STEM Conference

About the Symposium

Our inaugural conference will honor the life of Teachers College alumna Sreyashi Jhumki Basu (Ph.D. ’06) who was a female pioneering science educator who believed that “a diversity of youth should gain expertise in scientific knowledge and learn to think logically, investigate original questions and innovate in ways that fulfill needs in their lives, community and world.” Basu passed away in 2008, but her vision of democratic science teaching as a means to engage low-income minority youth grows more relevant with each passing year.

Dr. Basu conducted studies for UNICEF of homeless children in Russia; founded science and math programs for teens in Palo Alto and the Gauteng Province of South Africa; and co-founded New York City’s School for Democratic Leadership. She worked on improving the quality of education for students, especially girls, around the globe. She believed in students using STEM to advocate for better nutrition with the goal of promoting healthy lifestyles for themselves and communities.

JHUMKI BASU (Ph.D. ’06), a pioneering science educator, passed away in 2008 at age 31, but her vision of democratic science teaching as a means to engage low-income minority youth grows more relevant with each passing year. Dr. Basu conducted studies for UNICEF of homeless children in Russia while pursuing her undergraduate degree at Stanford University; founded science and math programs for young teens in California and Gauteng Province of South Africa; and co-founded the School for Democracy & Leadership in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Dr. Basu served as Associate Professor of Science Education at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Keynote Speaker - Jackie Faherty

Dr. Jackie Faherty received her bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 2001 and her PhD in Physics from Stony Brook University in 2010.  After graduate school she received a National Science Foundation International Research Fellowship (NSF-IRFP) which she took to the Universidad de Chile in Santiago.  She then received a prestigious NASA Hubble Fellowship which she took to the Carnegie Institution for Science.  She is now a permanent scientific staff member jointly in the department of Astrophysics and the department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  Dr. Faherty co-runs a dynamic research group at AMNH entitled Brown Dwarfs in New York City (BDNYC) along leading scientists Dr. Kelle Cruz of CUNY Hunter College and Dr. Emily Rice of CUNY College of Staten Island.  Aside from a love of scientific research, Dr. Faherty is a passionate educator and can often be found giving public lectures in the Hayden Planetarium.  She holds a unique position at the American Museum of Natural History that allows her to pursue scientific research at the forefront of exoplanet characterization studies while mentoring and advising education programs for students and general public alike.

Schedule

Speakers

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Felicia Moore Mensah

Associate Dean and Professor of Science Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Oren Pizmony-Levy

Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Ioana Literat, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Ellen Meier, Ed.D.

Associate Professor of Practice & Director of the Center for Technology & School Change, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Yvonne Thevenot

Yvonne Thevenot, M.Ed., Executive Director, STEM Kids NYC

Yvonne, or “Miss T”, as her students affectionately call her, is a native of Springfield, Ohio and is an educator who firmly believes that “education is a form of resistance, and that everyone is a scholar who is capable of learning.” She received her Master in Education from the University of Southern California, specializing in K-12 STEM curriculum and instruction, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems from the University of Dayton, where she was a Mead Corporation Minority Scholar and a Martin Luther King,Jr. scholarship recipient. She is currently in Teachers College at Columbia University’s Curriculum & Teaching program, where she is researching how STEM curriculum and teaching can promote equity in the classroom for diverse learners.

Yvonne brings over 15 years of experience working in IT, Finance, and Education fields, for companies like Computer Sciences Corporation, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Silicon Valley companies such as K2 Optronics, Ripple Effects, and NumberSpeak, Inc. (a company she founded). Ms. Thevenot is the former Director of academic programs for Youth On The Move In The Community, a nonprofit based in Harlem, whereby in 2014, she implemented a STEMbased afterschool program and day camps, where she taught Scratch, HTML, and co-taught app development and numerous enrichment classes to approximately 60 students over the 2014-15 school years.

Prior to her role as an educator, Yvonne was a leader in corporate America, serving in roles as Systems Programmer and Finance & Planning Analyst for Morgan Stanley in Riverwoods, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago) where she designed a system that was awarded Best In Class by Booz Allen Hamilton, Corporate Controller for Business Systems Engineering, Inc. (Chicago), President & CEO of NumberSpeak Inc. (San Francisco & Dallas), and various senior vice president roles at JPMorgan Chase (Hoboken, NJ & New York), where she managed business units with $1.7B assets under management. Yvonne is a hockey mom and devoted friend to many in her communities, and enjoys sailing, interior decorating, and using education as an instrument to erase the cycle of poverty.

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Kim Noble, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Christopher Emdin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Science Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Nathan Holbert, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Xiaodong Lin, Ph.D.

Professor of Cognitive Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University

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Felicia Moore Mensah

Associate Dean and Professor of Science Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Oren Pizmony-Levy

Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Ioana Literat, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design, Teachers College, Columbia University

Ellen Meier, Ed.D.

Associate Professor of Practice & Director of the Center for Technology & School Change, Teachers College, Columbia University

Yvonne Thevenot

Yvonne Thevenot, M.Ed., Executive Director, STEM Kids NYC

Kim Noble, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Christopher Emdin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Science Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Nathan Holbert, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design, Teachers College, Columbia University

Xiaodong Lin, Ph.D.

Professor of Cognitive Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University

Registration

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