Amy D’Amico joined the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) in 2013 as the Division Director of Professional Services. She oversees Professional Development and Leadership Development initiatives at SSEC. Prior to joining SSEC, Amy was a member of the faculty in the Biology Department at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, she taught a variety of biology courses and co-directed the RISE & Teach program for biology undergraduates who complete a thesis while teaching in the DC Public Schools.

Amy has 20 years of experience as an educator that began by teaching middle school for the Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts. She quickly became a Middle Grade Science Teacher Leader and worked to implement the district’s five-year strategic plan based on the SSEC’s model of science education reform. While in Cambridge, she also worked on various educational and consulting projects with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the American Museum of Natural History. Amy earned her B.A. in Biology with a minor in Education for Certification from New York University and received a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Biology from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. She recently adopted an adorable kitten named Simon, who she found on Instagram, to be a companion to her cat Saffron. This has increased her following by 300 percent and counting.Read more . . .