Dr. Christine M. Cunningham

Christine Cunningham, Ph.D. is an educational researcher who works to make engineering and science more relevant, accessible, and understandable, especially for underserved and underrepresented populations. A vice president at the Museum of Science, Boston since 2003, she founded and directs Engineering is Elementary™, a groundbreaking project that integrates engineering concepts into elementary curriculum and teacher professional development. As of June 2015, EiE has served 8 million children and 86,000 educators nationwide. Cunningham has previously served as director of engineering education research at the Tufts University Center for Engineering Educational Outreach, where her work focused on integrating engineering with science, technology, and math in professional development for K‐12 teachers. She also directed the Women’s Experiences in College Engineering (WECE) project, the first national, longitudinal, large‐scale study of the factors that support young women pursuing engineering degrees. Cunningham is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the K‐12 and Precollege Division of this organization in 2015. She has also been recognized with the 2014 International Society for Design and Development in Education Prize. Cunningham holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in biology from Yale and a Ph.D. in Science Education from Cornell University.