NATIONAL NETWORK
National Advisory Committee

The COSEE National Advisory Committee (NAC) meets twice annually. The NAC offers support and provides guidance, establishes priorities, and helps to create partnerships for the Network. The composition of the NAC does not exceed 15 members and each member serves a two to three year term.

The NAC members are:

Jean Egmon
Kellog School of Management, Northwestern University

Jean Egmon is a research professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She also serves as the executive director of the Ford Center for Global Citizenship Network. In addition, she is the president of Third Angle, Inc. Jean’s work focuses on spotting and leveraging interdependencies and diverse interests across business networks to create value and buy-in across multiple stakeholders with one effort.

Applications of her expertise include: uncovering and exploring new market niches; inventing new business models; engaging cross-functional and cross-organizational collaboration; designing new products and processes to be more easily adopted and viral across customers, suppliers and employees; and designing work to be done by networks.

Prior to her roles in Kellogg, Jean founded the Center for Learning & Organizational Change and its masters and undergraduate programs at Northwestern and founded the Complexity in Action Network (CANet), the business application and outreach arm of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). Organizations with which Jean has worked include: Abbott Labs, Accenture, Bank of America, Boeing, Equity Office Properties, Exelon Corporation, ExxonMobil, General Electric, Kraft, Merck, Proctor & Gamble, Raytheon, Unilever, United Airlines & US Intelligence.

Jean’s Ed.D. and M.A. are from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in management and cognition. Jean’s B.A is from Monmouth College in business administration and English.

Sara Espinoza
National Environmental Education Foundation

Sara Espinoza is director of the National Environmental Education Foundation’s Earth Gauge program (www.earthgauge.net). Since 2005, she has been working with the American Meteorological Society and broadcast meteorologists across the United States to incorporate environmental and climate information into the television weathercast. She has expanded the program from seven to more than 200 participating meteorologists while building strategic partnerships with a range of agencies, organizations and media outlets. Sara also coordinates the development of a series of online environmental education courses for broadcast meteorologists as part of their continuing education program.

Sara recently became an Audubon TogetherGreen fellow, which has allowed her to expand Earth Gauge to Spanish-language media with translated materials. She is a senior fellow and board member of the Environmental Leadership Program, a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) and president of Bucknell University’s DC-area alumni board. Before joining NEEF, Sara worked with the education programs at World Wildlife Fund and The Jane Goodall Institute. She holds a B.A. in animal behavior from Bucknell University and a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University.

Brandon Jones
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Brandon Jones is the program manager for EPA’s higher education training efforts including the STAR Graduate and GRO Undergraduate Fellowship Programs, which have supported over 1600 students since its inception in 1995. Brandon received a BA in biology from Lincoln University (PA - 1991) and an MS (1994) and PhD (2003) in Marine Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment (CEOE). He taught five years of high school science in the interim between his postgraduate degrees. Since 2003, Brandon has held several positions at EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) including Ecological Research team member, Global Ecology Program manager and most recently as the NCER liaison for EPA’s Office of Research and Development’s Sustainable Ecosystem Services program.

In addition to serving on COSEE’s NAC, Brandon brings his expertise and EPA’s mission to many other external activities, most of which are centered on the STEM enterprise. He is the co-founder/lead for the Inter-agency Workgroup for STEM Graduate Fellowships. This group is an ad hoc partnership and strategic discussion group consisting of all the Graduate Fellowship Program Directors from the majority of the Federal Science, Engineering and Tech Agencies (e.g., EPA, NSF, NOAA, NASA, DoE, DoD, USDA, NIH, etc.). Brandon is also serving as the EPA representative for the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) STEM Strategic Plan Task Force. In conjunction with the STEM Inventory Task Force, this high level group is creating a five year strategic plan for federal STEM education efforts.

Brandon has been an adjunct professor of Environmental Science at Trinity University in Washington, D.C. He is also an active mentor in several programs that focus on support and professional development for under-represented students interested in the sciences. While at EPA, Brandon has received two Agency awards for outreach to diverse communities as well as an EPA Region 10 Peer Award.

