Region 10 Summit

Alfredo Martinez-Morales

Colleen Duncan

Colleen Duncan is currently teaching Science 8 and Advanced STEM at Moore Middle School in Redlands.This is her 31st year in the teaching profession. She is a founding coach for her school’s Science Olympiad team and serves as the Division B & C Event Supervisor on the Inland Empire Regional Science Olympiad Planning Committee. Colleen has served as the Redlands Unified District Science Fair Coordinator for over two decades. She has mentored students as they prepare their projects for district, county, and state levels of competition. She has also helped students qualify for Intel’s International Science Fair for ten years. Colleen works with the County Offices of Education in Region 10 as a presenter and trainer for NGSS Rollouts. She also works with the Inland Area Science Project conducting NGSS workshops at UCR, and other professional development workshops for science teachers in her district and region.

Dana Baron

Dana Baron is a K-12 Teacher on Special Assignment for STEM in the Corona Norco Unified School District. Dana has been involved in science education for 14 years. This is her fourth year as a TOSA. Previous to being a TOSA, she taught high school science and agriculture science for 11 years. Dana holds multiple single subject teaching credentials in science, and a Master’s in Educational Administration from Concordia University, Irvine . A prime focus for her current position is helping teachers implement NGSS and find engaging local phenomena.

David Budai

David received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Anthropology and Biology from The University of New Mexico. As a teacher in Coachella Valley Unified School District, David was selected as the 2017 Bureau of Land Management’s Teacher on the Public Lands (TPL).  As the 2017 TPL grant recipient, David was tasked with excavating dinosaur bones and identifying dinosaur footprints & trackways found within the Canyon Country District while he was stationed in the Moab Field Office. During this time David also created the first national Girl Scout Paleontology Patch. This patch is available to all Girl Scouts and only requires the completion of paleontology lessons that teach site stewardship, monitoring, and site-based science. David believes that through proper education and instruction, we can begin to raise a generation of youth that both understands and appreciates our past and present natural environments.

Debbie Gordon

Debbie Gordon is a TK-5 Science Coordinator at Palm Springs Unified School District.  She is also co-Project Director for the K12 Alliance Early Implementer Initiative in Palm Springs Unified and supports the rollout of NGSS in her district and statewide.  Prior to her coordinator position, Debbie taught grades 1-5 for 18 years with most of her teaching years in primary.  She is a Regional Director on the California Science Teacher Association Board of Directors and enjoys helping teachers embrace the shifts of NGSS leading students wonder and inquiry around phenomena in their world.

Dion Kucera

Dion is a doctoral student at UC Riverside pursuing a degree in Plant Biology with a focus in ecology. Dion graduated with a B.S. in environmental science from Humboldt State University in 2014 and in 2016 graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington with an M.S. in environmental science. In the past, Dion has collaborated on research with NASA, the United States Geological Survey, and the United States Forest Service. Today, Dion focuses on understanding the functioning of urban ecosystems. Cities derive tremendous benefits (ecosystem services) from urban plants, however, these benefits are reduced when plants become stressed. In cities, social drivers such as income or education can have as great or a greater impact on the structuring of ecosystem processes than the meteorological or soil conditions that structure natural ecosystems. Understanding the factors that structure urban plant productivity at different spatial scales would provide a direct benefit to managers to be able to enhance the delivery of ecosystem services.

Erin Questad

Erin Questad is an Associate Professor of Biology at Cal Poly Pomona University in Pomona, CA. Prior to working at Cal Poly Pomona, she was a Research Ecologist for the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hilo, HI, part of the USDA Forest Service. Her current areas of research include vegetation mapping, restoration and plant community ecology, invasive species, and the re-introduction of endangered plant species; with field sites in Southern California and Hawaii. Several current projects focus on using remote sensing data to better understand plant communities and plan restoration and conservation programs, with scientific collaborators from the USDA Forest Service, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, and several non-profit conservation organizations. Over the last eight years, she and her collaborators have developed a landscape modeling tool to aid in outplanting programs for native plant restoration and reintroduction programs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Penn State University in 1997 and a doctoral degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas in 2008.

Io Fuentes

Io attended Citrus College in the 1980’s where he obtained an A.S. Degree. In the 1990’s, Io attended California State University, Los Angeles where he graduated with a B.S. in Biology, before pursuing a Master’s Degree in Education at National University. Io has been teaching science for 21 years. He enjoys teaching all disciplines of science, but especially Environmental Science. Io strongly believes that we need to understand more about our environment and how to protect it; for our own benefit and survival.

Jackie Gardner

Jackie Gardner is the Next Generation Science Standards Teacher on Special Assignment for the San Jacinto Unified School District. Jackie received her degrees from Humboldt State University; a BA in Liberal Studies Elementary Education and an MA in Education. While working as a classroom teacher she specialized in science and environmental education, working as a multiple subject and then single subject teacher for 4th and 6th-10th grades. Jackie's passions are in conservation and environmental education and she has previously presented on the benefits of classroom gardens and aquaponics. She continues this work with teachers in the school district who are enthusiastic about aquaponics and teaching students about green technologies.

