Kimberly (Linenberger) Cortes

I am very honored to be nominated for Chair-Elect of the DivCHED. As someone who developed leadership skills through various service roles in the Division, I’m uniquely qualified to serve in the role of Chair-Elect and am interested in seeing the Division continue to foster new leaders. I began my service to the DivCHED as a graduate student in 2010 as a member of the Graduate Student and Post Doc Task Force, which was initially charged to recruit undergraduates into the field of Chemistry Education. In 2012, I became Chair of the task force and saw it become the Younger Chemistry Education Scholars (YCES) Committee of the DivCHED serving as the initial chair of the committee. During my time with the task force and YCES committee, we oversaw the coordination of the Chemistry Education Research: Graduate Student Symposium, developed YCES professional development and networking activities at BCCE and national meetings, initiated the YCES Blog, and served as ambassadors for the field of Chemistry Education at the ACS Grad School Fairs. Most importantly, the Task Force and YCES committee became a springboard to develop leaders within the Division. Since 2014, I have served on the Long-Range Planning Committee where we coordinate efforts among the various committees of the DivCHED, assess how the Division is meeting the current strategic plan, and determine how the Division can move forward to successfully fulfill its mission. I have served as chair of the LRPC since 2019 and we are currently leading an initiative to determine what onboarding resources the leadership in the Division would like to see to ensure transitions occur smoothly. In addition to service within the Division, I served as program chair for the ChemEd 2015 conference and served in leadership roles within my College as Chair of the College Faculty Council and the Department Assessment Committee and have also served on the Executive Board of a local non-profit service organization for 3 years. In my role as Associate Professor of Chemistry Education at Kennesaw State University, I teach general chemistry, biochemistry, and graduate courses for current and future 6-12 science teachers. My research focuses on developing chemistry and biochemistry students’ visual literacy skills.