Jeffrey Weld

Jeffrey Weld, PhD is the Executive Director of the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council. He also holds a faculty position as Associate Professor in Biology at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Jeff has directed the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council since fall, 2011, and its predecessor the inter-university Iowa Mathematics & Science Education Partnership since 2008. He has been a member of the UNI Biology faculty since 2000 where he has brought in $7.2 million in grants to fund science education reform research and programming including the nationally acclaimed statewide Real World Externships for Science, Mathematics, and Technology Teachers. In 2007 Jeff was named the Four-Year College Biology Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Biology Teachers. He has authored scores of research articles, essays, book chapters, and the popular science teacher preparatory textbook The Game of Science Education. Jeff’s research and writing focus on identifying and overcoming barriers to innovative science teaching at the secondary and collegiate levels. He is past President of the Iowa Science Teachers organization and of UNI’s chapter of Sigma Xi — the scientific research society. Prior to joining UNI, Jeff served on the faculty at Oklahoma State University after earning a doctorate in Science Education with content emphases in ecology and endocrinology from the University of Iowa in 1998. Formerly a high school biology and chemistry teacher in Mission, Texas, Kirkwood, Missouri, and Pella, Iowa, Jeff was named the Ciba-Geigy 1993 Life Science Teacher of the Year in Iowa; a 1994 recipient of the Pella Corporation Focus on Teaching Excellence award; and in 1995 one of fifty national Access Excellence Fellows of the Genentech corporation. In 2013 the Iowa Science Teachers association honored Jeff with their Outstanding Service Award and the University of Iowa’s College of Education bestowed upon Jeff their highest alumni award, the Yager Educational Accomplishment Honor. Jeff serves on several state and national boards including the Board of Directors of the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity Education Foundation, and the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology.