National Advisory Board
Project SYSTEMIC: A Systems-Thinking Approach to STEM Ecosystem Development in Chicago
Nell Cobb
Dr. Cobb is the Associate Chairperson of the Department of Teacher Education. She also serves on several university, college, and professional committees. Dr. Cobb is currently the Chairperson of the University Athletics Board. During the summers, Dr. Cobb coordinates a STEM camp for middle school girls. Dr. Cobb has coordinated the Algebra Project Teacher Resource Materials Team (funded by NSF-DRK12 grants). She has organized a number of Algebra Project Professional Development Institutes.

Dean Grosshandler
Dean Grosshandler, Ph.D., Past Chair of the American Educational Research Association Informal Learning Environments Research SIG, is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, specializing in STEM education.

Jan Morrison
Jan Morrison is the President and CEO of the Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES) and has served as the Senior Consultant for College Ready STEM Education as well as Post-Secondary Success for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Battelle Memorial Institute, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Innovate to Educate, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Senior STEM Education Consultant for the Ohio STEM Learning Network and many other statewide STEM networks, and served as an advisor with the White House and Department of Education for the past four administrations.

Nichole Pinkard
Nichole Pinkard is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She is the founder of Digital Youth Network, co-founder of Inquirium LLC and Remix Learning, home of iRemix, a social learning platform that connects youth’s learning opportunities in school, home, and beyond.

Amy Pratt
Amy joined OCEP in December of 2011, bringing 10 years of experience with non-profits both nationally and internationally to the team. Amy’s program areas of expertise include education, public health, community development, and the environment. She has extensive experience in research and organizational development and strategy; program development, management, and evaluation; building partnerships between community groups, non-profits, government agencies, public schools, universities, foundations, and corporations; and grant development and fundraising. Amy is a founding member of the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI), which is designed to create a community of practice that fosters the development of sustainable and scalable broader impacts activity. Amy has a Ph.D. in geography from West Virginia University.