Let's Talk STEM with Dr. Calvin Mackie & Guest Jan Morrison

This week's guest on the Let’s Talk STEM with Dr. Calvin Mackie podcast is Jan Morrison, Founder and CEO of the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM.  A global leader in STEM education, Jan established STEM Learning Ecosystems after it was clear to her that educational programs teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) needed to be more effective.  STEM Ecosystems is a Global Community of Practice with extensive sharing of resources and expertise among leaders from education, business and industry, non-profits, philanthropy and others. The 94 communities selected from across the world compose a global partnership demonstrating that cross-sector collaborations can deliver rigorous, effective preK-16 instruction in STEM learning. 

 “It became evident really fast that programs were not being as effective as they could be,” Jan  tells Dr. Mackie during the podcast. “There wasn't an infrastructure to grab it, to leverage it, to support it, to love it, to make sure that the children and the families and the communities were connected and to make sure business and industry were connected…for everybody to understand what it was going to take to create STEM jobs and opportunity.”

Jan has served as the Senior Consultant for College Ready STEM Education as well as Post-Secondary Success for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Battelle Memorial Institute, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Innovate to Educate, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Senior STEM Education Consultant for the Ohio STEM Learning Network and many other statewide STEM networks, and served as an advisor with the White House and Department of Education for the past four administrations. 

Currently, Jan and TIES serve as the designer and lead for the National STEM Funders Network, a collaboration of more than twenty-eight STEM funders seeking to fund STEM for the USA with greater return on their investment and therefore for the nation’s students. Jan and TIES are co-designers of the STEM Learning Ecosystem Initiative of the STEM Funders Network and run its National Community of Practice, 54 STEM Learning Ecosystems current with 100 within three years.  Jan consults with MIT Center of Bits and Atoms, The Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Chevron, Siemens America, NASA, Virginia Tech, North Carolina New Schools Project, many state governments seeking to create statewide STEM networks, STEM platform schools, programs and many more STEM institutions.

"It is great to have a conversation about advancing STEM education with one of the world's most renowned experts on the subject," says Dr. Mackie.  "We have all learned from Jan Morrison and benefit from her work.   It was an honor to exchange ideas with her in this podcast."   

Let’s Talk STEM with Dr. Calvin Mackie is a podcast series that features interviews with guests from all aspects of STEM – entrepreneurs, educators, corporate leaders, students – who will talk about the importance of STEM in their lives today. They are the mentors for the next generation of STEM leaders, models of success for others to follow.

Dr. Calvin Mackie founded STEM NOLA in 2013. The New Orleans non-profit is committed to expanding STEM education particularly in communities of color. His goal is to make STEM education available in ALL communities. In July 2021, Dr. Mackie launched STEM Global Action (SGA), a campaign and network of affiliates that pursues STEM education for children, parents and communities across the U.S., and abroad. His initiatives have impacted more than 100,000 students, 20,000 families and 5,000 school.  SGA has an informative website at www.stemglobalaction.com with a data center, newsroom and newsletter.