by the OSTP and the National Science Foundation as an exemplary example of rigorous citizen science. Dr. Parrish received her Ph.D. in zoology from Duke University.
TINA PHILLIPS is the assistant director of the Citizen Science Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where she conducts social science research and evaluation across numerous citizen science projects both within and outside the Lab. Her research interests center on understanding and documenting the educational, social, and conservation impacts of citizen science globally. Dr. Phillips spearheaded DEVISE, a National Science Foundation-funded project aimed at building capacity for project design and evaluation of learning outcomes from citizen science. Her current research examines the relationship between engagement in citizen science and outcomes related to skills, efficacy, behavior, and science identity. She has authored or coauthored several articles and chapters on citizen science and science education and was one of the authors of a landmark Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education report: Public Participation in Scientific
Research: Defining the Field and Assessing Its Potential for Informal Science Education. Dr. Phillips is currently serving as a board member of the Citizen Science Association and is an advisor on several citizen science initiatives around the world. She holds a B.S. in biology from Stony Brook University and a Masters and Ph.D. in education from Cornell University.
HEIDI SCHWEINGRUBER (Board Director) is the director of the Board on Science Education at the National Academies. She has served as study director or costudy director for a wide range of studies, including those on revising national standards for K–12 science education, learning and teaching science in grades K–8, and mathematics learning in early childhood. She also coauthored two award-winning books for practitioners that translate findings of National Academies’ reports for a broader audience, on using research in K–8 science classrooms, and on information science education. Prior to joining the National Academies, she worked as a senior research associate at the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. She also previously served on the faculty of Rice University and as the director of research for the Rice University School Mathematics Project, an outreach program in K–12 mathematics education. She has a Ph.D. in psychology (developmental) and anthropology and a certificate in culture and cognition, both from the University of Michigan.
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