Taking Root
Ohio State’s STEM Initiatives
Ohio State continues to show its commitment to local STEM Outreach through the creation of a new position administered by the College of Arts and Sciences. Christopher Andersen has been appointed director of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Initiatives, effective April 1, 2011. The focus of the position will be to strengthen STEM outreach, undergraduate programming, and diversity.
Andersen will be responsible for coordinating and promoting STEM-related education and outreach activities across Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences and building collaborations with other colleges throughout the university community. He will also serve as liaison to external communities and promote recruitment and retention of students in STEM fields.
Specifically, he will …
- Identify and expand university K-12 public STEM outreach
- Strengthen efforts to revise, improve, and invigorate undergraduate STEM programming
- Work to diversify the university’s undergraduate and graduate population and expand recruitment and retention efforts
Andersen is currently STEM program director at the Nisonger Center where he is working with three NSF-funded projects: Ohio’s STEM Ability Alliance, created to increase students with disabilities who complete STEM degrees; the Center for Emergent Materials; and It’s About Discovery, a STEM-curriculum project in Ohio and North Carolina. He previously served as director of Ohio State’s Project to Support Grants for Research Outreach (Project GRO).
Andersen earned his MA and PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University.
