Notre Dame Center for STEM Education Welcomes New Members
An exciting summer of growth for the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education was marked by the recent addition of three new team members. Meet Matt, Gina, and Jessica:
Matt Wilsey, joins the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education as the Associate Director. As a research assistant, Matt will investigate science teacher assessment and data use. He will also coordinate the STEM summer camps, help with science teacher formation and professional development, and work with both Education, Schooling, and Society undergraduates and current ACE Teaching Fellows.
Before joining the Center, Matt taught high school Physics, Chemistry, and Forensic Science at St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago, IL. He has also worked as an ACE mentor teacher, a Summer Science and Engineering Camp instructor, and has designed curricula for both the Alliance for Catholic Education and the Center for STEM Education.
Matt is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with degrees in Biology and German. He also was a member of the ACE 17 cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows in Brownsville, TX, where he taught middle school science and math.
Gina Svarovsky, Ph. D., joins the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education in a joint appointment with the College of Engineering. In this position, Gina will work to bridge engineering and engineering education efforts on campus. She will teach the Introduction to Engineering class for first-year engineering students, conduct research on how young people – particularly underrepresented populations – learn engineering in a range of environments, and will translate research into practice for K-12 STEM educators.
Prior to this position, Gina was the Senior Evaluation and Research Associate at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Here, she focused on how engineering learning takes place outside of the classroom in informal learning environments, such as in museums, camps, and other out-of-school programs. Gina also worked on how young people learned about engineering – and STEM, more broadly – with their family groups, with a particular focus on how children interacted and talked with their parents during engineering activities.
Gina was a member of the ACE 6 cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows in St. Petersburg, FL, where she taught high school Physics, before serving as a Faculty Supervisor. Gina graduated from the University of Notre Dame with B.S. in Chemical Engineering before earning her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin.
Jessica Gottlieb, Ph.D., joins the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, whose research focuses on math education and teacher quality. Jessica will conduct research on how educational policies can be used to recruit, retain, and develop effective math educators. Her research interests also include teacher quality – especially STEM teacher quality – and education governance.
Jessica recently completed her Ph.D. in Policy Studies in Urban Education with a concentration on Education Organizations and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Prior to her doctoral studies, she received a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California. She also taught high school Algebra and Geometry in Los Angeles, CA, and worked in the private sector.
Dr. Matt Kloser, Director of the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education, is excited about welcoming the new faculty and staff to the Center stating, “We have assembled an amazingly talented and thoughtful core group. Matt, Gina, and Jessica will contribute greatly to the scholarship of this University while also making a tangible impact on STEM teaching and learning in schools across the country.”
The Notre Dame Center for STEM Education, through innovative research and the translation of research into practice, seeks to help all students, especially the underserved and those in Catholic schools, engage and excel in STEM disciplines.