Stephen Prillman
Associate Professor and Chair of Chemistry
Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK
Associate Professor and Chair of Chemistry
Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK
Nakamura, Akiko, Chair
Bhattacharyya, Shreya
Brown, Corina
Céspedes-Camacho, Isaac
Hoover, Diana
Lapeyrouse, Nicole
Leontyev, Alexey
Mendez, James D.
Ryan, Stephanie
Villafane-Garcia, Sachel
Villalta-Cerdas, Adrian
As the International Activities Committee of the Division of Chemical Education, our aim is to engage and connect with other networks of chemistry educators with global interests. Through these networks, we will exchange ideas about chemistry education research and practices that promote equity and diversity in chemistry education.
Document updated September 2018
I began teaching at Rider University in 1996. I am currently a full Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In 2002-2003, I worked as a Program Director for the National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education. I have worked in chemistry examination development for both ETS and the ACS Examinations Institute. I have been associated with the Institute since I joined the Physical Chemistry Committee in 2001. In 2008, I was named Chair of the Physical Chemistry Committee of the Examinations Institute, and in 2012 I was named to the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Institute. I have been elected Chair of the BoT by its members for three successive terms (2015-2020).
As I indicated to the members before becoming Chair, the Board of Trustees is not a management group. The Board works with the Director to set the vision for the Institute and provides fiduciary oversight and support for the Institute. Having worked with the Institute during the last few Institute transitions (both in Director and operations model), I am well positioned to provide continuity of leadership and support as the Institute deals with the current challenges of the pandemic and continues to deal with technological threats to its intellectual property. For this reason, I am seeking reappointment to the Board of Trustees so that I can provide continuity in leadership, oversight and support for the Institute.
Asst. Professor, Department of Chemistry
East Carolina University
TBD, Chair
Colleen Craig
Bill Donovan
Cheryl Frech
Tom Higgins
Robert Kojima
Jennifer Lewis
Sherri Rukes
Ex Officio
Amiee Modic, MAL
Rick Moog, Treasurer
Develops plans that allow the Division to adapt to changes in technology, science, and the expectations of members.
ACS National Meetings
Sunday, 2:30PM - 4:30PM (Open Meeting)
Members of the committee are eager to hear from you about ideas and issues that you feel could make the Division more efficient and effective in meeting your professional needs as chemical educators. Please feel free to contact the committee about what you are thinking. If you are interested in participating in the activities of your professional organization, please visit the Get Involved form and let your elected officers know how and where you would like to become involved.
Activities of the committee include:
Document updated September 2018
I write on the day that I had originally planned as a travel day to Philadelphia for our national meeting. Of course, everything has changed. It is no longer the International Year of the Periodic Table and the ACS has cancelled a national meeting for the first time in its history; sadly, it will take over 100 years for ACS to break its record of uninterrupted meetings that ended this spring. Many people are in my thoughts as the meeting-that-will-not-occur nears. I feel especially sad for the undergraduates who come to a national meeting and are often blinded by science and energized in their trajectory for a very fulfilling career. I also have special empathy toward the many organizers whose countless hours of, mostly volunteer, effort have now been laid waste by a novel virus. After spending 10 years as the program chair in the division, I am fairly well acquainted with the seemingly endless myriad tasks that fall upon the organizers. I can only say, in a heartfelt way, thank you! Your service to the Division and to the world of chemistry is very meaningful. I especially want to mention Patrick Daubenmire, the current program chair for the Division and the two CHED meeting organizers for Philly, Craig Teague and Denyce Wicht. And not to be forgotten, Nicole DiFabio at ACS and her team who organized the hundreds of undergraduate posters. Thank you all.
But there is hope in the air. Which you can partake of from a safe social distance! We are heading toward another special year. 2021 is the year that we can celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Division of Chemical Education. Let’s all plan to gather and celebrate as we move from the concerns of COVID-19 and back to a new normal.
Good luck with your online classes.
Stay safe and well. With my very best wishes,
Irv
Irvin J. Levy, ACSF, FRSC, Immediate past chair
Greetings DivCHED Members!
Well, I have to say, it’s been a VERY eventful start to my time as Chair. As I’m sure you all know by now, we will not be meeting in Philadelphia for the Spring national meeting and like many of you, I am currently in the process of trying to figure out how I can reasonably (and hopefully effectively) teach chemistry on-line. That being said, DivCHED leadership, including our many committee chairs, have been working diligently behind the scenes to try to maintain or reschedule all the great work, events, and symposia that were planned during the Spring meeting. If you’re involved with any of our committees be on the lookout for emails and virtual meetings (if you haven’t been inundated with them already) and THANK YOU for all you do for the Division!
Despite the recent turn of events, I want to highlight some of the great things currently happening within the Division. First, we officially have a Public Relations and Communication Committee, chaired by Stephen Prilliman, which is already hard at work! I very much look forward to working with them this year and hope their efforts lead to more, and more effective communication within Division membership as well as to those outside the Division.
Running concurrently to this, Jon Holmes and Heather Johnson (among others) have been diligently working to give the DivCHED Website a much needed facelift while also moving the site on to the ChemEdX server. I am excited to see the “sneak peek” and hope the website will be live sometime by the end of March. Keep your eyes out for it and thanks to Jon, Heather and many others for all your work on this project!
Finally, I am happy to report that the ACS Webinar DivCHED co-sponsored, The Secret Lives of Snowflakes, by Ken Libbrecht on January 30th, was a huge success! The webinar had 638 sites tune in for the live broadcast (including several K-12 schools) with an additional 369 people watching the recording within the first 24 hours. I personally had a blast and hope the Division can stay active in ACS Webinars in the future.
I wish you all good health and peace moving into what I anticipate will be interesting times (to say the least)!