Michelle Phillips

Michelle's love of STEM learning and teaching goes back decades. With her biology degree, she conducted marine mammal research, which led to a position as a naturalist teaching informal science education. Having seen the light and understanding the potential of this form of learning for reaching nontraditional learners, she returned to graduate school to deepen her understanding. Having taught middle school math and science for four years, she returned to Stanford for her doctoral degree in Science Education and taught Science Curriculum and Instruction to pre-service teachers in the process. For 18 years, she has worked as a researcher and evaluator in STEM education, first at SRI International, then the Center for Informal Learning and Schools at Exploratorium, and as an independent contractor with Inverness Research and her own research and evaluation group. She is thrilled to work with the many talented teachers and teacher leaders who are part of the Teacher Institute.