Judith Sweeney Lederman, associate professor and director of teacher education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, was elected to the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Board of Directors.

Lederman joined Illinois Tech in 2001 establishing the Department of Math & Science Education with Distinguished Professor Norman Lederman, to provide advanced education in the teaching and learning of mathematics and science.  She also developed an undergraduate pathway to prepare students for a teaching certificate at the secondary level while they receive degrees in science, mathematics, computer science or an engineering discipline. In 2003 she was appointed the director of teacher education.

Prior to joining Illinois Tech she was the curator of education at the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium in Providence, Rhode Island, and science director of K-8 science education for 10 Rhode Island school districts. She has taught middle and secondary level physics and biology, as well as bilingual elementary science.

Lederman has over 600 national and international presentations/publications on the teaching and learning of Scientific Inquiry and Nature of Science in both formal and informal settings. She is co-editor for the Journal of Science Teacher Education, an author for a National Geographic elementary science book series and a co-author on an elementary science teaching methods text. Lederman was a Fulbright Fellow working in South Africa with teachers at the Cradle of Humankind. She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and is past president of the Council for Elementary Science International (CESI). She has worked in Sweden, Germany, Chile, Southern Africa, Finland, Taiwan, and China training secondary and collegiate educators.

NARST is a worldwide organization of professionals committed to the improvement of science teaching and learning through research. Lederman’s term will begin at the 2017 NARST Annual International Conference on Saturday, April 22 in San Antonio, Texas. The NARST conference is the largest research meeting on science teaching and learning in the world.