2016 Ambassadors

Michelle Ferrara Peterson is the program director at AstroCamp, a residential science center located in Idyllwild, California. Michelle began her career in research, which took her to many interesting places, including Australia, Hawaii, Alaska, and Antarctica. Throughout her adventures, she discovered her passion for sharing the natural world with others (especially children) and so began her love with informal science education. Michelle first worked at AstroCamp for five years as an instructor. Her zeal for education brought her to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry as the School Partnership Manager, where she was able to hone her skills of blending informal and formal education. In 2010, she returned to AstroCamp as program director. She feels that nothing can replace a clear night sky to spark the interest of students in astronomy. She has been fortunate to participate in professional development trainings at JPL and with SOFIA. She is a member of the International Planetarium Society and Astronomical Society of the Pacific. She is also lead for the Research and Education Collaborative Occultation Network (RECON) team at AstroCamp, which is one of 55 sites in this citizen science astronomy network. Michelle believes that the best part of science is that there is always more to discover. Her two young boys are full of curiosity and provide many learning opportunities for her. She can’t wait to learn about the amazing astronomy research being conducted in Chile and to share that knowledge with 18,000 students and teachers that visit AstroCamp yearly.

Sian Proctor is a geology professor at South Mountain Community College (SMCC) in Phoenix, Arizona. She has a bachelor’s of science degree in Environmental Science, a master’s of science in Geology, and a Ph.D. in Science Education. Both her master’s and doctoral research involved the use of technology to understand how individuals learn. She teaches both hybrid and online geology and sustainability classes and has traveled and taught around the world. Sian has a passion for space exploration and photography. She helped run a summer internship program at Kennedy Space Center, has been a mentor for the Arizona Space Grant Consortium, and was a finalist for the 2009 NASA Astronaut Program. In 2013, she was the education outreach officer on a four-month NASA-funded mock Mars mission called Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. During the mock Mars mission, she created education outreach videos and had a photography contract for Discover magazine. This spring Sian is featured in a new PBS series called Genius with Stephen Hawking. She’s in Episode 3: Are We Alone where she learns to search for intelligent life in the universe. Every year, Sian gives numerous presentations on science, technology, engineering, math, and space exploration. She is extremely excited to be a part of ACEAP. Her goal is to bring what she learns back to her college, students, and community with the intent of offering more astronomy related courses. Sian will be teaching planetary science this fall at SMCC.

Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer and director of the Fels Planetarium at The Franklin Institute, has been an integral part of the Institute since 1978, designing and presenting many of the Institute’s exhibits and public programs. Pitts has been the architect of numerous community science outreach programs, has co-authored planetarium shows currently in worldwide distribution, currently serves as the U.S. Science Museum, Planetarium, and Urban Outreach Advisor to the Thirty Meter Telescope project and since 1990 has continually created nationally distributed astronomy and space science content for the Philadelphia PBS affiliate WHYY TV12 and their radio counterpart WHYY 91FM. As ‘the face’ and ‘voice’ of the Institute for many years, he regularly appears on major national and international television networks as a science content expert and was the U.S. spokesperson for the IAU’s International Year of Astronomy in 2010. Pitts currently serves as a NASA Solar System Ambassador and served for three years as the NASA/MIRS Astrobiology Ambassador. Pitts has received numerous honors, including the Philadelphia Mayor’s Liberty Bell (twice), the inaugural Fellow of the Wagner Free Institute of Science award, the inaugural David Rittenhouse Science Achievement Award, was inducted into the Germantown Historical Society Hall of Fame, and was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree from LaSalle University in 2011. Pitts is also the only astronomer invited to participate in both of President Obama’s White House star parties as a telescope operator. In fact, in typical fashion, Pitts actually picked up the Obama’s younger daughter Sasha so she could look through the eyepiece back when she was too small to reach it herself!

Geneviève de Messières manages the astronomy education program at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The keystone of the program is the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory on the National Mall. Her enthusiastic team of staff, student employees, and dozens of volunteers regularly invite the public to become astronomers by using telescopes and engaging with hands-on astronomy activities. They also lead lectures in the Albert Einstein Planetarium, teacher workshops, and school field trips. They tweet, blog, and post images. Geneviève launched Astronomy Chat, a series of informal conversations between researchers and the public. In 2015, she helped organize White House Astronomy Night. She has helped develop several new exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum, most recently “A New Moon Rises.” Geneviève first got interested in astronomy using her dad’s telescope and reading “The Grand Tour: A Traveler’s Guide to the Solar System.” She loved physics, but it didn’t occur to her that astronomy could be her career until her first astronomy professor at Swarthmore College invited her to join his research team. She earned her Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Virginia, using the Spitzer Space Telescope to study an unusual mode of star formation in the hearts of galaxy clusters. At the University of Virginia, she helped found Dark Skies, Bright Kids, an after-school astronomy club for rural elementary schools. She started at the National Air and Space Museum as a volunteer, and now has her dream job as an astronomy educator there.

Carmen A. Pantoja is the first Puerto Rican woman astronomer. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), and obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma using the Arecibo Observatory for her research. She is a professor of physics at the Department of Physics of the Natural Sciences Faculty (UPR, San Juan). Carmen is interested in the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the Universe and in the emission properties at radio and infrared wavelengths of galaxies. She has been involved in diverse outreach activities: In 2009 she was part of the organizing committee for the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy in Puerto Rico. She has worked in the development of strategies to make astronomy accessible for people who are visually impaired or blind.