Who We Are

Wendy Wempe, PhD

About Wendy

As a mother, research scientist and educator, Wendy is driven to the core to revolutionize the Science Fair experience for kids and their grown-ups. Having dedicated 20+ years to STEM research, teaching and mentorship, she recently ditched her career as a geophysics research professor to pursue this passion. This mission brewed over several years while she:

• Mentored dozens of children on their Science Fair projects
• Judged school-wide, regional and state Science & Engineering Fairs
• Helped schools implement fun and innovative Science Fairs

So, what lead her to ditch her geophysics academic career? Well, a couple of weeks after helping a teacher at a Title 1 to school to organize and implement an inclusive and skills-based Science & Engineering Fair, this teacher had reached out to Wendy to share a story. She explained how one of her most at-risk students had come to her the day after the fair and had declared that he was going to be an engineer when he grew up. From that point forward, he had totally turned around his behavior in class. He was focused. He was dedicated. He had found something that he connected with. He believed in himself and knew “Hey I can do this!”  This experience not only changed this student’s live – it also changed Wendy’s life. This marked the birth of Science Fair Fun.

She is driven by purpose, while feeding off advice from the pros – kids, parents and teachers. She received a BS in Earth Sciences from UC Santa Cruz and a PhD in Geophysics from Stanford University.

In her spare time, Wendy revels in her children’s inquisitiveness and loves to explore this amazing world with them and her very supportive husband. At the top of her list of other passions are exploring new places and ideas, mountain biking, road riding, touring by bike, trail running, hiking, and geeking out on the latest in STEM.

John Jenkins, JD

About John

Jenkins, now retired, holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and a Juris Doctor from the University of Denver. He was admitted to the Bar in 1978. His professional career includes a broad range of senior executive management experience in technology centric companies. These include roles as Division President, Executive Vice President and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for public, private, domestic, and international companies. He served as a non-executive director of several smaller public and private companies, and has extensive professional experience in areas important to SFF, such as organization modeling, financial planning, and Board and Organizational Governance among others.

He has traveled extensively and has used those opportunities to better understand the different cultural approaches to learning and management processes. Since his retirement in 2016 he has served as a partner in the Denver Affiliate of Social Venture Partners (SVP), an organization of volunteers that works to provide necessary but many times missing expertise to smaller, early stage non-profits or those in significant transition. As part of SVP he has worked closely with two local organizations providing a variety of consulting services and coaching that included, in one case the addition of STEM curriculum to a bicycle training program serving low income communities. Also while at SVP he has become very interested in the topic of micro-financing for not for profit organizations and is currently engaged in developing an underwriting program for a local organization engaged in providing entrepreneurial training for low income individuals.

He is a strong believer in the importance of STEM based learning experiences as critical to the future success of students and our economy, and is personally dedicated to addressing the challenges that deprive low income or other demographic groupings of this opportunity.

He lives in Golden, Colorado, with his partner, Mary Ann, and is an avid cyclist and skier.

Stephanie Geyer, MBA

About Stephanie

Stephanie Geyer has worked in higher education marketing for nearly 30 years first serving a small private university and then as a consultant with Ruffalo Noel Levitz. In her 20+ year tenure at RNL, she has visited more than 500 college and university campuses in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Italy. She created the Digital Marketing division for the company and now also leads the Creative Services team. In addition to her client work and team leadership, Stephanie also heads up the national e-Expectations® research study which examines the habits and preferences of college-bound high school students in their use of digital resources to investigate their college options and facilitate enrollment. She is often called to share her findings and recommendations from the study at national conferences and via webinars and video blogs.

A graduate of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Stephanie earned a BA in Mass Communications and briefly dabbled in business school earning an MBA Certificate from Tulane University. She believes strongly in the transformative power of education and is grateful for the opportunity to support an organization that enhances STEM education opportunities for the students of Colorado and beyond.  Prior to her work in higher education she was an ad agency account executive, publicist and television news producer.

Stephanie resides in Boulder County, Colorado with her husband and three daughters. She is an artist, cowgirl, gardener and cyclist.

Maarten Warnarrs, MBA

About Maarten

Maarten is a Business Adviser at Cultivate Advisers. He is a seasoned C-suite executive (MBA) with over 17 years international experience with small and medium size enterprise (SMEs) and corporate companies. A decisive leader with the ability to restructure and transform businesses by creating and executing strategic business plans, assessing financial, operational and human resource needs to increase efficiency and competitiveness. Proven success in improving processes, managing the budget, optimizing resources, and increasing net profit by aligning team values and building strong relationships with clients, suppliers and employees.

