Mark Weckel

Background

About Mark Weckel

I am the Director of Youth Initiatives at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), where I lead a team dedicated to STEM workforce development and science enrichment for youth ages 10 to 24. I have twenty years of experience in non-profit management & administration, conservation research & practice, and informal STEM education. I enjoy – and thrive – in spaces where I can convene and collaborate with a diverse team to focus on strategic planning, project design, and problem solving. I am currently the Primary Investigator on a $1.5M NSF ITEST award to advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) education leading a team of education researchers, computer science curriculum experts, and natural scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and AMNH to develop one of the country’s first machine learning embedded science curricula for high school youth. I entered the world of informal education through my earlier work as a conservation scientist. My research interest focused on human-natural resource conflict and resolution where science communication, outreach and community engagement play a central role. I received my master’s degree from Fordham University, where I studied jaguar feeding ecology. For my doctoral research at City University of New York, I investigated the management and population biology of suburban white-tailed deer. During this time, I co-founded Gotham Coyote Project, a public-private partnership consisting of researchers, educators, and students working together to study the ecology of the northeastern coyote in NYC. While pursuing my PhD, I was the Director of Research and Land Management at the Mianus River Gorge land trust where I developed a research mentoring program for high school students. Creating opportunities for youth from marginalized communities to participate in science through research has been a hallmark of my career. For the last decade, I’ve served as a team lead on the Science Research Mentoring Consortium, a network of 24 organizations providing 500 mentored-research internships to NYC high school students annually.