EvolvingSTEM Founder and Executive Director
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
vaughn.cooper@pitt.edu

Vaughn Cooper is an evolutionary biologist and microbiologist. He received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and his Ph.D. in 2000 from Michigan State University under the mentorship of Richard Lenski, where he studied the evolution of specialization in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment of E. coli populations. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, studying pathogens of the cystic fibrosis airway with John LiPuma. He was Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of New Hampshire from 2004-2015, moving to the University of Pittsburgh in 2015. He is currently Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Computational and Systems Biology, at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. He co-founded and is Director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine (CEBaM) and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Microbiology. His awards include the 2010 Outstanding Assistant Professor at UNH, an NSF CAREER award, and is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. His research is supported by the NIH, NSF, NASA, and by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Dr. Cooper has published more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and invited chapters. The Cooper laboratory studies how bacterial populations (e.g. Burkholderia, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and multispecies communities) evolve to adapt to new hosts and environments, particularly in biofilms. Other major interests include the evolution of antimicrobial resistance and why genome regions mutate/evolve at different rates.

A major goal of our group is to grow the EvolvingSTEM program to 1) develop and share learning kits for thousands of high school and college biology classes based on microbiology experiments, 2) train teachers via workshops and online education to succeed with our curriculum and become regional mentors 3) to motivate and support authentic student research projects that are biomedically relevant, and 4) provide essential training in biotechnology, including genomic sequencing and bioinformatics, to build our STEM workforce.

For more information, please visit the Cooper Lab’s website (http://www.micropopbio.org)

EvolvingSTEM Director of Educational Outreach and Research
Faculty Instructor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
arm208@pitt.edu

Abigail graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in Biological Sciences and BA in Anthropology. She received her PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she worked under the mentorship of David Baum to study genes involved in the evolution of plant leaf hair shape in the Mustard family. She was actively involved in teaching introductory and upper level science courses and was awarded the Eldon H. Newcomb Award for Excellence as a Teaching Assistant.

Abigail is passionate about promoting community engagement with science. She has over 10 years of experience in developing science outreach materials for students of all ages and is currently working to build and expand EvolvingSTEM. As a native Pittsburgher, Abigail is excited to share this exceptional learning opportunity with schools across Pittsburgh.

EvolvingSTEM Program Manager
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
ywc2@pitt.edu

Yvonne is the Outreach Program Manager for EvolvingSTEM. She graduated from Duquesne University with a BS in Biology and a Masters in Secondary Science Education. Yvonne has 15 years of experience teaching science in the urban secondary classroom setting. Yvonne’s expertise is in developing and implementing hands-on and interactive inquiry curriculum for preteen and teen learners. During her time in the classroom she also had the privilege to lead and mentor other teachers to be better hands on science educators as well. Yvonne is passionate about supporting educators and getting real science in the hands of young people so that they can envision themselves as scientists too! When she’s not busy taking over the world, Yvonne likes to knit, read, cook, and dote on her two precious kids 🙂

Biology Teachers, Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, NH
mhandwork@warriors.winnacunnet.org    |    sscarponi@warriors.winnacunnet.org

Mike received his M.Ed. from Plymouth State University and Shani received her M.Ed. from Cambridge College. Mike and Shani were the first two teachers to implement the EvolvingSTEM curriculum in their classrooms. They were instrumental in adapting our laboratory biofilm evolution protocol to meet the needs and limitations of a high school biology classroom. They found EvolvingSTEM to be so highly engaging and effective at teaching students evolutionary topics that, in subsequent years, EvolvingSTEM replaced the freshman honors biology evolution curriculum. In addition, junior and senior students who demonstrated interest in the program continue to learn through an Extended Learning Opportunity program that allows them to assist teachers in implementing EvolvingSTEM in their classroom and pursue their own research projects.

Instructional Teacher Leader, Department Chair for Science,
Lead Teacher, Body and Behavior Concentration,
Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy in Pittsburgh, PA
ekinchington1@pghschools.org

Edwina received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley in molecular and cellular biology and her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh. She focused on cancer research for over 15 years before pursuing and obtaining her teaching certification in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been teaching at the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy since 2009 and has actively engaged with community partners such as the University of Pittsburgh and CMU to bring exciting STEM research opportunities to her students. Her excellence in teaching was recognized in 2015, when she was honored with the Pennsylvania Outstanding Biology Teacher Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers.

Edwina has helped us to refine the EvolvingSTEM protocol and curriculum materials to make the experiment run more quickly and efficiently. She has also supported the promotion and expansion of our program by assisting in presenting EvolvingSTEM at a Pittsburgh Public Schools professional development workshop and sharing her experience as a teacher working with EvolvingSTEM to local media stations.

Senior School Biology Teacher
Sewickley Academy in Sewickley, PA
rkinser@sewickley.org

Ron received his BA in Psychology from Rutgers University and PhD in molecular and cellular biology from Dartmouth College. Ron focuses on creating hands-on learning experiences in his classroom to show students that learning can be fun and that knowledge obtained can be life changing.

Ron has played an important role in helping us to realize that EvolvingSTEM could be successfully implemented in classrooms that meet in alternating block schedules, which supports the efficacy of our program in different class schedules. Ron has also been an important advocate for EvolvingSTEM by assisting us in presenting our program at a Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools Conference. Ron’s support has assisted us in offering EvolvingSTEM to three additional independent school classrooms in the past year.