Megan Bang Elected to National Academy Board
School of Education and Social Policy faculty member Megan Bang was elected to the National Academy of Education’s Board of Directors. Her four-year term begins Nov. 3, 2023.
Bang joins two other SESP faculty members in National Academy leadership positions: SESP’s Carol Lee, professor emerita, currently serves as president. James Spillane, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change, is secretary – treasurer.
Bang, an alumna who earned her doctorate in learning sciences in 2009, is a professor of learning sciences and director of Northwestern’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Research. In 2018, she became the first Native American member of the Board of Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences.
A developmental psychologist and learning scientist, her scholarship focuses on culture, families, STEM education, and building science learning environments from Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
“I want to know: How do we create systems of education that can cultivate just, sustainable, and thriving communities?” she told SESP Magazine.
In addition to Bang, Megan Franke of the University of California, Los Angeles and Vivian Gadsden of the University of Pennsylvania, were named to the National Academy of Education Board. The new members succeed James Anderson, Kris Gutiérrez, and Deborah Stipek, who are rotating off the board.