[RNCSE] A letter from NCSE's president and CEO — October 2026

Dear NCSE Supporters,

NCSE’s Science Education and Outreach team is small. It consists of Wendy Johnson, Britt Miller, and, when I’m available, me. We may be small, but we’re mighty. We’re also road warriors. We’ve engaged in 36 professional learning experiences — either national conferences, regional events, or local workshops — reaching over 1,000 science teachers across the country so far in 2026. As I write this, Wendy, Britt, and I are preparing to fly to Dallas, Texas, to lead workshops at the National Association of Biology Teachers conference, where we’ll also be facilitating an annual evolution symposium that draws hundreds of educators both in person and then, on Darwin Day, online when it is reprised. Soon after, we’ll travel to Florida to lead a My COAST hands-on experience to help teachers better prepare their students to understand the impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems.

It’s hard for me to adequately describe the joy it brings us when we work with science teachers so closely, and how important we believe the work is for those teachers and their students. In this issue of RNCSE, Britt Miller recounts a recent workshop on climate change she led for 20 teachers in North Carolina whose community was still feeling the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene two years earlier. “Spending the day with these passionate educators reminded me why the work we do at NCSE matters,” she writes. I could not agree more.

Also in this issue of RNCSE, you’ll learn that NCSE has been invited to be part of the National Technology Leadership Summit, you’ll discover that we’ve welcomed a new cohort of Sound Science Fellows, and you’ll get to catch a lively and stimulating conversation with Nina Jablonski, a longtime NCSE member, as part of our Member Spotlight series. You’ll also find reviews of these three fascinating books: The Botanic Age: Planting the Seeds of Human Evolution; Designer Science: A History of Intelligent Design in America; and Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We could not provide the kind of professional learning we do for teachers, like those in North Carolina, without your generosity.