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NGSS Partnership
The Global Team
Who We Are
Heather Rich
Co-founder
Heather is a Lower School PYP Coordinator and Instructional Coach at The International School fo Azerbaijan. Previously she was an Instructional Coach for Science K-12, and has taught elementary aged kids in multiple international schools and New York City public schools. Heather is trained in NGSS implementation, curriculum design, and leadings its pedagogical shifts with K-12 teachers. Her current focus is using standards to structure conceptually-based units that promote action and international-mindedness. She is an advocate for equitable science learning at all grade levels and believes science is where students can show the learning that transfers.
Britta McCarthy
Co-founder
Britta McCarthy is a currently a SE Asia-based Curriculum & Instruction Coordinator. She is a former secondary science teacher and K-12 instructional coach in schools the United States, Bolivia, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia. Britta believes that NGSS implementation can create equitable and engaging learning for students, and inroads to authentic sustainability work in school communities. She loves to look at how phenomena-driven inquiry can work with project-based learning, service learning, advanced coursework options, and transdisciplinary units or programs in unique school contexts.
Regional Partners
United States-based partner
Lori Fine
Lori Fine is a certified NASA Endeavor STEM Leader and Math Specialist who has served as PK-12 Instructional Coach, science lead, and educator in the U.S., Guatemala, and Nicaragua. She focuses on using place-based phenomena to immerse students in cycles of inquiry that deepen their understanding of the world and spark a lifelong passion for discovery. Believing that everyone has an inner scientist, Lori empowers learners to observe the world around them, question, investigate and design solutions for real problems. As Director of Operations, she now leverages her systems-thinking approach to deliver innovative strategies and support to educational leaders around the globe.
Latin America-based
Katie Neal
Katie is the Innovation and STEM Coordinator at Colegio Bolivar in Cali, Colombia. Her work is grounded in her diverse professional experiences with multilingual learners as a middle and high school ELA and mathematics teacher, an instructional coach, and an education leader in both Colombian and US public and private school contexts. Her current work includes adapting and implementing OpenSciEd NGSS-aligned units in grades 2 to 8 using the principles of phenomena-based instruction, place-based science. and universal design for learning. She sees science as a core subject that is critical to preparing students to “learn at the moment” enabling them to acquire new skills and knowledge throughout their lives and adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and technologies.