Our Board

SSEC National Advisory Board

Vice President
Shell USA, Inc Foundation
Director of Workforce and Community Strategic Initiatives
Shell USA, Inc
Houston, Texas

Dr. Frazier Wilson oversees Shell’s corporate and foundation contributions, workforce, community, employee giving, and education outreach programs. Wilson has worked at Shell for over 25 years in accounting and community relations roles. Prior to joining Shell, he worked in education as a teacher, volunteer, and mentor. He holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Jackson State University and an MBA and doctorate in Educational Leadership from Texas Southern University. 

Active in the community, Wilson is a graduate of Leadership Houston, American Leadership Forum, the United Way’s Project Blueprint and a mentor with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. He currently serves on the boards for Smithsonian Science Education Center, Texas Southern University Foundation, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. And he also serves on the advisory councils for the Jackson State College of Business, KIPP Academy-Houston, and Texas Southern University College of Science and Technology.  He is chairman emeritus of 100 Black Men of Metropolitan Houston, a national mentoring organization.

Chief Collaboration Officer
Collaboratory
Fort Meyers, FL

Terry Mazany has enjoyed careers in archaeology, public education, and philanthropy. Constant throughout these roles is his commitment to improving educational opportunities for all children.

He is currently Chief Collaboration Officer for Collaboratory following a distinguished career of 13 years as President and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust. During his tenure, he led innovative grant making and doubled the community foundation’s assets to more than $2.8 billion, awarding more than $300 million in grants in recent years. While at the Trust, he also served briefly as the interim chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools serving 400,000 students.

Terry is past chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board that oversees the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), and was Principal Investigator for metropolitan Chicago’s Clinical Data Research Network, one of thirteen research centers that form the Patient Centered Outcomes Research network (PCORnet). He is a former member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

He has graduate degrees in Anthropology, Business, and Education. He is a member of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA). He has also been awarded Honorary Doctorate degrees from DePaul University and Lewis University.

Owner
Simone Acha Consulting

Simone Acha, owner of Simone Acha Consulting, provides IT consulting and advisory services to senior executives in the Federal Government and private industry. She is a focused, results-oriented senior executive with a 30-year record of demonstrated achievements and success in both sector.  Ms. Acha is driven in applying leadership and management skills to champion strategic direction, identify opportunities, build strong relationships, and deliver results. She has demonstrated talents in managing large projects and tactical operations for various industries.

Ms. Acha also provides leadership to several philanthropic boards.  She is currently an officer on the PAHO Foundation Board promoting public health in the Americas (formerly Pan American Health and Education Foundation). She is the Nominating and Governance Committee Chair for the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) Advisory Board.  The SSEC provides inquiry-based science curricula for grades K-8. She also serves as Membership Chair for the Virginia Tech National Capital Region’s President Leadership Council. She formerly co-chaired and is now an Advisory member of the Tiffany Circle of the American Red Cross, National Capital Region.  She serves as a member of the WashingtonExec STEM Council and mentors high school girls seeking careers in the STEM fields through the Girls in Technology organization.

She served as Vice President, Enterprise Technology Solutions at Electronic Computing Services (ECS) Federal, an IT services provider spanning multiple federal sector clients with approximately 1,200 employees worldwide and $240M in annual revenue.  Prior to acquisition by ECS Federal in August 2012, Ms. Acha was the Chief Executive Officer of iLuMinA Solutions Incorporated, a leading provider of ERP Advisory Services to the Federal Government. 

Ms. Acha is a world traveler, an avid reader, and a volunteer for the American Red Cross.  She is a graduate of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and a Minor in English.  Fully fluent in Spanish, she draws her heritage from Latin America and Europe and resides in Arlington, Virginia.

