STEM Consultant Team
Jan Morrison
Executive Director, TIES (Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM)
Executive Director, Envision Excellence in STEM Education (501(c)3)
As the Executive Director of TIES and Envision Excellence in STEM and a recognized
leader in STEM education, Jan provides vital support to National and State STEM
initiatives most recently serving as the Senior STEM advisor to The White House
and the U.S. Department of Education in development of their sweeping Race to the
Top and Innovate to Educate education reform programs. Current national engagements
include her work as the Senior Consultant for STEM Education for the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, NASA STEM education initiatives, Battelle Memorial Institute,
the Philanthropy Roundtable, the National Governors Association, Innovate-Educate
Mexico, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the Lemelson
Center at the Smithsonian and the National Academy of Engineering as it developed
the SEEK-16 project. She also serves on the task force designing the national engineering
education standards and is a co-contributor in the national task force investigating
the efficacy of AP engineering and pre-engineering.
Jan is currently advising the following states as they craft their vision for STEM
education; Arizona, California, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina,
Ohio, Texas and Washington. In that capacity, her work on curriculum and professional
development and project-based learning is reaching millions of children in classrooms
every day.
As a leader in engaging business and industry in the K-16 STEM education pipeline
Jan also acts as STEM advisor to numerous corporations and philanthropies including
General Electric, Intel, The Carnegie Foundation, Siemens and Chevron among others.
Her work with these partners includes organizing regional and national convenings,
speaking at industry conferences and customized briefings for senior management
and community outreach staff. Her most recent focus has been building capacity within
the energy sector to facilitate teacher training in cutting edge and emerging technologies
to ensure current students are exposed to these vital career paths so the future
U.S. workforce pipeline is filled with well trained STEM professionals ready to
address our growing energy needs.
Jan is also in great demand as a speaker on STEM education, project based learning,
teacher training and curriculum development and speaks at academic and industry
conferences several times each month.
With a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Rochester, a master’s
in administration from George Washington University and as an electron microscopy
research associate at Georgetown University, Morrison has designed and implemented
STEM curriculum and instructional programs in schools across the nation over thirty
years. She is driven by her belief that although many children in our country are
underexposed to the dynamic STEM fields, they will--given the chance-- find themselves
drawn to science and the technical fields if they are challenged and provided with
outstanding teaching. Jan and TIES seeks to bring outstanding professional development
to all teachers and rigorous and engaging STEM curriculum to all students in the
United States.
Raymond “Buzz” Bartlett
Senior Consultant, TIES
Having been both the Director of Institutional Advancement at the University of
Maryland College of Education and the Director of Corporate Affairs at Lockheed
Martin Corporation Buzz brings a unique understanding of the institutional needs
and potential of both academia and big business as it relates to STEM education
reform. His work with Lockheed Martin was at the forefront of corporate engagement
in public education and sets the standard for the collaborative programs built today.
Mr. Bartlett brings an expertise in organizational change and education policy and
governance and has applied these skills in a variety of settings including state
education, non-profit governance and management, a Fortune 100 corporation, and
a state transportation agency. In his work with TIES, Buzz uses that expertise to
assist states in building their own inclusive statewide networks to engage business,
higher education, public and private partnerships and community leaders in transforming
pubic education and improving student outcomes.
His current statewide work includes leading the TIES program in support of the New
York State STEM Initiative as well contributing to work on nearly every state project
in which TIES is engaged. On the national level he is on the team advising NASA
on ways to re-envision its approach to STEM in its core education mission and was
part of the team working with the combined TIES-National Governors Association initiative
supporting over 30 states in developing their understanding of STEM as a competitive
priority in their Race to the Top applications.
While at the University of Maryland he worked to establish the university-wide STEM
initiative and also advised the College Board’s AP program on the development of
their first digital portfolio. Prior to his work at the University of Maryland,
he served as President and CEO of the Council for Basic Education, a K-12 education
policy organization based in Washington, DC that advocated for a college preparatory
education for all students.
He came to these positions following his career with Lockheed Martin, the last 10
years of which he was responsible for corporate-wide community relations, environmental
community relations and the Lockheed Martin Foundation. Buzz transformed Lockheed
Martin’s corporate-wide community relations outreach program to focus on public
education policy, support for K-12 science education and volunteerism. During his
time there, he and his Lockheed Martin office were awarded Silver Anvils for their
work in environmental community relations by the Public Relations Society of America,
which states "The Silver Anvil is awarded annually to organizations that have successfully
addressed a contemporary issue with exemplary professional skill, creativity and
resourcefulness."
Marc Siciliano
Senior STEM Consultant, TIES
Marc has been involved in STEM education for the past 13 years as a teacher, curriculum
developer, instructional coach, administrator and consultant. He started his teaching
career in the Chicago Public Schools as a biology and environmental science teacher
at Lake View High School and became the founding director of the school’s Math,
Science and Technology Academy, a school within a school. He has participated in
two National Science Foundation curriculum development projects with the Lawrence
Hall of Science and Northwestern University. Marc was also the science director
for The Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago, a STEM charter school
for grades 7-12 that focuses on math, science and technology for young women.
In 2004, Marc moved to New York City to become the science director for a campus
of small public high schools in the Bronx, an initiative through the New York City
Department of Education, where he coordinated science curriculum and instruction
for the five schools and supported school leaders in crafting and implementing professional
development. He then became the science coach for the Institute for Student Achievement,
an educational intermediary that supports small school development in seven states
and multiple Lead Educational Agencies (LEA). While with ISA, he worked with over
20 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City and the Atlanta Public
Schools.
