Biographical Sketches of Consultants

JENN BROWN-WHALE serves as the Elementary Science Resource Teacher for the Howard County Public School System. This Maryland district consists of 42 elementary schools serving approximately 24,000 K-5 students. Brown-Whale’s role is focused on three main charges: curriculum development, professional learning, and instructional coaching. Brown-Whale served as a fourth-grade classroom teacher, as well as a sixth-grade outdoor educator prior to entering their role at the district level. Brown-Whale was a member of the Achieve/WestEd Peer Review Panel for two years and continues to participate in and lead a variety of curriculum development and evaluation projects outside their school system responsibilities. They hold a B.S. in Counseling and Human Services from Stevenson University and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Towson University.

JEANANE CHARARA is a professional development provider and K–2 science coach with the SOLID Start research project at Michigan State University. She also is currently a peer reviewer on WestEd’s NextGenScience Peer Review Panel and is an EQuIP Science Leader. Charara evaluates science curriculum and determines their alignment to the NGSS as well as provides professional development on how to use the EQuIO rubric. Charara also works as a NGSX Elementary Pathway Designer. She was previously an Elementary STEAM Coach for Dearborn Public Schools in Dearborn, Michigan, where she provided professional development to K–5 teachers and helped guide teacher pedagogies to more equitable science teaching practices and NGSS aligned instruction. Charara also coached K–5 teachers by providing them with support in the science classroom and allowing them opportunities to demonstrate effective science instruction. She has a strong interest in K–2 science and obtaining a better understanding of how science may look different at the early elementary level. She has formerly taught as an elementary teacher and was the Distance Learning

Coordinator at the Michigan Science Center. She served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committees that authored the report Science and Engineering in PK through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and Strengths of Teachers (2022). Charara has a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a focus in integrated sciences from Wayne State University. She has also received an M.Ed. in education with an emphasis on teaching English as a second or foreign language from Spring Arbor University.

STACEY (GRUBER) VAN DER VEEN is the Founder and Lead Consultant of Leadership in Science, LLC. She has extensive experience designing and delivering professional development programs to support New Jersey school districts as they implement the Next Generation Science Standards. van der Veen spends much of her time in schools working elbow to elbow with teams of teachers as they implement the vision behind the NGSS in their classrooms. She also works closely with science coaches and administrators to help them deepen their skills to serve as instructional leaders in their districts. Before founding Leadership in Science, van der Veen was the Manager of Education Programs for the Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE), a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to improving science teaching and learning in public schools. She started her career teaching science and math at high schools in Newark, New Jersey, and New York City and has over 20 years of K–12 teaching and administrative experience in both public and private schools. She co-founded the Hoboken Charter School, one of the first cohort of schools chartered in New Jersey, where she served as Co-Principal and Child Study Team Coordinator. van der Veen earned her Ed.M. in secondary science education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and her B.A. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania.