About Us
Jennifer Mead
Jennifer Mead has been an innovative educator for over 3 decades. Her goal is to teach students through cooperative learning and critical thinking. Her service has been recognized with several awards, including 2020 Teacher of the Year from Junior Achievement of Northern California, the 2020 Lemelson-MIT Excite Award, and first place in the 2019 Henry Ford Teacher Innovator Awards. Jennifer’s passion for innovative learning fueled her involvement with the California Invention Convention starting in 2018 and has led to her position as Director of Education for the California Invention Convention. She spearheaded participation at her Bay Area elementary school and district, and championed state-wide involvement. Most recently, Jennifer has worked to enrich the lives of students through MIT's collaboration with California's Think Together Invention Program and designed and instructed Professional Development for teachers, showcasing literature as a catalysis for Invention Learning.
Dr. Pascha Griffiths
Dr. Pascha Griffiths is an Invention Education Coordinator for the Lemelson-MIT Program. Pascha recently launched the inaugural Massachusetts Invention Convention. Pascha has worked in the education field for over 20 years. Pascha particularly relishes investing in educators because in her subjective experience, educators make enthusiastic learners who then multiply their learning by investing in their students. Since 2013, Pascha has been coaching pre-service science teachers as an Advisor and Program Supervisor primarily through Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, but also through Lesley University’s Teacher Education Program, and College of the Atlantic’s Teacher Certification Program.
Dr. Arlyne SImon
Dr. Arlyne Simon is a patented inventor, biomedical engineer, founder of SeeSoar Kids (a K12 invention education company), and author of Abby Invents She regularly leads K-5 students through innovation workshops that encourage students to ideate and identify problems to solve in their communities. She is also an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador - a national STEM role model for girls. As Founder of Abby Invents, LLC, she has previously partnered with the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in marketing campaigns to encourage more girls to sign up for camp. Through these multifaceted roles, Arlyne has firsthand knowledge of what it means to be an inventor, challenges faced by underrepresented minority students in the classrooms and an understanding of what K-5 educators need to do to teach invention education in an engaging way. Learn more about Arlyne at www.arlynesimon.com.
Dr. Carliss Miller
Carliss Miller, PhD is a scholar-educator-change agent actively engaged in the collegiate learning community as a tenure-track professor and leadership/diversity scholar committed to advancing knowledge in organizational behavior, human resource management, leadership, and high performing teams. In addition to being a leadership and diversity scholar, she also has a private sector background in human resource management, diversity recruitment, training, and leadership development. As an academic and corporate training facilitator, Carliss has taught and counseled over 1300 business students and organizational leaders, helping to transform minds, teams, and organizations. Skilled in leadership advisory and leadership development, she is equipped with over a decade of advanced knowledge and knowledge creation in organizational behavior, HRM, leadership, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Outside of her professional roles, she has recently taken on the challenge to apply her skills and passions towards program development for youth, K-12th grade, and parent-educators as the Program Director of Jack & Jill of America, Inc. The Woodlands Chapter (TX), where she is committed to making a difference in the lives of all children through innovation, education, career opportunity, and exposure. Her professional aim is to bridge the theory-application gap for organizations and industries cross-culturally with a focus on advancing inclusion and equality for all in the workplace. Her mission in service is to educate, empower, and encourage others to thrive, lead courageously, and innovate towards a brighter and better future. Carliss is an Assistant Professor of Management at Sam Houston State University, founder of Transformation Architects--a training and development collective, and Dream Investor of Team Miller--Jason, Addison (9), and Ian (7).
Betsy Rabel
Betsy Rabel is the director of Curiosity Factory. She created an Invention Convention for children in Grades 1 - 6 in the Taunton community which had no previous invention education programming. Over the last seven years the Invention Convention has been incorporated into the Taunton Public School system with a 40% increase in student participation year after year. Invention Convention has become a conduit for increased student success and participation in the high school level Science Fair.
Roxane Scrima
Roxane Scrima is a kindergarten teacher in Somerville, Massachusetts. As a lifelong learner and teacher for over 30 years, Roxane signed up with Lemelson-MIT InventionLIT program and joined Director Jennifer Mead (California Invention Convention) in introducing Early Childhood Educators on the magic of how to incorporate literacy while using the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. method. The process of demystifying STEAMie in the early education of our future inventors, fuels Roxane’s passion for student centered learning.
Our Partners
Hear What People Are Saying...
"Where to begin... students seeing that they have what it takes to be an inventor - Finding problems to solve in their day to day lives..... Creating an invention, AMAZING! "
"Learning that there is literature out there to support Invention Ed is great!"
" I'm encouraged that there are educators that see and value, the importance of this type of education.
Our learners will benefit! When we model these habits and actions-- it just becomes who they are."