Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE)

Register TODAY for our summer STEM courses! ORISE offers a variety of STEM opportunities to equip educators with valuable STEM skills and learning experiences. Our K-12 teacher programs allow educators to research alongside our nation’s leading scientists, explore STEM curriculum resources, and strengthen their classroom instruction.

Megan Morris, Ph.D., a manager with ORISE STEM Workforce Development, oversees multiple workforce development programs administered by ORISE. Before joining ORISE in July 2023, Morris was a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she served as a mentor for ORISE participants in the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship Program. We sat down with Morris to learn more about her background in science, her advice for potential applicants and how she likes to spend her free time.

ORAU announced Keri Cagle, Ed.D., PMP, as the new ORAU senior vice president and director of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), effective immediately. In her new role, Cagle will leverage her vast experience and strategic insight to enhance ORISE’s work in critical scientific research and health initiatives for the U.S. Department of Energy and its laboratory system.

ORISE is at the forefront of helping educate the U.S. scientific workforce of the future. Educators play a key role in this efforts. In this episode host Michael Holtz and special co-host Zachary Minchow-Proffitt have a conversation with two Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellows about the role of educators in helping their students see themselves pursuing STEM careers. Victoria Thomson, an AEF Fellow at USGS, and Jessica Fries-Gaither, an AEF Fellow at the Library of Congress, discuss barriers that students may face in expanding their interest in STEM and the pursuit of careers in STEM, and what they have done as educators to make their classrooms spaces where students gain self-confidence in STEM subjects.