Thinking about Teaching

Speakers

Hilleary Osheroff, PhD

American Museum of Natural History

Hilleary Osheroff, PhD, received her doctorate in Developmental Neurobiology from the Rockefeller University in 2008. After leaving the lab, she came to the American Museum of Natural History to manage the NSF-funded Science Research Mentoring Program, a two-year research internship program for high school students. She teaches informal science education courses on genetics and biomedical research.

Ellen Cohn, PhD

High School Teacher

Ellen Cohn, PhD, is in her second year as a teacher in NYC. She is a high school biology teacher at the Bronx High School of Science and currently teaches 9th grade Biology and 10th grade Science Research projects. She received her PhD from Weill Cornell Medical College in Immunology and also studied breast cancer in a post-doctoral fellowship. She is part of the New York City Teaching Fellows, a program to allow career changers to enter the teaching profession and bring their experiences to NYC students. At the end of this school year, she will have completed her Master's degree in Education.

Nicole Gillespie, PhD

Knowles Science Teaching Foundation

Dr. Nicole Gillespie directs the KSTF Teaching Fellowships program which includes Teaching Fellows in the fields of biology, physical science and mathematics education nationwide. Nicole received a BS in mechanical engineering with a minor in Russian from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD in 1990 and served five years as an active duty naval officer after graduation. She earned an MS in physics from the University of Washington in 1999 and a PhD in science education from the University of California at Berkeley in 2004. Nicole taught science and mathematics at Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder High School in Washington and worked with the Seattle Public Schools to introduce inquiry-based science curriculum in elementary grades. While at the University of California, she worked on a study of students' intuitive understanding of force, the results of which were published in Cognitive Science. From 2000 to 2003 she was a science teacher with the Upward Bound Program at Napa Valley College and in the summer of 2004 she worked as a mentor to science teachers in the Summerbridge program at San Francisco's University High School.

Heather Cook, PhD

Wagner College

Dr. Cook received a B.S. in Biology from Trenton State College (now called The College of New Jersey) in Hillside, NJ. She earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from the Tuft’s University Sackler School of Biomedical Research in Boston. She did postdoctoral research with Bill Theurkauf in the Program of Molecular Medicine at The University of Massachusetts School of Medicine where she started studying early development in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Dr Cook currently is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Wagner College on Staten Island. Her teaching responsibilities include an introductory biology course for the biology major, a writing intensive freshman seminar course, and intermediate and upper level molecular cell biology courses. Her research is currently focused on analyzing the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on Drosophila development.

Gabriel Rosenberg, PhD

Bard High School Early College

Gabriel Rosenberg received his BA in mathematics from Rice University and his PhD in mathematics from Columbia University. After a three year postdoctoral instructorship at Yale University he joined the faculty of Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) in 2004 and has been teaching there since. BHSEC is a joint venture between Bard College and the New York City Department of Education which seeks to bring a rigorous college education into the high school classroom. For the past four years he also been a master teacher in the Math for America program, an organization which seeks to recruit, train, and retain outstanding mathematics teachers.