We are faculty and staff at the University of Washington Bothell who come from a variety of backgrounds: learning sciences, computer science, art, digital learning, science education, and teacher education. Collectively, we are excited about partnering with community organizations that serve nondominant communities to design STEM learning environments that shift people’s thinking about how they can engage with STEM and how STEM relates to their lives. We work in both formal and informal settings and in digital and non-digital learning environments. If you have an idea for a project or want to learn more about our work, please contact us!

Dr. Carrie Tzou
Dr. Carrie Tzou, Director

Dr. Carrie Tzou is a professor in science education in the School of Educational Studies and a PI in the Goodlad Institute. She holds a PhD in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University and an M.S. in Teaching and Learning with a concentration in science education from Vanderbilt University.

Her research has three major components, all connected with an interest in addressing issues of culture, identity, and equity in science and environmental science learning:

1) ethnographic work to understand how youth and their communities are positioned and position themselves through place-based education,
2) design-based research to design curricula to bring youths’ out of school science and cultural practices into science and environmental science teaching and learning, and
3) research and design of elementary and secondary preservice teacher education that explores how to orient preservice teachers to the sophisticated learning and identities that their students construct both in and out of school in order to make science more accessible to all of their students.

Dr. Blakely Tsurusaki

Dr. Tsurusaki is a faculty member in the School of Educational Studies and the Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal at the University of Washington Bothell.  She has expertise in curriculum development, professional development, culturally relevant teaching and environmental education and has experience teaching both formal and informal K-12 STEM education. Prior to her position at UWB, she was the STEM Director for a non-profit that provided professional development for STEM K-12 teachers, university faculty, and STEM professionals. She holds a Ph.D. in Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Policy from Michigan State University, an M.Ed. in Science Education from the University of Georgia, and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Puget Sound. Her research interests include how to better make connections between students’ everyday lives and school science, identity, engagement and equity issues in education, and environmental literacy.

Elizabeth Starks
Elizabeth Starks

Elizabeth Starks (Shiwi / Diné) is a cultural technologist and designer. Her work focuses on creating and using tools for empowerment of Indigenous communities through collaborative design processes. She co-designs with stakeholders to understand and communicate complex ideas through creative visual methods. She holds a Master’s degree in Software-Driven Systems Design, a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies, and a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art.

Kellie Holden
Kellie Holden

Kellie Holden is the administrator for program operations in the Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal. She serves many functions within the organization including overseeing all aspects of the Institute’s fiscal affairs, managing all grant pre- and post-award activities, and coordinating faculty effort distributions. She applies wide-ranging knowledge of funding agency requirements and university regulations to ensure compliance and effective management of the Institute’s projects.

Perrin Teal Sullivan

Perrin Teal Sullivan is an artist, designer and educator. Her work in STEAM education focuses on integrating art and science practices to help youth develop new perspectives and enhanced capacity for understanding, and creating, the world around them.

Dr. Priya Pugh

Priya Pugh is a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Washington Bothell and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She comes to this project as both an environmental educator and a researcher. Priya received a certificate in Education for Environment and Community from IslandWood in 2011, and has directed, designed, and been a field instructor for environmental education and STEAM-focused learning programs here in Seattle. Priya’s research focuses on how people learn about science when they are outside. More specifically, she studies how youth, adults, and families understand and actively make sense of complex ecological phenomena, and the social and cultural influences on this sense making.

Dr. Veronica Cassone McGowan

Veronica is a research scientist and instructor at UW Bothell. She received her doctorate in Learning Sciences and Human Development from the UW Seattle where she worked as a graduate researcher for the Institute for Math and Science Education and the LIFE Center. Her research focuses on broadening participation in STEM fields, particularly K-12 engineering and computational modeling, with a focus on connecting learning across settings in ways that incorporate learners’ everyday interests, identities and community knowledges as foundations for sociotechnical learning.

Jordan Sherry-Wagner

Jordan Sherry-Wagner is a doctoral candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development and undergraduate instructor in the University of Washington’s College of Education. Beginning his career as Co-director of a mixed-age family childcare center, he has worked as a research assistant, curriculum developer, program coordinator, classroom teacher, and data analyst with a range of educational and professional institutions. Advised by Dr. Megan Bang, his present research investigates culture, learning, and development in early science and philosophy, specifically focusing on the role of ethical speculation in field-based science practices with early-grade children.

Project Alumni

Theresa Horstman, Wendy Iwaszuk, Nat Mengist, Brad Portin, Nancy Price, Gavin Tierney, Alice Tsoodle