Thank you, Ann Reid
NCSE Executive Director, 2014-2023
After a decade serving with distinction as NCSE's executive director, Ann Reid is stepping down. We asked a few of the many people who've worked closely with Ann over the years to describe what she has meant to the organization.
Ken Miller, NCSE Board President
Ann Reid's stewardship of NCSE has been nothing less than remarkable. Under her leadership the organization has grown in size, impact, and stature. She has broadened its efforts to embrace and defend climate education, and she has sharpened its focus on supporting science teachers at every level. At a time when science itself is under increasing attack from political and economic special interests, Ann has been the right person at the right time to guide NCSE through these challenges. Thanks to her, the organization has grown stronger, its influence greater, and its voice more respected than ever before. We will miss her in the years ahead, to be sure. But the ultimate testimony to her time as executive director is that NCSE today is primed and ready to meet its mission as never before.
Ben Santer, NCSE Board Member
Fittingly for an organization dedicated to the accurate teaching of climate change and evolution in U.S. schools, Ann presided over the continuing evolution of NCSE. Under her tenure as executive director, NCSE maintained its core strengths (countering state-level efforts to obstruct accurate teaching of science) while also adding important new activities to its mission portfolio. One example of such new work is the empowering of teachers — giving teachers the tools and training required to provide students with the best possible education on evolution, climate science, and the nature of science itself. Without such an education, today's kids will be unprepared to be tomorrow's leaders.
It has been a privilege and an honor for me to serve on the Board during all of Ann's 10 years at the helm of NCSE. Despite the significant challenges of COVID-19 and political administrations hostile to the accurate teaching of science, NCSE has thrived, and is well-placed to tackle the challenges of the coming decades.
Jaclyn Reeves-Pepin, Executive Director, National Association of Biology Teachers
Ann Reid should be immensely proud of what she accomplished as the executive director of NCSE. Under her leadership, the center expanded its reach, spearheading new research efforts focused on the teaching of evolution and climate change and launching new professional development programs for teachers. Science education has greatly benefited from her efforts and advocacy on behalf of classroom teachers, and I offer my sincerest congratulations to Ann as she reflects on her time at NCSE.
Michael E. Mann, NCSE Board Member
As a proud member of the board of NCSE, I will miss Ann's involvement in the organization. When the great Genie Scott stepped down some years ago, they said nobody could fill her shoes. Remarkably, Ann was able to, bringing a unique mix of talents — a deep knowledge about science, a passion for communication, and organization and directorial acumen to the table, managing to keep NCSE not just surviving but thriving during especially challenging times. Ann leaves huge shoes behind once again to be filled. Fortunately NCSE seems to have struck gold once again with incoming executive director Amanda L. Townley, whom I look forward to working with in the years ahead.
Eugenie C. Scott, NCSE's Founding Executive Director
At NCSE, we know evolution takes place, and is not only inevitable, but often necessary. On my watch, over time NCSE added climate change to the nature of science and evolution as major foci, and most of our efforts were directed towards beating back classroom attacks on these subjects. We focused mostly on handing out the fire extinguishers.
Under Ann's watch, the focus expanded to include more emphasis on clearing the brush — helping teachers not only to teach these subjects better, but also to acquire the skills to themselves handle (and avoid) pressures from individuals and institutions standing in the way of the science education that students deserve. "Clearing the brush" had always been a goal of NCSE in the early years, but largely remained just a gleam in our collective eye. Now it's a major focus. This is an important evolution of NCSE, and I'm grateful to Ann for it. There has been progress, though plenty of challenges remain.
Another evolution has been the increase in NCSE staff research — which is an exciting development indeed. What a treat it is to see NCSE staff listed as authors on publications of important scientific research! These papers are cited not only by other scholars, but (perhaps more importantly) by the press and other media trying to educate the public about "our" issues. Well done!
I look forward to seeing NCSE evolve further — under only its third executive director. Ann has provided her successor with a well-running organization with an awesome board of directors and hard-working staff. It'll be interesting to watch future changes and emphases as NCSE continues to evolve.
