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SPECIAL SESSION: STEM Mentoring Fuels the Next Generation of Scientists - Panel Discussion

STEM Outreach at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Lee Gambol - Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Lee Gambol was educated at Hiram College in the early 1990s, studying Theatre Arts and Biology. She began her career in STEM-based informal education as a children’s theatre performer and puppet builder in Youngstown, Ohio. Her next adventure was teaching family audiences about ocean life for Sea World of Ohio, and then traveling every state east of the Mississippi presenting “Mr. Wizard’s” Science Assembly Programs. Gambol spent the late 90s wrangling onstage high-voltage electricity at the Great Lakes Science Center, and then returned to biology as an exam room technician for Lakewood Animal Hospital. As humans and their pet mammals share much internal anatomy, it was logical for her to next teach at HealthSpace Cleveland, while also getting involved with the National Association of Health Education Centers’ “Grossology LIVE!” videoconference project, serving as content writer and general wackiness consultant. In 2007, a merger between HealthSpace and CMNH granted Gambol the title of Distance Learning Coordinator, and also the opportunity to become a certified Red Cross CPR/First Aid Instructor. Her current projects include: establishing CMNH as the best source of fun, interactive, STEM-based videoconferencing; teaming up with museum researchers to create programs that highlight Cleveland science, hosting live-streaming tours of the museum’s collections, and teaching to all 50 states plus 13 countries (and counting!).