Alaska's Finest  CS Facilitators

Tammy Morris is a Digital Teaching & Learning Specialist with more than 30 years of experience as an educator, coach, and presenter at the classroom, district, state, and national levels. Her insight into the needs of today’s Alaskan educators and students comes from serving as a classroom teacher, district Technology Staff Development Coordinator, AK State School Improvement Coach, leading and participating in state-sponsored educational technology endeavors, providing face-to-face professional development throughout Alaska (including as an Apple Professional Development Specialist and with Google certification), facilitating online professional development courses, and serving as Engagement Manager for the AK Professional Learning Network (AkPLN) since its beginning in 2016. Tammy’s passion for making computer science accessible for all students has led her to lead and support school districts as they explore computational thinking in all classrooms and the implementation of AK’s Computer Science Standards. She has been a Code.org facilitator since 2019. In addition to holding a Masters in Educational Technology and a Masters in Educational Leadership, she holds certifications in several education programs.

Role: Alaska CSF Facilitator (Juneau)

Audrey Drew has over 36 years of experience in K-12 education as a teacher, mentor, tech expert and a National Board Certified School Librarian PreK-Adult.  She is passionate about being a connected educator and empowering both teachers and students to be part of our global society in the digital age. Audrey is a Code.org Facilitator, Common Sense Ambassador, Certified Educator for BrainPOP, Raspberry Pi, Clever, and Google. Audrey was one of the first Code.org Fundamentals Facilitators in Alaska. She was also one of the authors for our Alaska State Computer Science Standards, adopted in 2019. Audrey has a B.S. in Elementary Education, a B.S. Psychology and Biology, an M.S. in Science Education, and Library Endorsement.

STEM-related Interests - Code.org, Scratch Jr, Scratch, Wonder Robots, Raspberry Pi, Osmos, Ozobots, Code.org Summit Presenter and Alaska State Technology in Education (ASTE) presenter.

Roles:

Leola Rutherford is a 6th Grade Classroom teacher and Middle School Debate Coach at Girdwood PreK-8 School with a Masters Degree in Education and over 20 years of teaching experience. Leola is passionate about boosting student engagement through technology integration, hands-on projects, Socratic Seminars, and Project-Based Learning. In addition to being a Code.org CS Discoveries Facilitator, Leola is a regular presenter at the Alaska Society for Technology in Education (ASTE) annual conference, ANSEP, and AEA Good Teaching Institute. Always interested in learning new things, Leola recently earned her Google Education Level 2 Certification. Leola is honored to be part of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Teacher Innovator Institute (TII), an Ambassador for Project Invent, and advocate for Next Generation Personal Finance. She is passionate about empowering young people to use their computer science skills and creativity to solve community problems. She is a proponent of Code.org and became a CS Discoveries Facilitator to help inspire more educators to provide meaningful making and coding opportunities for young people. Let's help make CSforAll possible by providing fun hands-on learning with a purpose.


Role: Alaska CSD Facilitator (Anchorage)

Teresa Hintze began her career in Deaf Education,  teaching every subject and grade level K-12 during her fifteen years in deaf ed.. For the past seven years she has been working at a homeschool charter school helping and guiding parents in the education of their children. She has  always had a passion for technology and throughout her teaching career, she has been lucky to have access to a wide variety of technological platforms. She discovered  Code.org while searching for CS curriculums that homeschool families could use,  and absolutely fell in love with it. She is excited every day to be working and learning with the CS Discoveries program.


Role: Alaska CSD Facilitator (Anchorage)

Brian Mead has worked as a high school teacher at Colony High School for 18 years after 15 years in Technical Theatre. He founded the MSBSD CTE Digital Media program where students can study the art and technologies of media creation for up to four years. Alumni work in all areas of media or use media in their careers, including one Emmy Award video journalist. He pioneered the AP CS Principles in the Mat Su with the Harvard CS50 curriculum and introduces students to computer science with the Code.org CS Discoveries curriculum, which he also facilitates teacher training workshops. As a computer science education advocate he is the current president of the Computer Science Teachers Association Alaska “Top of the World” chapter. He also built a robust robotics program in the Mat-Su schools with the very popular robotics classes and award winning First Tech Challenge competitive teams that he coaches. His latest project is to build on the CS and robotics opportunities for students with new offerings in engineering with Project Lead the Way. 


Role: Alaska CSD Facilitator (Mat-Su)

Cindy Duncan has been a teacher, mentor and tech coach in Sitka, Alaska for over 15 years. She is also an adjunct instructor with the University of Alaska Southeast where she teaches future educators how to integrate technology into their classrooms.   She is passionate about using innovative tech to fuel powerful learning.  She has a passion for revolutionizing learning and helping other educators make learning irresistible. She empowers students to use their voice and creativity to solve real-world problems. Cindy is a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert & Master Trainer. She was one of the first Global Minecraft Educator Mentors and was selected as the first ever elementary HP Teaching Fellow with Digital Promise & Reinvent the Classroom (partnership with HP, Intel, & Microsoft). Her classroom was featured in Ted Dintersmith’s book, “What Schools Could Be” and Dr. Lynne Schrum’s book, “Learning Super Charged.” She has written for EdSurge and has been featured in various articles, webinars, and podcasts over the years.


Role: Alaska CSF Facilitator (Sitka)

Cheryl Bobo has over 35 years of experience in K-12 education as a teacher, mentor, and leader.   During that time, she served as a public school technology director for 17 years, where she implemented multiple engaging programs that supported educators in their learning and development.   Cheryl’s passion is modeling best practices through hosting innovative workshops, summer educator STEM camps, and presenting at conferences.  Cheryl’s energy is devoted to promoting computer science in schools for students and staff through her work as the Regional  Program Manager for Code.org for Alaska.  Cheryl serves on the  Code.org’s Advisory Committee. Cheryl’s efforts, both past, and present, have earned her the distinction of being an Apple Distinguished Educator and an ISTE Making IT happen Awardee. She has been dedicated to impacting teaching and learning across rural Alaska and beyond. In addition to holding a B.S. in Elementary Education, she holds a Masters in Educational Technology Education. 

STEM-related Interests- BookCreator, Code.org, Scratch Jr,  Wonder Robots, CSTA, ASTE

Roles:

Sharing Code.org at Palmer State Fair

Qualities of Alaska's Champion CS Facilitators