Stacey (Gruber) van Der Veen 

Founder and Lead Consultant of Leadership in Science 

This month’s leadership spotlight is on Stacey (Gruber) van der Veen. 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.  Stacey 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, Stacey 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.  Stacey 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. Below in this month’s leadership spotlight Stacey shares some of her wisdom and lessons learned during her time as an educator and educational leader.

What’s the best advice anyone has given you as a science leader?

Develop a collaborative, specific, ambitious vision for science teaching and learning with your colleagues and use that vision to guide all of your goals and decision-making.  The work we do can quickly become disjointed and distracted if we're not working towards a clear but ambitious endpoint.  And develop a vision for yourself and your work, and use it to guide your personal and individual decision making.

What advice do you have for those pursuing science leadership?

Carve out time to focus on your leadership.  It’s so easy to get bogged down in management that we can forget what we’re managing for.  Management is firefighting, and leadership in fire safety - if you spend all your time battling blazes, you’ll never fireproof your school.  And always teach at least one class.  I know it seems like you never have the time, but I am so grateful that I was forced to do this early in my career, it completely changed the way I led and interacted with my colleagues.

What do you do for personal enjoyment outside of your professional life (family, hobbies, travel, anything you want to share!)

I play the violin in a symphony orchestra (New York Repertory Orchestra).  It’s deeply and wonderfully challenging to play in this high-level ensemble, to balance the joy of making music with the difficulty of the repertoire.  It’s also a place where I am learning - sometimes with great discomfort and awkwardness - every week.  Sitting in this space as a learner and reflecting on what helps me and what stands in my way is a weekly lesson in leadership.

Fill in the blank. I couldn’t be successful in science leadership without ____. 

My personal and professional partnership with my husband Wil.  He is deeply supportive and also a relentless critical friend.  I am just better and smarter because of our collaboration.   

What are you reading for enjoyment?

I just started Yesteryear on my sister’s recommendation.  It’s about a tradwife influencer who gets sent back in time to 1855 to actually live the life she pretends to lead online.  I just started it but so far it’s compelling! 

Why did you join NSELA and what are you most looking forward to as a member?

I joined NSELA because I’m deeply interested in how to support science leaders. So much professional learning is focused on teachers, but if we’re going to lead the learning of teachers we have to be learners ourselves.

What has been a success of your leadership in your district that you are proud of? 

Way back when it was an idealistic thing to do, I co-founded the Hoboken Charter School which will be celebrating its 30th year starting in September.  I’ve never done anything as ambitious or challenging as bringing that school to life, and to see it still thriving is beyond what I had imagined.  As a bonus, the Head of School is someone I hired and mentored, so it’s deeply satisfying to see her at the helm.

What has been a challenge for you as a leader?

I like to figure things out on my own before I make them public.  What I learned when I was working in a school was that by not making my thinking visible, my decisions seemed arbitrary and I lost the trust of my colleagues.  I’ve had to learn to think and learn publicly, which is both challenging and rewarding.