Susan Hansen

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Susan Hansen

Susan has been teaching for 7 years. She is a native of Santa Clara Valley in California. Susan graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and she holds a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University. After 20 years in industry, Susan discovered the joy of working with kids, and made a career change to teaching. In her free time, she enjoys reading, sewing, hiking, camping, gardening, and travel. She lives in California with her husband and two school-aged children.

Craig Freudenrich

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Craig Freudenrich
Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D., is a freelance science writer. He earned a B.A. in biology from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has over 25 years experience in biomedical research, science education, and science writing.

Marcia A. Firmani

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Marcia A. Firmani
Craig Freudenrich

Education:
2002 Ph.D., Microbiology, University of California, Berkeley.
1994, MSPH, Tropical Medicine, Tulane University School of Public, Health and Tropical Medicine.
1991 B.S. Medical Technology, Marist College
Current Position:
Assistant Professor; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Department of Health Sciences
Research Interests:
My labs major aims are to study the molecular genetics and epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains that are better able to survive within the host macrophage.

Scott Dossa

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Scott Dossa
Having taught for 20 years, I have had experience teaching a wide variety of courses and ability levels. I am currently teaching Oceanic Biology and Advanced Chemistry at David Douglas High School in Portland, Orego

Sarah Cohen Christopherson

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Sarah Cohen Christopherson
Sara earned a B.A. in biology at Oberlin College and a M.S. in science education at the University of Wisconsin (UW) – Madison. When she isn’t writing and editing science textbooks, consulting for the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research, lecturing for Introductory Botany at UW, or working with K-12 students in UW science programs, she might be lolling around, gardening, or baking bread.

Murugan Pal

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Murugan Pal
April 1966 – October 2012

Palo Alto, CA

Murugan Pal a serial entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, Bay Area, USA. Murugan is currently the Co-Founder & President of CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization launched in 2006, that aims to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the US and worldwide. Prior to CK-12, Murugan had a brief tenure with Foundation Capital as Entrepreneur-In-Residence. Previously, Murugan was the founder and CTO of SpikeSource. Before founding SpikeSource, Pal was an entrepreneur-in-residence with venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Previously, he was a Founding Engineer of e-business software company Asera, Inc. Before Asera, Pal was a principal developer at Oracle Corporation in the Application Server division and was part of the company’s early XML initiatives. Prior to Oracle, he was one of the lead developers of Versant Corporations Object Database. Pal has worked on real-time enterprise technologies, composite applications, service-oriented architecture runtimes, relational databases, object databases, and robotics and manufacturing automation.

Pal holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, affiliated to Madurai University in India, a Masters in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University, a Masters in Computer Science from Arizona State University, and was a Doctoral Candidate in Industrial Engineering at Arizona State University.
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Neeru Khosla

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Neeru Khosla

Palo Alto, CA

Neeru Khosla is a firm believer in the power of education. She wants the rigor and accountability of for profit models to apply to non-profits. Neeru is a member of the Board at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California, where she has served since 1997, caters to gifted and talented students and is internationally recognized. Neeru is also on the Advisory Board of the American India Foundation, a leading international development organization charged with accelerating social and economic change in India. She previously served as a trustee of the Pacific Vascular Research Foundation and Connexions, a Rice University open-source project. Neeru’s commitment to education is evidenced by her role on the National Advisory Board for DonorsChoose, an organization dedicated to addressing the scarcity and inequitable distribution of learning materials in U.S. public schools. Neeru is one of the founding members of the K-12 Initiative of the D-School (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) at Stanford University and a member of the committee to expand the program. Neeru is currently the Co-Founder and Executive Director of CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization launched in 2006, which aims to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the US and worldwide.

Neeru holds a Bachelors degree from Delhi University/San Jose State, a Masters degree in Molecular Biology from San Jose State, and a Masters in Education from Stanford University.
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Douglas Wilkin (Domain Expert, Author)

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Douglas Wilkin, Ph.D. is currently the Chair, Department of Science at Arleta High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Prior to teaching high school, Dr. Wilkin held a number of faculty positions at leading research institutions throughout the United States, including the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations in Quantico, Virginia. He is extensively published.
Author of the chapter(s):

Biotechnology
Cell Division and Reproduction
Human Genetics
Molecular Genetics

Janel White-Taylor

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Janel White-Taylor
Janel White-Taylor is assistant professor at Arizona State University. In addition to teaching, she directs the Project eXcellence Program, which provides high-quality out-of-school learning environments for underserved K-12 students. The project assists both preservice and in-service teachers by offering site-based courses and unique field experiences. White-Taylor’s research interests include innovative strategies to integrate technology into the classroom, using technology as a tool to increase student achievement and retention, and the effects of technology-infused, out-of-school programs.
Author of the chapter(s):

Connecting Science and Mathematics to Engineering
Engineering & Society
Introduction to Engineering Design
Nature of Engineering

Sean Walker

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Sean Walker
Sean Walker is currently finishing his last few years of a PhD program in Computer Science at Stanford University. Sean taught the introductory Computer Graphics class at Stanford for two summers, TA’d more times than he would have liked, and currently moonlights as an SAT instructor and tutor for one of the major SAT prep companies.