Prior to higher education I taught high school biology and chemistry for 16 years and was an instructor for Endeavor STEM Teaching Certificate Project where I taught Life in Space: NASA ISS and Astrobiology to teachers around the United States. I graduated from Teachers College Columbia University with my doctorate in Science Education.
I am a researcher, professor, and curriculum design expert. I am currently the Brenda B. Brodie Endowed Chair for the School of Education at North Carolina Central University. Prior to that I was a tenured Associate Professor of Science Education at Howard University for over 8 years. While at Howard I was funded by the National Science Foundation to create culturally representative STEM curricula and products for the K-12 setting. I was also PI for a US Department of Education project where I began a peer mentoring program for students in the introductory biology course.
I was program consultant for the new National Geographic High School Biology Textbook which featured Black and other diverse scientist explorers for the first time in a textbook. I have been on the advisory board and a curriculum fellow for LabXchange’s Data Science Driven Science Education. I am CEO and Founder of Visibility In STEM which I trademarked along with my chapter series book for children titled, Keystone Passage.
In some ways both my research and experiences could be divided into phases. Graduate school and my dissertation research was only one part of the beginning of this journey. Then I spent years exploring and providing myself with as many experiences as I could as an educator, which is also reflected in my writing. You’ll see that my earlier works began by unpacking what I considered cutting edge curricula that provided me and my students with amazing learning opportunities, from both a practitioner perspective and a researcher perspective – along with others. This was important for me in imaging and creating new curricula. A portion of my research reflects the new work I’ve done and the creation of new curricula and standards that I dared to imagine and dared to create.
Catherine Quinlan
Discover the inspiring journey of Dr. Catherine L Quinlan, a leader in science education.
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I think I was born thinking and never stopped. We didn’t have a TV until I was close to 11 years old. It was a small black and white 13.” One of my uncles who was in the police band taught me to read and write music and to play the guitar, so I took music theory up to grade 5 with the Royal School of Music. My fondest memories as a child was sitting on a small table or sewing machine, playing the guitar, while my grandmother and I sang hymns. When I was not singing hymns, I was copying the lyrics from the songs on the radio, a pass time for kids like me, who only had the radio to listen to. Kids would share lyrics with each other for songs we didn’t have the words to. Perhaps it was this experience that translated into me sitting and writing 100 lyrics (at least I think it was 100), and then I began to write the music to them, and found a producer to record them.
I use a multifaceted approach to my profession, as I blend my passion for creativity with the rigor of academia. I wear many hats as science education researcher, professor, curriculum design expert, TEDx speaker, author of both fiction and non fiction books, and now I produce a podcast and published the songs I wrote years ago, so I guess I can add producer and song writer to the list of things I do. I’m still hesitant about adding singer because I know I’m a bit rusty, but that’s okay. It was done with love:). I think writing my fiction books was the first time I stopped regretting that I chose to be an English major in addition to being pre-med. I chose my major because I thought it was the area I was weakest in and I wanted to make my strength. Who does that? What was wrong with me for even thinking that way . . .is what I thought for many years after.
The bottomline is that I’ve gone where my dreams take me, seeking to fill any hole I find missing by tackling the most challenging projects. So needless to say it’s been a bit tiring but I’m beginning to reap the fruits of my labor. My goal has always been to bridge theory and practice, because as teacher turned researcher, I saw firsthand how difficult it was to implement best practices. Furthermore, realizing the intentionality and care with which our curricula is generally constructed, and that it provided little opportunity for Black children to learn about themselves, and for other children to learn about Black people in positive ways, gave me the singular focus I needed. This resolve grew stronger after having a child.
Now I’m ready to graduate from my zone of excellence to my zone of genius. As I champion Black representation in the curricula, I hope to inspire future generations through my work and train future generations to continue this work – that those who want to do or have something better can go for it and make it happen by developing their talents.
MY RESEARCH
My research can be downloaded from several places including but not limited to the following spaces: