Alyson VanAlphen

I have been an educator since 1995, and have taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. I was a Lead Teacher with Beyond Benign Green Chemistry from 2018-2020, and I am currently a Certified Lead Teacher with Beyond Benign.

As a Lead Teacher, I presented at the North American Association of Environmental Educators Annual Conference in Lexington, KY, as well as the virtual conference that was held in 2022. I was also a presenter at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Annual STEM Conference in January of 2023. I will be presenting at the North Carolina Science Teachers Association Annual Conference in November of 2023. In addition, I was a contributor to the Sustainable Invention Curriculum in affiliation with Lemelson MIT.

I was a North Carolina Science Leadership Association (NCSLA) Fellow from 2020-2022. As a Fellow, I attended summits along with science educators across the state of North Carolina, discussing ways to improve science education in our state. Because of COVID, many of our meetings were via Zoom. I am currently a NCSLA Fellows Alumni.

I have been selected to be a North Carolina Space Education Ambassador for the 2023-2024 school year, along with a cohort of 14 master teachers representing 13 counties across the state. Our goal is to assist NASA Langley Research Center in the circulation of NASA mission materials through a statewide network of educators. We attend webinars each month with a focus on various space education topics, and our work will culminate with a field trip to the NASA Langley Research Center in June of 2024.