Gordon Kingsley
Georgia Institute of Technology

Gordon Kingsley is the Director of Graduate Studies and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech where his teaching and research focus upon science and technology policy and public management. Dr. Kingsley’s research examines the development and implementation of effective partnerships across the public, private and non-profit sectors. Current research projects explore the impacts of partnerships on the development and allocation of scientific and technical human capital. He currently conducts this research in two settings: 1) exploring the organization and impact of educational partnerships between universities and K-12 schools on the development of math and science instructors and instruction; and 2) exploring the development of formal and informal networks in policy implementation under privatization and outsourcing. Dr. Kingsley is the past chair of the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management.

Kelly Kryc
Kryc Strategic

Kelly Kryc has just been selected as the 2011-2012 GSA/USGS/AAAS Congressional Fellow and will commence her fellowship year on Capitol Hill in September. She recently left her position at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and is consulting for the Schmidt Ocean Institute while working to submit the last remaining publications from her post-doctoral research. In July, she will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to see the glaciers before they are gone. Her most recent position was as a Program Officer with the Marine Microbiology Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Before joining the Foundation, Kelly worked in Washington, D.C., at the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program where she was responsible for implementing their long-range strategic plan.

Kelly is a paleoceanographer who studied the geochemical record of climate change in Antarctica. Kelly received a B.A. in Geology from Middlebury College, an M.S. in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, a Ph.D. in Earth Science from Boston University, and did post-doctoral research at Stanford University.

Mike Loudin
ExxonMobil Exploration Company

Mike grew up amongst Ordovician reefs in Cincinnati, Ohio, receiving a B.S. in Geology from the University of Cincinnati in 1976. In 1979 he received an M.S. in Geophysics from Penn State, studying the lunar interior utilizing Apollo seismic data. Mike joined Mobil, and had several supervisory assignments in Dallas and London, England. In 1990 he became Chief Geophysicist for Mobil in Nigeria, and was assigned to Mobil's HQ in 1993 as an advisor to the Exploration VP. From 1995-1999 he led global seismic acquistion research and applications in Dallas. He was named to the ExxonMobil merger transition team and became the Geophysics Resources Manager for the new organization in 2000. From 2003-2010, he was Manager of Global Geoscience Recruiting and Early Career Development.

Mike is currently on special assignment reporting the ExxonMobil’s VP for Geoscience Technology. He is a long-time core member of the American Geosciences Institute's Workforce Committee, has given numerous presentations on diversity and workforce issues in various scientificvenues, and is engaged in numerous charitable activities.

George Matsumoto
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

George I. Matsumoto is a senior educational and research specialist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA and his research interest is open ocean and deep sea communities; ecology and biogeography of open ocean and deep sea organisms; functional morphology, and natural history and behavior. He manages several education and outreach programs including collaborations with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's sister organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Dr. Matsumoto served on the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Steering Committee and the 2004 NSF Committee of Visitors for Geoscience Education and is currently serving as a member of the National Ocean Studies Board, as well as a national advisory board member for the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE), the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) as well as several regional nonprofit organizations. He also served as a member of the OSB committee for the Evaluation of the Sea Grant Program Review Process and on a National Academies of Science committee reviewing NOAA Education and Outreach.

Carolyn Randolph
National Science Teachers Association

Dr. Randolph has had a wide range of science education experiences. She was the 2002-2003 National Science Teachers Association President. Her experiences include: Assistant Executive Director and Executive Director for The South Carolina Education Association. She served as the Vice President for Outreach and Research with the South Carolina Governor's School for Mathematics and Science. She joined the Governor's School after nearly 25 years with Lexington School District Two in West Columbia, SC where she was a high school science teacher, department head and district science coordinator. She has also worked in the post secondary setting serving as an instructor at Fisk University, Nasville TN; and as an adjunct at both the University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston.

Dr. Randolph's professional activities have centered on establishing and maintaining a strong science curriculum for students. She chaired the SC Science Curriculum Frameworks Writing Team and worked on the Science Acheivement Standards Revision Committee and the SAT Improvement Committee. She continues to be an active member of NSTA, South Carolina Science Council, National Science Leadership Association, chairing and participating on committees and panels.

