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Nancy EasterlyNancy Easterly to be Recognized as a 2018 Recipient of the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

College Park, MD, October 17, 2017—AAPT has announced that Nancy Easterly will receive the association's Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT, during the 2018 Winter Meeting in San Diego, California.

Regarding her selection to receive this recognition, Easterly said, "I am honored and humbled to receive this citation. It is even more special to know that my peers are recognizing my abilities to share physics with the teachers who provide the foundation for those students who eventually take high school or college physics. As one of my former students wrote: "You have a talent for teaching and make a complicated subject fun to learn". That statement says it all, I achieved my goal of making physics a subject not to be feared and relevant."

Easterly earned her B.A. in physics with a minor in mathematics at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio. Her M. Ed. is in Curriculum and Instruction with a minor in oceanography from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

She began teaching as a Science and Math teacher for grades six through eight in 1975 at Wunderlich Intermediate School, Houston, Texas. In 1978 she took a position as physics teacher at Cypress Creek High School in Houston teaching Regular Physics, Honors Physics, AP-C, and serving as Physics Team Leader. In 2004 she started teaching Physical Science for Elementary Education Majors at the University of Houston-Downtown, as an adjunct professor. Since 2008 she has taught Elementary Physics at Lone Star College North Harris/Greenspoint.

For the past several years, she worked with the Georgia Math and Science Partnership (MSP) Grant at the University of West Georgia. The original workshop materials were created for high school teachers. Since the institute was for elementary and middle school teachers, Easterly took the high school activities and changed them to meet the needs of the new audience. The long hours of the MSP institutes were typical of the time she is willing to spend in the interest of physics education. She is a highly respected physical science and physics workshop leader and has spent the last eighteen years dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of physics.

She has been a leader in workshops in several states and will travel to the locations where she is needed, always ready to share her love of science and the importance of raising awareness of STEM education.

Service to national organizations as well as local ones has also been a focal point of Easterly's career. She has demonstrated distinguished service to AAPT by being a PTRA since 1999. She has given one invited paper at AAPT meetings. She is a member of the National Science Teachers Association, Metropolitan Area Texas of Science, Association of Texas Professional Educators and Texas Retired Teachers Association. She was the lead PTRA for several years for the Houston Area Physics Teachers organizing many meetings for teachers. Mrs. Easterly has been an e-mentor for AAPT since its inception helping over two dozen teachers.

About the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT
Established in 1953 and renamed in recognition of AAPT founder Homer L. Dodge in 2012, the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT is presented to members in recognition of their exceptional contributions to the association at the national, sectional, or local level.

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists—with members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.

For more information: Contact David Wolfe, Director of Communications, dwolfe@aapt.org, (301) 209-3322, (301) 209-0845 (Fax), www.aapt.org.