What an honor and privilege to write this first message to ASTE. At the podium during the presidential message in Salt Lake City, I took time to remind our organization to leave places better than we found them by saying yes to things that we might not always consider doing. This theme of “say yes to make us better” is one that I’m living in my different roles as ASTE President, University Professor & Director, and in my personal life. I intentionally ask myself if I can take on a new role with purpose and how I can make a task ahead of me more fulfilling. I want to ensure that my work, and our collective work as a team, ultimately ends with making a better space for ASTE. The power of the journey is ever-present in saying yes and making us more capable, understanding, and impactful. I am mindful that ASTE is still working on listening to all voices, broadening diversity of membership and leadership, and providing a leading voice in science teacher education, research, and policy. These are tasks that will take all of us.
The process of involvement in something larger than ourselves is something that we all have in common. We are a part of ASTE (and other spaces) that go beyond just us. Once a year, we come together at our annual conference (excited about New Orleans in 2024!), but throughout the year, we embrace collaborations. These collaborations can inspire us, but we also know that work might not always turn out as expected, or the work might not come to fruition at all. We sometimes refer to this as a failure, but I believe that failure is one of the best teachers, and through learning, we can then say yes and make something better. This will take all of us working together, trusting new collaborators, and making meaningful decisions for ourselves and ASTE.
The ASTE organization has achievements to celebrate and challenges to tackle (we have a list that spans all our committee work). ASTE is fortunate to have strong leaders elected (thank you for voting) to our board that create webinars for professional growth as well as spaces for collaboration. They are open to hearing ideas on how we can make ASTE even better than it is. What would make ASTE better for you? Let us know by reaching out at any time.
Our leadership team for 2023-2024 (* indicates Executive Committee):
| BOARD MEMBERS | Position | Name | Organization/Affiliation | Term Ends | |
| Officers | President* NTLS Representative Ex-Officio on all committees | Andrea C. Borowczak | University of Central Florida | Andrea.Borowczak@ucf.edu | 2025 |
| President Elect* NSTA Representative | William McComas | University of Arkansas | mccomas@uark.edu | 2026 | |
| Past President* CSSP Representative Oversight Chair | Rommel Miranda | Towson University | rmiranda@towson.edu | 2024 | |
| At Large Directors | Senior Board Member* Membership Chair | Xavier Fazio | Brock University | xfazio@brocku.ca | 2024 |
| Senior Board Member* Publication Chair | Vanashri Nargund-Joshi | New Jersey City University | vnargund@njcu.edu | 2024 | |
| At large Board Member Publications Co-Chair | Mark Bloom | Dallas Baptist University | markb@dbu.edu | 2025 | |
| At large Board Member Conference Program Chair | Lisa Borgerding | Kent State University | ldonnell@kent.edu | 2025 | |
| At large Board Member Equity Chair | Erin Peters-Burton | George Mason University | epeters1@gmu.edu | 2026 | |
| At large Board Member Communications Chair | Rita Hagevik | University of North Carolina Pembroke | rita.hagevik@uncp.edu | 2026 | |
| Graduate Student At Large Board Member | Molly Staggs | University of Florida | mollystaggs@ufl.edu | 2025 | |
| Regional Directors | Senior Regional Representative* Professional Development Chair | Corinne Lardy | Cal State Sacramento | corinne.lardy@csus.edu | 2024 |
| Regional Representative Regional Units Chair | Amanda Gunning | Mercy College | agunning@mercy.edu | 2025 | |
| Regional Representative Awards Chair | Stephen Burgin | University of Arkansas | srburgin@uark.edu | 2026 | |
| NSTA Director of Preservice Teacher Education | Donna Governor | University of North Georgia | donna.governor@ung.edu | 2023 (June) | |
| Administrative | Executive Director | Kate Popejoy | Popejoy STEM, LLC | ExecutiveDirector@theaste.org | 2025 |
| Director of Electronic Services | John Rhea | University of Virginia | DES@theaste.org | 2024 (Jan) | |
| Conference Program Coordinator | Kelly Feille | University of Oklahoma | feille@ou.edu | 2025 |
Note that the Elections Committee, chaired by Ron Hermann, is not a part of the ASTE Board. Additionally, the Forums Committee, chaired by Teresa Shume, is not a part of the ASTE Board.
In my Salt Lake City message, my charge to each ASTE member was to say yes during this coming year to trying something new and moving ASTE and science education forward. Consider supporting an ASTE committee or forum. We need everyone.
As an organization, ASTE has many things to accomplish in 2023 before we meet again in New Orleans, and the Board meets in March, June, September, and January. I want to say a huge thank you to our Past President Rommel Miranda, and I am fortunate to work with him as well as our whole leadership team in 2023. To everyone reading – Say yes to bringing in new members, serving ASTE, and working alongside the leadership team this year. I know that all of us are vested in making ASTE a welcoming and impactful organization for science teacher education. Together we can show what saying yes can do.