Hina Baloch
Director, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Sustainability, Data Analytics and STEM Education Communications
General Motors

Ms. Hina Baloch serves as the Executive Director of Sustainability and Environment at General Motors. Ms. Baloch has previously worked in the bi-lateral Trade and Diplomacy field with a British Government Organization focusing on trade, education, and diplomatic ties between the UK and Central and South Asian countries. Baloch has also worked as a quantitative and qualitative researcher in the International Development field with Brookings Institute and Results for Development in Washington D.C. focusing on education, child protection and public health in the Middle East, African and Eastern Europe.  In 2021, Ms. Baloch was named to PR Week’s Dashboard 25, as one of the most influential people in communications technology. She is a recipient of UNESCO’s International Development Policy Fellowship (2014-2015) at University of Pennsylvania and Fulbright- Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship (2012-2013) at Penn-State University.  Hina also has a specialization in International Marketing from Manchester Metropolitan University and in statistical methods for psychometric testing from University of Cambridge, UK.  Ms. Baloch also served on the State of Michigan Governor's STEM Advisory Board between 2017-2019 and serves on the advisory board of AI4All and Smithsonian Science Center and a part of State of Michigan’s ESG Energy Council. She also served in the challenge leadership team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solve platform.

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
PPL Corporation
Allentown, Pennsylvania

Greg Dudkin is president of PPL Electric Utilities. Prior to being named to this position in March 2012, he served as senior vice president, Operations since 2009. Previously, he spent three years as Comcast’s senior vice president of operations. Prior to that, he was regional senior vice president.
Greg has 24 years of utility experience at Exelon Corp. where he served as executive vice president of operations at ComEd and in customer service and operations leadership positions at PECO Energy Company.
Greg holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Delaware and an MBA from Widener University

Founder, Former President & CEO of We Do, Inc
New York, New York

Carol is a recognized marketer, executive, entrepreneur and leader who has achieved successes in the start-up and implementation of programs in fashion retail management and entertainment. Carol has held several senior-level management positions with prominent retail corporations, including Blockbuster Entertainment, We Do, Inc., The Kobacher Co., Lerner New York, Thom McAn and Woodward & Lothrop.

For the past fifteen years, Carol has brought her executive management skills to her philanthropic work: Stephen Gaynor School Board; Rodeph Sholom School Board; JCC Manhattan Finance Commission; Coop Board; Former CityArts Chairman; Former Columbus Symphony Orchestra Chairman (Ohio); InMotion Pictures, Inc. She received a Clio Award – Best Original Music Scoring – US Radio – Thom McAn Shoes – Herbie Hancock Composer & Vocalist and in 1992 was voted Top One Hundred Marketers in the US (Advertising Age Magazine).

Carol and her husband, Kenneth Gilman, have three children, Herbert, Emma, and Jordana Gilman.

Founder & CEO
RevRoad
Provo, Utah

Derrin is a builder. He builds empowered individuals and teams, systems for growth, motivated communities, and strong companies. As a leader with successes in six of the eight companies he founded or co­founded, and with several records for industry breaking achievements in other companies, he counts his greatest priority his role in building a great marriage and a wonderful family with his wife Nicole and their five children. As a Missouri farm boy he learned how to deliver growth, the importance of work, the power of teams, and to be amazed by people and nature. He graduated High School in the top of the class while participating in DECA and working two part-time jobs to save money to serve as a volunteer for two years in Australia at 19 years old.

A graduate of the Duke University Fuqua School of Business with an MBA in the Cross-Continent program studying in Durham, NC and in Frankfurt, Germany. He completed his undergraduate studies in Business Management and International Marketing at Brigham Young University.

