NICOLE GILLESPIE
Director for Teaching Fellowships

CONTACT NICOLE >>
Dr. Nicole Gillespie directs the KSTF Teaching Fellowships program which includes Teaching Fellows in the fields of biology, physical science and mathematics education nationwide. She has helped develop the KSTF Research Fellowships program and planned the inaugural KSTF Conference.

Nicole received a BS in mechanical engineering with a minor in Russian from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD in 1990 and served five years as an active duty naval officer after graduation. She earned an MS in physics from the University of Washington in 1999 and a PhD in science education from the University of California at Berkeley in 2004.

Nicole taught science and mathematics at Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder High School in Washington and worked with the Seattle Public Schools to introduce inquiry-based science curriculum in elementary grades. While at the University of California, she worked on a study of students' intuitive understanding of force, the results of which were published in Cognitive Science. From 2000 to 2003 she was a science teacher with the Upward Bound Program at Napa Valley College and in the summer of 2004 she worked as a mentor to science teachers in the Summerbridge program at San Francisco's University High School.

Nicole was awarded the Spencer Dissertation Fellowship in 2004 as well as the National Science Foundation Science and Design Fellowship and the California Space Grant Fellowship. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she moved approximately every two years before settling in New Jersey in 2004.