Joseph Isaac

Fellowship Placement: National Science Foundation

Joe Isaac is ten-year veteran of science education in the District of Columbia, spending the last eight of those years as teacher and department chair of Biotechnology at McKinley Technology High School, the public school system’s STEM focused school. During his teaching career he taught Biotechnology, Molecular Biotechnology, Plant Biotechnology, Forensic Science and Advanced Placement Biology among others. Joe also served as adjunct faculty at Fortis College in Maryland, where he taught General and Protein Biotechnology. He was awarded the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship in 2012 and served until 2014 at the National Science Foundation's divisions of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and Education and Human Resources. During his fellowship, Joe was able to travel to and present at several conferences, both domestically and internationally on STEM education in urban school settings and international collaboration in STEM subjects. One of the many highlights of Joe’s fellowship experience was participating in NASA’s Microgravity Flight experiences with “The Flying Einsteins” in the summer of 2013, in which they conducted research on “Coacervate Formation in Variable Gravity Conditions”. Isaac completed his undergraduate studies at Howard University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. After starting his career in education, Isaac earned his Master’s in Teaching in Secondary Science at Trinity University. He is now a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas Tech University's Global PRiSE (Pragmatic Research in Science Education) program.