The Great Minds in STEM family lost a valued partner and champion of STEM education. Dr. Stephen M. Priselac passed away on Tuesday, December 21st, succumbing to debilitating injury suffered earlier in the year. He was 83.
Dr. Priselac was the longtime Executive Director of the National Center for the Advancement of STEM Education (nCASE), an organization he started in 2006 with his wife and partner Nancy to increase the number of students seeking STEM careers and to improve student achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics courses.
GMiS first partnered with nCASE to help execute our groundbreaking STEM-Up initiative. Subsequent partnerships have included the Navy Scholars Program for first year students enrolled at Hispanic Serving Institutions; the very popular Educators Institute, held at the annual GMiS Conference, for which nCASE provided the curriculum and training for K-12 teachers; and the HBCU/MI Summer Internship program, our most recent collaboration in which our two organizations are promoting and preparing current STEM students for summer 2022 internships with national laboratories.
Dr. Priselac was a marvel of foresight and action when it came to tackling our nation’s shortcoming in STEM education and the shortfall of homegrown engineers and scientists it has created. While our partnership with nCASE will surely continue and grow, our friend Steve will be sorely missed.
You can learn more about nCASE at www.nacase.org