Marc currently lives in Baltimore, MD and is the founder of EdLinc, an education
consulting group that partners with foundations, LEAs, Educational Management Organizations
(EMO) and other consulting groups to provide instructional support, technical assistance
and policy analysis in STEM education. Marc holds a bachelor’s degree in biology
from North Park University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from
Northeastern Illinois University. He was also an education policy fellow at Teachers
College, Columbia University.
Marc’s work with TIES includes Technical Assistance supporting National STEM programs
as well as, North Carolina STEM Schools and the Empire State STEM Initiative.
Anne McClellan
Chief Growth Officer, YES Prep
Anne McClellan brings broad experience to the TIES team in school design; start
up, funding, curricular innovation and charter school leadership and management.
Since 2008, Anne has provided leadership to YES Prep, an early innovator Public
Charter School within the Dallas Texas Public School District. Her work includes
strategic planning and the acquisition of growth capital for replication and expansion.
Prior to that, she served as Program Officer at the Communities Foundations of Texas
(CFT), where she led the design and launch of 35 Texas Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics academies and established a statewide coaching program and network
focused on the STEM initiative as part of The Texas High School Project.
She was the founding principal of Challenge Early College High, the first early
college high school in Texas. Anne was also a co-founder of the Center for Reform
of School Systems, which focused on the improvement of district and school board
governance.
Anne McClellan provides her considerable leadership and support to all TIES programs
with an emphasis on new school design and start-up.
Caroline McEnnis
Senior STEM Consultant, TIES
Caroline McEnnis has extensive experience in improving STEM education within urban
settings working both directly with students in tutoring and in teacher training
and professional development. This provides her a clear perspective on the challenges
facing this underserved population and makes her uniquely qualified to work on the
solutions.
Prior to joining TIES, Caroline attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology where
she helped to design Fab Lab, a digital fabrication lab being used throughout the
world empowering peer-to-peer project-based technical training and team problem-solving.
After MIT, Caroline worked with the Johns Hopkins School of Education and in Baltimore
area schools, such as Roland Park Middle School and the Independence School, to
train teachers in the development and implementation of STEM based curricula. She
has also worked extensively tutoring students of all ages and backgrounds in STEM
related subjects, specializing in working with underprivileged students and has
worked with community partners to develop and run several large and small-scale
educational programs. Caroline also collaborated on the 2007 National Federation
of the Blind Youth Slam, a STEM summer camp for 200 blind high school students held
at The University of Maryland.
Caroline received her bachelor’s of science in chemistry from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, her master’s in Materials Science and Engineering and a
PhD in Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and participated in the NSF STEM
GK-Fellowship program at Hopkins.
Shannon Jewitt
Executive Assistant and Grants Coordinator, TIES
Shannon has experience as a community organizer having served most recently as head
of a key voter registration office in Cleveland during the 2008 presidential election.
She also worked extensively during that election cycle in support of the Democratic
National Committee and MoveOn.org among others. Her most recent advocacy work prior
to joining TIES was advancing stronger regulation and enforcement activities to
improve food safety standards in Ohio.
Shannon graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees Sociology and Journalism.
While attending the top-ranked journalism school at MU, she was on the team that
collaborated to create the prototype for Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s current philanthropic
magazine.
Shannon brings a passion for education reform and advancing civil rights to her
work with TIES and provides support on all STEM programs TIES is working on including
Race to the Top applications.
Michelle Kalista
Director of Development, TIES
Michelle comes to TIES with a long history in public education. After graduating
from Kent State University with a Masters of Public Administration, Michelle spent
eight years with Cleveland Metropolitan School District. While with CMSD, she raised
more than $5 million dollars to support public education initiatives ranging from
traditional academic programming to the creation of innovation schools such as MC2STEM
and Ginn Academy. She also worked on more technical projects such as the clean diesel
school bus program and CMSD's school facility master plan. Before joining the development
department at CMSD, Michelle worked as a public education lobbyist, reforming public
reform policy including legislation on formula funding, the school facilities program,
student attendance and transportation issues.
More recently, Michelle served as a major gifts officer at Cleveland Scholarship
Programs, raising funds to support college access services, including scholarships
and counseling primarily to students and adults living in Greater Cleveland area,
including Lorain County. Michelle works as TIES’ director of development, helping
to coordinate funding for projects such as MC2 STEM High School’s Engineering Our
Health curriculum.
Barbra Skarzynski
Director Technology and Research Support, TIES
Barb provides vital support to the TIES team as well as to each TIES program through
the capture and sharing of data which is used to replicate program successes within
the states in which TIES works. Her work includes network administration support
for the various networks created in STEM programs to facilitate collaboration and
growth. She works to collect and catalog data on the ever-increasing number of national
and local STEM initiatives as a means of building a comprehensive database of STEM
programs and identifying and sharing resources across the TIES network. Barb provides
support on all TIES programs with an emphasis on data collection and analysis and
communication.
Barb is the editor of the TIES website which is becoming a national resource for
engineering STEM education, STEM resources and information and an important tool
in communicating the progress of the national STEM initiatives.
Barb received her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from the University
of Maryland and taught fifth grade at a public school in Baltimore County, Maryland.