We are excited to announce that this year's Outstanding Administrative Support Award (OASA) recipient is Dr. Rachel Ruggirello, Ph.D., Associate Director, Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis.

This prestigious award recognizes and honors an outstanding administrator who through professional work has demonstrated exemplary support for science education at the school, district, and/or county level. This award honors an administrator whose primary responsibility is outside the area of science instruction. This year the $1000 award and plaque will be presented to Dr. Rachel Ruggirello during the NSELA Summer Leadership Institute.

Dr. Ruggirello has demonstrated outstanding leadership in science education starting as a New Jersey-based high school science teacher in 2004 to her current role as associate director of the institute for school partnership at Washington University in St. Louis. Her passion and support of science education has impacted many parts of the science education spectrum: K-12 settings, higher education, outreach, curriculum and professional development, to name a few.

NSELA is proud to present the 2022 OASA Award to Dr. Rachel Ruggirello. Her nominator described her as having “a brilliant mind, [an] ability to visualize and implement strategic plans, and [the] capability of reaching teachers in a way that honors them and moves them forward in practice; she does all of this without ego or self-promotion in mind. She is an ultimate mission-driven researcher and practitioner, and she somehow is able to manage many programs and just as easily be seen in the trenches doing the actual curriculum writing or professional development facilitation.”

Read more about Dr. Rachel Ruggirello here.

This year's Outstanding Leadership in Science Education (OLISE) Award recipient is Christine Anne Royce, Ed.D., NSTA President (2018-2019), NSELA Treasurer (2011-2017); Professor of Teacher Education & Co-Director MAT In STEM Education at Shippensburg University

Since 1979, this prestigious award recognizes and honors an NSELA member, who through professional work, has demonstrated outstanding leadership in science education at the school, county, regional and/or national level. This year the $1000 award and plaque will be presented to our 2022 awardee, Dr. Christine Anne Royce, during the NSELA Summer Leadership Institute.

Dr. Royce’s contributions to science education are intense, all-encompassing, and deeply personal. Her career path began in 1990 as a second-grade teacher and she has followed her passions in science education towards higher education, in which she is a presently a professor of education at Shippensburg University leading the next generation of science teachers. Christine wrote in regard to her work: “My leadership style is a mixture of coaching, visionary and transformational approaches to leadership… [this] leadership allows me to refocus on the fact that I try to support students and teachers as they pursue their understanding of and engagement in science. Initially, working with K-12 students directly and currently with in-service and preservice teachers, I try to ensure that my leadership role is one of support and mentoring, thus allowing me to come full circle.”

NSELA is proud to present the 2022 OLISE Award to Dr. Christine Anne Royce. She is an exemplary role model for science teachers and science leaders alike. We are grateful to acknowledge her many years of service to science education researchers, science teachers, and of course, science learners.

To read more about Christine Anne Royce, click here.