Staci Richard Selected For Albert Einstein 2010-11 Fellowship

The Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education announces the selection of Staci Richard, a Science teacher at Laguna Blanca School, Santa Barbara, California as a 2010-11 Einstein Fellow. The prestigious Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program offers elementary and secondary science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers with a demonstrated excellence in teaching an opportunity to serve in the national education or public policy arenas. One of 32 teachers serving this year, Richard was carefully selected from a nationwide pool of applicants.

During the past fifteen years, Staci Richard has taught and developed curricula for both physical and life sciences at the elementary, middle school, high school, and AP levels. She says the innovation of which she is most proud is the Senior Research Seminar course, which accepts top science students and exposes them to academic and industrial labs, scientists, field trips and scientific papers on diverse topics. She says that every time she meets someone even tangentially involved in science, the first question she asks is “Would you be willing to come and speak to my class?” She says, “I have been moved by the willingness of doctors, lab technicians, researchers, business people, academics, and engineers to come and share their experiences.”

Richard earned a BA in Biology and Geological Sciences from Albion College in Michigan. She has completed graduate work in paleo-climatology and oceanography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was one of the first graduates of the rigorous and challenging University of California, Berkeley, Masters and Credential in Science and Mathematics Education (MACSME) program. Richards is collaborating with a UCSB professor looking at STEM education with respect to young girls and their attitudes about science and science careers.

The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program was authorized by an act of Congress in 1994. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Energy and is coordinated by Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education. Selected teachers spend a school year in the Washington, DC metro area, serving in a Congressional Office or a Federal agency. Fellows provide practical insights and real world perspective to policy makers and program managers developing or managing education programs. The fellowships increase understanding, communication, and cooperation between the science, technology, and mathematics education community and legislative and executive branches of the Federal government.

For more information please visit Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program