Gillian Hinde
Global Corporate Responsibility Leader
EY Global Services Limited
London, United Kingdom

Gillian Hinde is an executive leader with more than two decades of global strategic consulting and marketing experience in banking, finance and technology – and a passion for addressing inequity and innovating towards a net zero future. Her commercial achievements include launching Africa’s first e-commerce bank. After a series of strategic, for-profit roles in global companies, including Unilever, the Standard Bank Group, Woolworths Group Limited Australia and EY, for the last four years Gill has channeled her commercial acumen, influence, and vision to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by leading EY’s Global Corporate Responsibility function. In this global role, Gill is the leader of the EY Ripples program - a global endeavor harnessing EY’s people, partners and clients, with the goal of positively impacting one billion lives by 2030 and operating as a responsible global business, which means robust ESG reporting and achieving a net zero agenda by 2025. Under her tenure, EY Ripples has become a pathway for innovation across three focus areas: supporting the next generation workforce, working with impact entrepreneurs and accelerating environmental sustainability. As she continues to evolve the program, her approach is to collaborate to drive impact at scale — working with EY clients and other like-minded organizations, so each ‘ripple’ started has the potential to grow and join with others to create waves of positive change. As a result, since Gill launched the program, EY Ripples has attracted an ever-growing network of collaborators across the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, EY Ripples has scaled to 126 countries, succeeded in cumulatively impacting more than 85 million lives in its first three years with over 190 000 EY people actively engaged. Gill is also a member of the EY Global Corporate Responsibility Council - a subset of EYs Global Executive team, where she works to operationalize the firm’s ambition to realize a more socially just, economically inclusive, and environmentally regenerative future for all.

Managing Director, Philanthropic Market Executive 
Bank of America, Private Bank
Washington, D.C. 

Erin Hogan has more than 15 years’ experience in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector.  She oversees the regional philanthropic practice for U.S. Trust® clients across 12 states and the District of Columbia, working closely with philanthropic individuals, families and nonprofit institutions on all aspects of giving. 

Prior to joining U.S. Trust, Erin served as an executive director of the Philanthropy Centre at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.  There she advised on matters of mission, governance, impact and legacy. Erin has overseen grantmaking programs on behalf of private foundations in the areas of education, health and community development, and works closely with public charities on strategies to strengthen organizational capacity, leverage philanthropic partners and maximize impact.

Erin’s previous experience includes academic research and government consulting for a variety of public health and safety programs.  As a research manager at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Erin supervised research in emergency preparedness, infectious disease control and occupational health and safety.  Prior to that, she worked for a Washington, D.C. consulting firm focusing on matters of public health and environmental health and safety.

Erin currently serves as a member of the board of directors for Frameworks Institute, a national organization dedicated to improving communication and understanding of complex social issues. A former paramedic, Erin holds an MPH from Columbia University and a B.S. from The George Washington University.

President & CEO
North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Dr. Samuel H. Houston, Jr., is President and Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center. Prior to this appointment Dr. Houston served as Vice President for Program and Policy of EdGate, Inc. and was the first executive director of the University of North Carolina Center for School Leadership Development. A former public school teacher and veteran educational administrator, Dr. Houston also previously served as executive director of the North Carolina Education Standards and Accountability Commission. In 2007, Dr. Houston chaired the North Carolina State Board of Education’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accountability. Dr. Houston holds undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Appalachian State University (ASU), an Educational Specialist Degree from East Carolina University, and his Doctorate in Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Houston has served as an elementary school teacher, assistant principal and principal at the junior high and high school levels. First, he served as an assistant superintendent of the Davidson County Schools, and two years later, superintendent of the Mooresville City Schools. Houston also has held adjunct professorships at ASU and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Distinguished Professor & Senior Associate Dean
Pennsylvania State University
Science Education

Dr. Greg Kelly is a Distinguished Professor and the Senior Associate Dean for Research, Outreach and Technology in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University. As a faculty member in science education, he teaches courses on teaching and learning science in secondary schools and uses history, philosophy, and sociology of science in science education. His research explores issues of knowledge and discourse in science education settings. Recent research includes development of theories of epistemic cognition, identity, and learning in science and engineering classrooms. His interest in these topics developed while physics and mathematics teacher and a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa.   He is the recipient of the 2018 University Faculty Way Paver Award for his work with diversity and inclusion initiatives at Penn State and throughout the community. He has also received the 2018 Dr. John J. Gumperz Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Scholarship which recognizes and honors the lifelong distinguished scholarship of a senior scholar whose program of research in language and social processes and professional service have made significant contributions to the field.

