Lora Taylor

Lora Taylor

Fellowship Placement: Library of Congress
Hometown: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Lora Taylor is a STEM educator and community collaborator who believes learning should be hands-on and connected to real post-secondary opportunities. She joins the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship from Hamilton County Schools in Tennessee, where she has taught across multiple grade levels and roles from AP high school biology to middle school science, digital fabrication, STEM, and computer-aided design (CAD). Lora’s approach blends engineering principles, digital fabrication, and community collaboration. Her classrooms are vibrant, maker-centered spaces where students tackle real-world issues using tools like 3D printers, laser cutters, and physical computing to bring ideas to life.

During her four years at Tyner Middle Academy, Lora secured over half a million dollars in competitive and state grants bringing unparalleled experiential learning to students. With this funding, she established a high-tech maker space and facilitated the launch of a full-scale audio-visual lab run in collaboration with a community partner. Her work has received both local and national recognition, including acknowledgment from MIT’s Fab Foundation, presentations at the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Conference, and top honors from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s College of Engineering and Computer Science for her NSF-funded research on factors contributing to student success.

Before becoming a classroom educator, Lora worked in research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the fields of conservation genetics and medical zoology. Her background in field and lab science continues to inform her teaching, grounding student experiences in real-world applications.

Lora holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and a Master of Arts in Teaching. She is passionate about helping students develop strong STEM identities through meaningful, hands-on learning that connects directly to their futures.