Zero Barriers in STEM Education Summit: Keynote Address & Closing Remarks
Summit Keynote Speaker, Dr. Sami Kahn
As Executive Director of the Council on Science and Technology (CST) at Princeton University, Dr. Sami Kahn works to promote scientific literacy for all through quality interdisciplinary course development, robust STEM education research, and creative programming. An award-winning STEM educator, teacher educator, and author, she uses her background in science education and law to inform her research and scholarship on inclusive science practices, socioscientific issues (SSI), argumentation, and social justice.
With over thirty years of experience in STEM teaching and learning, Dr. Kahn has taught science to students in Kindergarten through college and has authored/co-authored numerous journal articles and five books on enhancing scientific inquiry experiences for learners of all ages. She currently serves as Chair of the Inclusive Science Education Forum for the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) while former posts include serving as Chair of the National Science Teaching Association’s (NSTA) Special Needs Advisory Board and President of NSTA’s associated group, Science Education for Students with Disabilities (SESD). Her recent publications include a co-edited/authored book entitled, Towards Inclusion of All Learners Through Science Teacher Education (Brill, 2018) and a sole-authored book entitled, It’s Still Debatable! Using Socioscientific Issues to Develop Scientific Literacy, K-5 (NSTA Press, 2019) which uses controversial societal issues related to science and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as the framework for promoting an informed, participatory, STEM-literate citizenry.
Dr. Kahn holds an M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Rutgers University, a J.D. in Law from Rutgers School of Law, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Science Education from the University of South Florida where she served as a Presidential Doctoral Fellow.