Chief Marketing Officer
SkillsVR 

Through the marketing and development of groundbreaking technologies, Jeff Martin has spent his career applying innovation to multimedia product design. Martin continues to build new mobile commerce channels by changing the way consumers engage with entertainment, industry and philanthropy.

In 2001 and 2008, Martin founded Tribal Brands and Tribal Technologies, respectively. Tribal Brands developed mCommerce solutions for a variety of consumer brands and was one of the first companies to drive more than one billion dollars in mobile-based sales for the entertainment industry through 17 global carrier alliances.

Tribal Technologies created one of the first intelligent databases behind mobile applications that predicted consumer behavior and interactions, powering unique mCommerce channels, and providing incentive programs for consumers. The extensive mobile analytics platform captured actionable, psychographic data highlighting user tastes and preferences collected through mobile devices. In 2014, Tribal Brands and Tribal Technologies were combined to create Tribal Planet.

In 2013 Martin founded mPowering, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that transformed the way philanthropic causes collaborated and utilized mobile technology to fight global poverty; this helped change century-old behavior by building mobile rewards systems that provided instant, positive reinforcement for consumers that performed philanthropic actions around education, medicine and local commerce.

Martin was a founding member of the Verizon board of developers, served as a voting member of The National Recording Academy of Arts & Sciences / GRAMMY Awards, and was appointed by the Under- Secretary-General of the United Nations to the UNFPA Global Advisory Board for Innovation. Martin is a former international consultant for digital imaging technologies at the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF), through which he taught at Carnegie Mellon University’s Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA). Martin has also taught at the Haas’ Executive Education Program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to Tribal Planet, Martin helped pioneer the entertainment and new media markets divisions at Apple in the early 1990s for 9 years and was a direct report to Steve Jobs after the NEXT acquisition.

Ana C. Rold
Founder & Publisher
Diplomatic Courier

Ms. Ana Rold is an award-winning media executive with a portfolio of print and digital assets reaching 180 countries. She started her career as the founder of Diplomatic Courier, the flagship media network and magazine for top diplomats and policy leaders around the world. For over a decade she has served as the chief editor of the G7, G20, and APEC summit publications. Her futuristic think tank, the World in 2050 has convened over 20,000 multi-stakeholders in the United States and Europe since 2012. And since 2006, Ana has taught Comparative Politics at Northeastern University, where she led two University delegations to Cyprus and Egypt through the Dialogue of Civilizations program. She writes regularly for national and international publications and sits on international steering committees and boards, including the World Web Forum, Women’s Democracy Network, and Karanga Global.

As Founder and Publisher of Diplomatic Courier, Ms. Rold has vast public relations and global experience, deep connections on the world stage with several prestigious international organizations and a strong familiarity with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Worldwide Vice President, Supply Chain - Consumer Health & Deliver
Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain

Meredith (Meri) Stevens is currently the Johnson & Johnson Worldwide Vice President, Deliver - a position she assumed in May 2019.  Prior to this, Meri led J&J Supply Chain Strategy and Deployment, a position she’d held since 2015.

Meri is responsible for all global Deliver functions including order fulfillment and customer services.  In collaboration with our segment and other functional teams the Deliver organization is transforming to meet the expanding needs of healthcare particularly around access, personalization, on-demand and precision. By embracing new ways of working, the team is creating the agility to work end to end improving our ability to provide unparalleled customer service and solutions at the lowest total cost.

Prior to J&J, Meri gained more than 30 years of operations experience through a series of senior leadership positions with global corporations.  Most recently, she was the Chief Supply Chain Officer at Newell Rubbermaid.  Prior to that she held operations, procurement leadership roles at Tyco, Bertelsmann, Knoll and General Electric.