John Heraty

John is a Professor of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside. He has been studying parasitic wasps for more than 40 years. Although he works on a diverse array of wasps, the scientific love of his life are an unusual family of ant-parasitic wasps. His research involves the study of their taxonomy, behavior and evolutionary history, especially as it relates to how they have evolved to attack specific groups of ants. To conduct his research he has travelled worldwide to over 30 different countries. Prior to arriving in California, he has held positions at the University of Guelph, Texas A&M University, the Canadian National Collection of Insects, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Julia Smith

Julia Smith has loved being a science teacher for the last 30 years. Julia obtained her Bachelor’s in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from UC San Diego, teaching credential from UC Riverside, and Master’s in Biology from CSU San Bernardino. Teaching middle, high, and community college science courses throughout her career, Julia continues to enjoy learning and honing her craft. There are still so many wonderful and fascinating things to learn about our world and how it works.

Kenneth Hall

Kenneth Hall is currently a kindergarten teacher at Chapman Heights Elementary in Yucaipa, CA. Kenneth has taught for 22 years at the elementary levels. He has a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Redlands. In addition to teaching kindergarten, Kenneth is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Redlands, teaching in the Teacher Preparation Programs. After participating in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Splash Zone Teacher Institutes 1 and 2, Kenneth became passionate about science education in elementary school.

Leslie McGhee

Leslie McGhee is currently a High School Biology teacher for Oak Hills High School in Hesperia, CA.   She has been teaching for 16  years, beginning with both Math and Science and exclusively science for the last 12 years. She was the academic coach for her district for K12 with a science focus. She has been worked with the California Dept of Ed, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties as a presenter for the NGSS Rollout #1-4.   Leslie holds a multiple subject teaching credential, a single subject credential in Life Sciences. She obtained her credential from Cal State San Bernardino. Leslie feels that as science educators we should show our students the importance of all sciences in our community and our everyday lives. 

Pam Johnson

Pam Johnson has over 30 years of experience working in the area of environmental education. Currently the Director of Educational Partnerships for Emerald Cove Outdoor Science  (ECOS) Institute, she works to expand partnerships among public and private schools, as well as regional organizations. Previously an Administrator for Orange County Department of Education’s Inside the Outdoors hands-on science programs, reaching over 150,000 students, teachers, parents, and community members annually through four programs: Outdoor Science School, Field Trips, Traveling Scientist, and Community Programs. She holds an MS in administrative services from Pepperdine University, a BA in liberal studies from Westmont College, and administrative and multiple subject teaching credentials.

Philip Hudec

Philip Hudec has been finding ways to empower youth through science education for the past 10 years. Currently, Philip is a project director for the CA NGSS Early Implementer Initiative for Palm Springs USD. He holds a Master of Arts in Education: Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Spatial Literacy. As a Science/STEM Curriculum Specialist, Philip is interested in ways to incorporate physical computing and data science into the traditional science classroom, in order to enhance the understanding of core ideas across disciplines.  He has been fortunate to collaborate with scientists from both the University of California and California State University systems as well as other agencies to bring professional learning opportunities to science teachers and school districts across the state. Philip believes that everyone has the right to learn science and is a proponent of getting kids outside into the wilds of their community to ask questions, question answers, and understand their world.

Reginald Thomas

Reginald Thomas has been teaching Special Education for 13 years. He has had the opportunity to teach Science within both Specialized Academic Instruction and Special Day Class. Learning to identify phenomena and write about phenomena helps his students be able to make connections between science standards and their everyday lives. Reginald believes this application of science will bridge the gap between how people view science fiction and everyday real science.

Sara Yeh

Sharyl Fleeman

Sharyl Fleeman has taught for 22 years at Cucamonga Elementary School in the Cucamonga School District. She has taught multiple grades at the elementary level and is currently teaching fourth grade. Sharyl graduated with a Liberal Arts Bachelor Degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI in 1993. Her studies centered on elementary education with minors in English, math and science. She spent four years teaching both elementary and alternative ed in Michigan before moving to California. Sharyl has been an induction mentor teacher for 5 years and will begin her fourth year as the site science coach supporting TK-5 teachers in the implementation of NGSS and best practices in science education. Her goal for the youth of today is that they will develop a lifelong curiosity about the world around them and a desire to become stewards of our environment.

Shauna Jackson

Shauna Jackson currently teaches 5th grade in the San Jacinto Unified School District. She serves on the Guiding Coalition at her school site where she helps develop resources, and works with the leadership team to strengthen strategies for student success. Shauna earned her Bachelors of Science in Sociology from the University of California, Riverside and her Masters of Arts in Learning and Teaching from the University of Redlands. In her 5 years at San Jacinto, Shauna has focused her work on building innovative lessons that are designed to empower students and get them excited about science.

Tali Hammond

Tali Hammond earned her bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a National Science Foundation graduate fellow. Her dissertation research focused on behavioral and physiological differences between two California chipmunk species that showed divergent responses to the past century of climate change. After graduating, Tali began as an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Richards-Zawacki lab at the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied relationships between chytrid infection and behavior and physiology in multiple Pennsylvania frog species. Tali is now a postdoctoral fellow hosted by the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, where she works to research and conserve endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs in southern California. In the past she has worked with western bluebirds, stomatopods, cuttlefish, California ground squirrels, and tuco-tucos.

Vidal Valdez

Vidal is a teacher at Urbita Elementary School in the San Bernardino City Unified School District. He has been teaching for over 6 years. He currently teaches a Dual Immersion 5th grade class, where he teaches students in English half of the time and in Spanish the other half. He has a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and a BCLAD credential. He also earned a M.S. degree in S.T.E.M. with a concentration on K-8 Mathematics. He enjoys finding different activities that will inspire students to pursue S.T.E.M. careers.