Ten teachers from across the St. Louis region will partner with WashU faculty members for the 2026 Summer Teacher-Researcher Program.
Administered in collaboration with the university’s Institute for School Partnership (ISP), the program is designed specifically to provide opportunities for faculty to connect in meaningful ways with educators in the broader community and to provide professional development for area K-12 teachers.
Teacher researchers spend four to six weeks in the summer working alongside WashU faculty gaining firsthand experience at the heart of real scientific research in state-of-the art labs. Some of the teachers are doing follow-up workshops related to previous research with the program. They have the opportunity to create lessons aligned with national education standards and implement a lesson field test or pilot during the 2026-2027 academic year. These open source lessons are available to other educators nationwide.
The 2026 cohort includes Nathan Jones (Pattonville); Alex Messina (St. Charles); Joe Bartin (Kirkwood); Sarah Scerba (Rockwood); Alexandra Hays (Lafayette Prep Academy); David Ganey (Maplewood-Richmond Heights); Courtney Hausner; Anne Deken (John Burroughs); Kirstin Blase (Villa Duchesne); and Tasha Jordan (University City).
Nine WashU faculty members are participating in the 2025 program, including from the McKelvey School of Engineering: Marcus Foston (EECE); Nate Huebsch (BME); Jian Wang (EECE); Michael Vahey (BME); and Tao Ju (CSE). Other faculty participants are from WashU’s Arts and Sciences: Bryce Sadtler (Chemistry); Zach Zheng (Chemistry); Mikhail Tikhonov (Physics) and Doug Chalker (Biology).
For more information about the Summer Teacher Researcher Program and other Faculty engagement opportunities, email the ISP team at schoolpartnership@wustl.edu.