Meri holds a B.S. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Industrial Management, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  At Johnson & Johnson, she is an executive sponsor of our Youth Pillar of the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Manufacturing and Design (WiSTEM2D) program.  Outside of J&J Meri is on the US Board of GS1 and the Advisory Boards of the Smithsonian Science Education Center and RPI’s Supply Chain Management Program.

Trustee
Stevenson Family Charitable Trust
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Fredi Stevenson is chair emeritus and cofounder of Summer Search Boston—an organization whose mission is to identify low-income high school youth who demonstrate resiliency in overcoming hardship and the desire to help others. She is a member of the National Summer Search Board, Smithsonian Institution National Board, NPR Foundation Board, WBUR Board of Overseers, and on the boards of The Cambridge Center for Adult Education and the Fellows of the Harvard Art Museums.

Senior Vice President
Civil Systems Group

Edward M. Swallow directs all civil, commercial, and international business at Aerospace. Key customers include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a wide number of other civil, commercial, and international organizations, including allied space agencies and ministries of defense. In addition to his responsibilities in CSG, Swallow is corporate director of government relations. Prior to joining Aerospace, he was vice president, Business Development for the Federal and Defense Technologies Division, Northrop Grumman Information Systems. He holds degrees from Syracuse and SUNY-Oneonta, a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California and has served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a flag officer.

Mark D. Vaughn, Ph.D.
Technical Talent Pipelining Manager
Lead, Technology Community Office of STEM
Corning Incorporated

Dr. Mark D. Vaughn is manager, technical talent pipelining for Corning’s Technology Community, and is the lead for the Technology Community Office of STEM. In this role, Vaughn develops, implements and manages PK-20 science and engineering programs and initiatives in support of meeting the Technology Community’s near term and long-term technical talent needs. Notably, since 2005, Vaughn has facilitated a regional STEM effort in New York’s greater southern tier that today serves 30,000 students and 1000 educators in an effort to raise the bar on STEM for all. Most recently, Mark’s leadership has expanded beyond the Technology Community and now includes pan-Corning efforts involving Environmental Technologies, Life Sciences, Optical Communications, Pharmaceutical Technologies, Display and Mobile Consume Electronics.

Dr. Vaughn began his career with Corning in 1988 as a research technician. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from Alfred University, a Master of Science degree in Optics from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to his current role, Dr. Vaughn was a research associate in Modeling and Simulation where he was a noted expert in Optical Network Traffic Demand Modeling and Access Network Cost Modeling.

In addition to his primary role, Vaughn has served the Technology Community and Corporation in a variety of other ways including as an Innovation Black Belt, past chairman and co-founder of the Black Technology Network (an employee resource group that champions the contributions and careers of Blacks in the Technology Community) and facilitator for Leadership Fundamentals for Program Managers, one of the corporation’s premiere leadership training experiences.

Dr. Vaughn is a native of Elmira, New York. He and his wife, Jeanette (who is an educator and entrepreneur), reside in Painted Post, New York and are the proud parents of 5 children (and have one son-in-love, one daughter-in-love and two grandchildren).

CEO
Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM)

Dr. Jennie Ward-Robinson is currently the CEO of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM), a non-profit organization on a mission to catalyze and lead change to eliminate harm from diagnostic error. She has over 20 years of innovative executive leadership within both nonprofit and for-profit communities, where she has successfully reconceived organizational missions, reformulated strategies, and restructured organizations to attain new leadership and new partners, resulting in stronger brand positioning and revenue production.

Prior to joining SIDM, she served as a Senior Advisor to the Dean of College and Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University. She also served as the Interim Founding Co-Director of the Center for Studies on Africa and its Diaspora, with a mission to bridge the historically critical contributions of the Diaspora to scientific, economic, and global health advancements. In this role, she successfully developed and launched a Coalition that included the Clinton Global Initiative, the University of the West Indies, ECLAC, among others, to address the post-Covid-19 impact on health, education, and climate-related equity concerns among emerging nations.

