Leadership Team

Michael Ferrara

Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistical Science

From a distinguished start working as a birthday party clown through much of high school, Mike Ferrara earned his B.S. in Mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2000, and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Emory University in 2005. Since graduate school, he has led hundreds of outreach sessions and workshops for K-12 teachers and students and more recently has been increasingly involved in several NSF-funded STEM education research and training projects. He is very excited to be a part of the STELAR team!

Michelle Garland

Noyce Mentor & STEMinar Instructor

Michelle has been working as the UCD Noyce Mentor since August 2014.  She has also worked for UCD as a site professor at Hinkley High School in Aurora, and as an adjunct lecturer, teaching science methods for elementary teachers.  Michelle is retired after 15 years as a science teacher with Jeffco Public Schools.  She also worked for Jeffco as a secondary science curriculum specialist, leading the development of the scope and sequence for Jeffco middle school science.  She is an author and project manager for an award-winning middle school textbook published by Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.  Michelle has developed and facilitated workshops on subjects such as literacy in science classrooms and lesson planning based on ''backwards design” and the “5Es." She has a M.A in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado, Denver and a M.A in zoology from Miami University, Ohio.

Laurel Hartley

Associate Professor, Department of Integrative Biology

Laurel Hartley has been on the faculty of the Department of Integrative Biology since 2008. Before coming to UCD, she was a post-doctoral researcher at Michigan State University, worked in exhibit development at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and completed her PhD in Ecology at Colorado State University. She does research in ecology and science education. She studies how introduced diseases such as bubonic plague in prairie dogs and other animals indirectly influences ecosystem processes. One of her new projects is related to monitoring urban wildlife in Denver. She also studies how students learn biology at the college and K-12 levels. She loves to spend time in the mountains with her husband and crazy kids.

Marie Hunt

Project Coordinator

Marie is the most recent addition to the Noyce Leadership Team, starting as Project Coordinator in February 2022. She has previously served in a variety of teaching roles in and outside of STEM subjects and is currently enrolled in CU Denver’s Ed.D. program with a concentration in science education. She earned her B.A. in psychology and creative writing at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA and her M.S. in biology at the University of Oregon’s Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Heather Johnson

Associate Professor, Mathematics Education

Heather Lynn Johnson is a mathematics educator who investigates students’ mathematical reasoning. She designs interactive, online tasks to provide students opportunities to expand their mathematical reasoning, and she teaches teachers to grow their students’ mathematical reasoning. Heather earned her B.S., M.Ed., and Ph.D from Penn State University. Learn more about Heather’s research at hthrlynnj.com.

Doris Kimbrough

Professor, Department of Chemistry

Bud Talbot

Assistant Professor, Science Education

Once he discovered his passion for science education, Bud Talbot taught high school physics and Earth science for seven years. He earned his BS (1997) and MS (2000) from Indiana University in Bloomington. After teaching, Bud moved to Colorado to pursue his PhD in Science Education (2011) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a faculty member in the School of Education and Human Development, and co-Director of the CU Denver STEM LA program. Bud enjoys spending time with his wife and twin girls, and running, cycling, camping, and skiing. 

Michael Jacobson

Professor, Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

He received his undergraduate training at the State University of New York @ Stony Brook completing his B.S. and secondary teaching certification in 1975. He completed his M.S. and Ph.D. at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977 and 1980 respectively, concentrating on Combinatorics and Graph Theory. From 1980 - 2003, he was a faculty member at the University of Louisville and was Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences for five years during his time in Louisville. In 2003, Dr. Jacobson was recruited to the University of Colorado Denver as Department Chair. He has been the PI and co-PI for several NSF funded projects, including the CU Denver GK-12 project as well as the RM-MSMSP.  He was a rotating Program Officer at the NSF, from 2012-2014.