Steward the funding cycle
I work across calls for participation, proposal and budget review, funding processes, implementation support, and reporting.
Case / Network infrastructure
A community of partners. Many ways into the universe.
The partnership begins with what local educators know, and with the infrastructure that lets good local ideas take shape.
- My role
- ILN lead · Senior Education Specialist, STScI
- System scale
- National portfolio of local partners
- Core work
- Funding · stewardship · support · evaluation
- FY25 reach
- 142K+ learners through supported activities
Local knowledge is a starting point, not a delivery channel.
A national portfolio becomes useful when shared resources and local judgment can work together.
Museums, science centers, libraries, and other informal learning institutions bring knowledge of their audiences. NASA’s Universe of Learning brings astrophysics resources and connections to mission experts. ILN supports partners as they adapt those resources and create programming suited to local learners.
My role is to connect portfolio direction with the practical conditions partners need to act: clarify what is possible, make expectations understandable, steward funding and implementation decisions, help partners work through constraints, and carry what we learn into the next round of planning.
The strategy lives in the follow-through.
A promising idea needs resources, understandable requirements, time to develop, and someone accountable for what the portfolio learns from implementation.
Support implementation
I help partners plan, adapt resources, troubleshoot, and connect with useful expertise while keeping the work understandable and workable.
Build learning across sites
I support professional learning and sustained relationships so participation creates value beyond a single product or grant cycle.
Use evidence with context
I bring evaluation and partner feedback into planning so reach sits alongside what partners needed, what worked, and what should change.
03 / System
Resources move outward. Learning comes back.
Relationships make it possible to ask for help, share an unfinished idea, or tell us when something is not working. That feedback is part of the operating system.
Local expertise
Audience knowledge, program ideas, constraints, and experience from practice.
Shared infrastructure
Funding, resources, expert connections, communication, and practical support.
Local adaptation
Partners shape astronomy experiences for the people, places, and capacities they know.
Learning returns
Questions, evidence, and implementation experience inform what support the next round needs.
04 / Evidence
A network is a geography of relationships.
The public collection includes more than 50 program models. Monthly Cosmic Conversations add another route for exchange across the community.
The map shows partner geography, not a single delivery channel. Participation and funding are distinct; current eligibility and opportunities are maintained on the official project page.
142K+ learners, carried by local work.
In FY25, participating sites reached an estimated 142,000+ learners through ILN-supported programs, exhibitions, and outreach.
This is collective reach across partners, not a count of people I taught directly. The number matters because it represents local work. It does not, on its own, tell us what someone learned or whether a partnership will last.
Direction + delivery
Portfolio strategy stays connected to funding decisions and day-to-day implementation.
Support + agency
Shared infrastructure gives partners usable support without replacing their knowledge of local audiences.
Reach + learning
Evaluation and feedback sit beside scale so the program can learn, not only count.
06 / What travels forward
Hold direction, resources, relationships, and evidence in the same frame.
The network has taught me that a clear budget, a useful introduction, an honest conversation, and a well-designed learning opportunity can all be infrastructure.
Next: partnership in place →