In the nonprofit community, her roles have included CEO, President, Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs, and Executive Director. In academia, she served as an Associate Professor at the School of Rural Public Health at Texas A&M Health Science Center, and as an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. She successfully led multilateral partners to design, fund, and implement healthcare policies and solutions to women in the Americas through unique public-private partnerships. Lastly, in the corporate community, she served as an Executive Director in research, thus underscoring her recognition for leadership.

Dr. Ward-Robinson is a frequently invited speaker to national and international audiences. She has been recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Houston at Clear Lake for her work in minority health. She successfully led initiatives in the United States, the Americas, and Africa, resulting in peer-reviewed publications and related policy products. She has served on various Boards, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Council, the Institute of Medicine Roundtable, the Alliance for Water Efficiency, and the Illinois Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. Dr. Ward-Robinson holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Madison and has completed numerous executive and leadership training programs from leading institutions that include the Center for Creative Leadership and the Northwestern Kellogg School of Nonprofit Management. 

Ex-Officio Members

Under Secretary for Education 
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC

Monique Chism is the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Education. As Under Secretary for Education, Chism is responsible for defining the Institution’s educational priorities. She oversees the Smithsonian’s collective initiatives, communication strategies and funding for programs that benefit learners of all ages.

Previously, Chism was the vice president for education policy and strategic initiatives at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). Beginning in 2017, her leadership helped bridge the divide between education research and practice at the local, state and federal levels. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chism created a 35-state coalition to respond to educators’ distance learning needs and strategize school reopenings.

Before AIR, Chism worked at the U.S. Department of Education from 2013 to 2017. Her positions spanned the Office of Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs, the Office of State Support, and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. At each level, Chism advised on the expansion of academic access, equity and development. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she managed a $22 billion grant portfolio and led teams focused on promoting academic excellence and enhancing educational opportunities for all U.S. children and families.

Chism holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and a master’s degree from Central Michigan University, both in interpersonal and public communication, and a doctorate from Michigan State University in American studies.

Chism succeeds Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar, who has served as acting Under Secretary for Education since November 2019.

Director
Smithsonian Science Education Center

Carol O’Donnell is the Director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC), a unit of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to transforming the learning and teaching of science throughout the nation and world. In this role, Carol is responsible for all operational activities and planning for the unit, including building awareness for K-12 science education reform among State and district leaders; conducting programs that support the professional growth of K-12 science teachers and school leaders; and, overseeing all research and curricular resource development, philanthropic development, and administration. In this capacity, Carol also serves as the US representative on the Global Council of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) Science Education Programme (SEP), the global network of the science academies. Carol also serves on the Subcommittee on Federal Coordination in STEM Education (FC-STEM), which advises and assists the Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM). In this role, Carol served as one of the co-authors of the 2018 National Science & Technology Council’s 5-year CoSTEM strategic plan.

Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Carol was a leader at the US Department of Education for nearly a decade, supporting States and districts as they built their capacity to implement and sustain education reforms and achieve continued improvement in student outcomes; she also oversaw the Cognition and Student Learning program of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). A former K-12 teacher and curriculum developer, Dr. O’Donnell is still in the classroom today, serving on the part-time faculty of the Physics Department at The George Washington University.

Carol has expertise in education policy, professional development, cognition and student learning, education research, and curriculum development. She has spoken extensively about Women in STEM, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), diversifying the STEM teaching workforce, educating youth across the globe on the complex socio-scientific issues that underlie the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Dr. O’Donnell earned her Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Pittsburgh, Master of Science in Geosciences from Mississippi State University (MSU), and her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on science education from The George Washington University (GWU). 