Carl Pilcher
NASA Astrobiology Institute

Dr. Carl B. Pilcher is Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), a distributed research, training, and educational organization headquartered at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. He received bachelors and doctorate degrees in chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. Upon receiving his Ph.D., he joined the Institute for Astronomy (and later the Department of Physics and Astronomy) at the University of Hawaii, where he taught and conducted planetary science research for 12 years. He transitioned from academia to government through a master’s degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Dr. Pilcher's NASA management career began as Science Director in the Office of Exploration, established at NASA Headquarters by astronaut Sally Ride following the loss of the space shuttle Challenger. Dr. Pilcher subsequently held a series of NASA Headquarters management positions with responsibility, sequentially, for continued planning for human and robotic solar system exploration; strategic planning and developing international partnerships for the space science program; and scientific direction of the solar system exploration program. His transition to astrobiology was inspired by announcements, in 1995-96, of the first discoveries of planets around other stars and possible evidence of biological activity in the Martian meteorite ALH 84001. He initially assumed responsibility for astronomy-related astrobiology programs, then moved to overall management responsibility for the Astrobiology Program, and to his current position as NAI Director in September 2006.

Sally Shuler
National Science Resources Center

Sally Goetz Shuler is the Executive Director of the National Science Resources Center (NSRC), an organization of the National Academies and the Smithsonian Institution, with a mission to improve K-16 science learning and teaching in the U.S. and throughout the world. As one of the co-founders of the NSRC two decades ago, her leadership has created an organization committed to transforming K-16 science education programs for all students based on research and promising practices. Under her leadership, the NSRC has formed numerous strategic partnerships with national academies, academic institutions, corporations, and museums that are resulting in the development, implementation, and evaluation of K-12 science education programs for school districts, states, and countries that are strategic, systemic, and sustainable. To date, the work of the NSRC with its partners has impacted districts representing 30% of the U.S. student population and more than a dozen countries.

In addition to the NSRC, Ms. Shluer's three decades of national and international experience in K-16 science education include 15 years of teaching mathematics and biology and service as a chair, trustee, member or advisor for numerous boards and organizations. These include being a member of the Board of Trustees for the Keystone Center; the Merck Institute for Science Education Advisory Board; Chair of the Science Education Program of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund; Chair of the Assessment Committee for the National Youth Science Camp; Advisory Board Members for the Math/Science Partnership Comprehensive Projects of Rutgers University and the Boston Science Partnership; Expert Panel for Washington State; a member of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation Academic Advisory Panel; member of National Assessment of Educational Progress Science Steering Committee; Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence; member of the Smithsonian Natural History’s Lemelson Board, and member of the Chief State School Officers/Smithsonian Partnership Advisory Committee.

Ms. Shuler has a M.S. in Environmental Health Sciences from George Washington University, and a B.A. from Edinboro State University, with majors in Biology and Geology. In the past two years she has received two distinguished awards: the 2008 Washington State Advocacy Award and the 2007 National Science Teachers Association Distinguished Service Award, both given in recognition of her contributions to and demonstrated excellence in science education.

Cindy Van Dover
Duke University Marine Laboratory

Cindy Lee Van Dover is the Harvey W. Smith Professor of Biological Oceanography and the Director of the Marine Laboratory in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. She received her Ph.D. from the WHOI-MIT Joint Program in Oceanography and her research interest is in deep-sea ecosystems with a special expertise in chemosynthetic systems. Dr. Van Dover has served as a Navy-certified Pilot-in-Command of the Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin and currently serves as Chair of the Replacement Human Occupied Vehicle (HOV) Oversight Committee for the National Science Foundation. In addition to her scientific research, she is the author of popular articles and books on deep-sea ecosystems as well as a text book on the ecology of hydrothermal vents, and is curator of a traveling art exhibition that features watercolor paintings of deep-sea animals and landscapes by artist Karen Jacobsen.