Dr. Karen Falkenberg is a faculty member with the Division of Educational Studies at Emory University. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the Division since 2003; an underlying principle of her courses is the intersection of theory and practice. She engages in research on Out-of-School-Time programs and on the impact of summer science experience on career trajectories and student attitudes in undergraduate science students. Dr. Falkenberg has been the designer, leader, and director of the Challenge & Champions program since its inception at Emory in 2004. She spends much of her time on community engagement efforts. In 2008 she was selected to act as the program evaluator for the Emory Tibet Science Initiative and had the opportunity to teach a group of Monastic Leaders who were selected by the Dalai Lama to be involved in the project.
Earlier at Emory, Karen was the program manager for the National Science Foundation funded local systemic change initiative in Atlanta called the Elementary Science Education Partners (ESEP) program. Prior to her work with ESEP, Karen was the national director of a professional development project for high school science and math teacher leaders that was run by the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. Karen had an extensive career before that as a high school math, science and engineering teacher. Prior to her work as an educator was a practicing research chemical engineer from which she earned a patent for solar cell technology.
Dr. Falkenberg is nationally known for her professional development expertise and is widely recognized for her ability in program conception and development, team building, group facilitation, mentoring and adult learning strategies. She has been a mentor for numerous national and regional professional educator organizations. She served on the National Academy of Engineering’s Committee that produced the publication Technically Speaking: Why all Americans need to know more about technology (2002) and the National Research Council’s committee responsible for the book Advancing Scientific Research in Education (2004). Dr. Falkenberg currently sits on the national group Strategies for Engineering Education K16 (SEEK-16) and is on the Advisory Board of the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology. She, most recently, was asked by the United Way to lead an assessment effort of their afterschool programming.
Karen was a selected and featured classroom teacher for innovative teaching in a case study of prominent U.S. innovations in science, math and technology education when she was a classroom teacher. She has been a featured guest on National Public Radio’s talk show Science Friday and has been asked several times by the National Academy of Engineering to speak about technological literacy. In her spare time she has spent 10 years delivering meals to the elderly with Meals on Wheels and has worked for 6 years with an Alzheimer’s Assisted Living community in Roswell. She enjoys backpacking, running, piano playing, cooking, has a black belt in martial arts, and is currently working on a book about the impact of cancer on a family’s life. She and her husband have two wonderful children who now have their own residences and careers.