Smithsonian Science Education Center Advisor

Smithsonian Science Education Center
Washington, DC

Douglas Lapp was the founding director of the National Science Resources Center (NSRC), a center for the improvement of K-12 science education that was established as a collaborative effort of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academy of Sciences. He served as Executive Director of the NSRC for seventeen years, during the period 1985-2001. In 2012, the NSRC became the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC).

Prior to his work at the Smithsonian, Dr. Lapp served for fifteen years as Science Coordinator and, later, Director of Program Development for the Fairfax County, (Virginia) Public Schools, the nation’s tenth-largest school system. His involvement in science education began in 1962, when he enlisted as a science and mathematics teacher in the first Peace Corps project in Cameroon, and throughout his career he has maintained a continuing interest in the improvement of science education in developing countries. After completing graduate school, he returned to Africa for two years to establish the African Primary Science Program Center at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He later conducted studies of science education in sub-Saharan Africa for the United States Agency for International Development and was a member of the Advisory Board of the Rockefeller Foundation’s African Forum for Children’s Literacy in Science and Technology (AFCLIST) in Durban, South Africa.

Lapp has a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree in biophysics from the University of Washington, and a doctorate in science education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In 1994, he was designated a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Functional Advisors

Founder
Slush
Helsinki, Finland

Peter Vesterbacka is the Founder of Slush and the former Mighty Eagle of Rovio Mobile, the creator of the wildly successful Angry Birds franchise and over 50 other games, where Peter managed the company’s marketing and business strategy, including expanding Angry Birds into a broader entertainment franchise. He is also the founder of Some Bazaar, a new approach to building and growing new businesses. Prior to Rovio, Peter worked for HP in several communications industry related roles.

While at HP, Peter founded the HP Mobile E-Services Bazaar, a global innovation and corporate partnership program that Booz Allen Hamilton declared an industry benchmark. Peter is also Co-founder and the original initiator of MobileMonday.

In 2011 Peter was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine.

CEO
Groundswell
Washington, D.C.

Michelle Moore is CEO of Groundswell, a nonprofit that builds community power to bring economic equity to the energy sector.

A social entrepreneur and former White House official with roots in rural Georgia, Michelle is a relentless agent for change. Her accomplishments range from helping build the global green building movement to leading the sustainability team for the Obama Administration.

Senior Advisor
Pacific Science Center

Dennis Schatz is Senior Advisor at Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington. He is also Field Editor of a new journal, Connected Science Learning, which highlights links between in-school and out-of-school learning. The journal is a joint effort of NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) and ASTC (Association of Science-Technology Centers). In addition, he is on the board of NSTA (recently elected to be President-Elect) and BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Studies).

He worked at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley, prior to moving to Seattle in 1977. At Pacific Science Center he has held a broad range of positions, from Director of the Planetarium in his early years to VP for Exhibits and VP for Education to Senior VP in more recent years. From August 2010 to February 2011, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, followed by four years as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

He is the author of 24 science books for children, including the popular Explore the T-Rex, which has sold more than 1 million copies and has been translated into 23 languages. His most recent book, When the Sun Goes Dark, was published in time to prepare families to observe the All-American total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.

He is also co-author/editor of several curriculum resources for teachers, including Astro-Adventures and Universe at Your Fingertips. His most recent teacher resource book, Solar Science, is published by NSTA.

President
DeBakey International
Potomac, Maryland

During his career he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Commerce and was the first person selected to serve as the Director of the Technology and Information Industries Office to promote exports of U.S. technology products and responsible for trade policy for this sector. Mr. DeBakey has been a teacher at the undergraduate and graduate level and taught international business at Georgetown Business School, University of Maryland University College and The American University.

George has degrees from Drake University (Bachelor of Science), American Graduate School of International Management (MIM), and Southern Methodist University (Master’s in Business Administration). He currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the Arab American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan which is part of the Smithsonian Affiliate Program and the board of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy. He was the founder of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. Mr. DeBakey was a lacrosse referee for 15 years.