Taylor Morrison

Five Oaks Middle School, Beaverton OR

Taylor has been a non-fiction author/illustrator since 1996, working with publishers to create engaging non-fiction books for teachers, working with scientists at NOAA, the Forest Service, and engineering firms to translate science concepts into accessible words and pictures for the public. After publishing several books, he was invited to classrooms all over the country to teach science incorporated with art, often working with schools in underserved communities Eventually, he returned to grad school to complete a Master’s Degree in Education and became a full time teacher at a Title 1 school. Taylor has remained focused on developing hands-on and interactive lessons for his class as well as working on a district curriculum to create engaging and relevant lessons for a wide range of students. He brings his author/illustrator expertise to these lessons and other teachers, developing innovative resources for teachers that center on interactive diagrams, questions, and inquiry where students engage on a physical level by hand-drawing the process of their learning.

Brandi Baker Rudicel

Al Kennedy Alternative High School, Cottage Grove OR

Brandi is a CTE teacher at Al Kennedy Alternative High School in Cottage Grove, OR, where she worked to develop an Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources CTE program that created opportunities for students in careers to become leaders and pursue pathways to a living-wage job.

Lallie McKenzie

South Eugene High School, Eugene OR

Lallie began her career working in autism-specific residential facilities before becoming a behavior specialist at a special education school in Chicago. She transitioned to a classroom teacher at Chicago Public Schools before deciding to go back to school to get certified in chemistry and ended up staying for ten years to get PhD in chemistry. The experience of being a woman working in the field making nanomaterials as a postdoc in a lab for Sony was eye-opening. She chose to focus her career path back on education and started teaching math at her kids’ school. As a teacher, Lallie developed a curriculum for a green chemistry course and became a mentor for the South Eugene Robotics team. She also received her commercial drone license and established a STEM program focused on drone learning. She developed the curriculum for and taught an engineering technology CTE program. She is currently piloting an empathetic engineering program for her school district, based on her experience mentoring robotics teams to build and program mobility tools for babies and toddlers with disabilities to eliminate barriers children face as they begin to enter critical social environments through the Go Baby Go program.

Bradford Hill

Mountainside High School, Beaverton OR

Science educator and Knowles Teacher Initiative Senior Fellow Bradford Hill currently teaches physics and engineering at Mountainside High School, in Beaverton, Oregon. Bradford also plays a key role in the Portland Metro STEM Partnership (PMSP), facilitating a collaborative STEM education project using the Patterns Approach. He holds a Masters in Physics from the University of Maryland and a Masters in Science Education from the University of California at Berkeley. Bradford has been instrumental in revamping high school STEM education at the district and state levels and has also received a Fulbright Distinguished Teaching Award to work with teachers in Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. Moreover, he has served as President of the Oregon Science Teachers Association from 2013–2016 and is currently a board member of OSTA.

When asked about clean energy education, Hill emphasized its importance, stating, “Electricity is a part of every one of my students’ lives, and having a safe, clean power grid is important to them. In fact, it may even potentially be a future career.” Hill, a lifelong learner, is enthusiastic about STEM professionals to learn even more about Power in the Pacific Northwest and help students find compelling, fulfilling careers.