Violeta Garcia, PhD

About Violeta

If it’s related to STEM, Dr. Violeta García knows all about it. Dr. García stays on top of cutting edge research, methodologies, and anything amusing and educational in the teaching and learning space. She is a leader in STEM in Colorado, and across the nation. Her passion is to advance students historically under-represented and under-served in STEM fields through meaningful and engaging learning experiences. She has created numerous programs that serve students directly or that build capacity for educators to create fun, engaging, educational learning opportunities. She is a systems thinker, she loves disrupting outdated ways of thinking, and believes that all students should have access to high-quality, culturally relevant and culturally responsive learning experiences. Violeta is a world traveler, a lifelong learner, and a lover of all things related to sustainability. She has bridged her passion for science and education in her educational endeavors and is a graduate of California State University–Fullerton, UCLA, and the University of Northern Colorado.

Jessica Noffsinger, MS

About Jessica

Jessica Noffsinger has been an educator for 18 years and has spent the past 8 years teaching science and engineering at the STEM Magnet Lab School in the Adams 12 Five Star School District. She currently teaches 8th grade Science and Engineering.

Creating learning experiences that are engaging and thought provoking is Jessica’s specialty. Students in her classroom have engaged in several problem-based learning activities that have challenged students to use their understanding of scientific concepts to solve problems, ranging from replacing fluorescent lights in the classroom to landing 40,000 kilograms of cargo on Mars.

Jessica also sponsors a variety of extracurricular activities and serves on numerous school and district committees. Jessica has presented sessions on engineering, scientific literacy, and problem-based learning at regional and national conferences. She has also served as a facilitator for the past five years during the summer institute to train new teachers in the STEM-inspired model. Jessica served on the state committee tasked with writing the Colorado Academic Standards for Science to embed twenty-first century skills and various assessment teams.

Jessica earned a B.S. in chemistry from the Colorado School of Mines and a M.S. in educational leadership from the University of Denver. She is certified in secondary science education.

Jenny Briggs, PhD

About Jenny

As a community outreach program manager, Jenny helps develop partnerships, works with faculty and staff to help them design program strategies, leads our office’s environmental science and sustainbility initiative, manages community impact and micro grants, and coordinates outreach and engagement activities within and beyond our campus.

Jenny grew up in England and moved to the U.S. for college, obtaining a bachelor’s in human biology from Stanford University and a doctorate in ecology and conservation from the University of Nevada Reno. Most recently, Jenny worked as a research ecologist for the US Geological Survey in Denver, collaborating with resource managers, scientists, community groups, and educators throughout Colorado to tackle problems involving fire and forest management. Previously, she had teaching roles in California and Nevada that ranged from preschool, to college biology, to citizen science, to continuing education for teachers and firefighters. She builds on these connections and experiences in her current role.

Sam Spiegel, PhD

About Sam

Dr. Spiegel joined Colorado School of Mines in April 2015 to lead the Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning (CITL) in proactively supporting faculty to advance the quality of our students’ learning experiences, advance campus discussions on pedagogy and innovative teaching, and advocating for and supporting faculty use of empirically proven innovative teaching approaches.

His extensive background in science education includes experiences as both a middle school and high school science teacher, teaching university-level biology and science education courses, working with high-risk youth in alternative education centers, working in science museums, designing and facilitating online courses, multimedia curriculum development, and leading and researching professional learning for educators. The Association for the Education of Teachers of Science (AETS) honored Dr. Spiegel for his efforts in teacher education with the Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers award (1997). Dr. Spiegel’s current efforts focus on educational reform and in the innovation of teaching and learning resources and practices.

Prior to joining Mines, Dr. Spiegel served as Chair of the Disciplinary Literacy in Science Team at the Institute for Learning (IFL) and Associate Director for the Swanson School of Engineering’s Engineering Education Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He previously served as a science educator at Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS); as Director of Research & Development for a multimedia development company; and as founding Director of the Center for Integrating Research & Learning (CIRL) at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University. Under Dr. Spiegel’s leadership, CIRL matured into a thriving Center recognized as one of the leading National Science Foundation Laboratories for activities to promote science, mathematics, and technology (STEM) education. While at Florida State University, Dr. Spiegel also directed an award winning teacher enhancement program for middle grades science teachers, entitled Science For Early Adolescence Teachers (Science FEAT).

Suzie Schuckman, MS, MPA

About Suzie

Suzie Schuckman has been working to support nonprofits for over two decades.  Through a variety of volunteer and resource development positions, Suzie has demonstrated a passion for advancing missions in education, health and human services, and the arts.  She believes the work done by nonprofit organizations is essential for ensuring a bright future for the entire community.  Having raised over $6.5 million for a variety of organizations demonstrates her abilities to successfully build relationships with donors and find the support necessary for nonprofits to succeed.

Suzie graduated from Northwest Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science.  She has earned a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Central Missouri and a Master of Public Administration degree with an emphasis in Nonprofit Management and Urban Administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Suzie hold a Professional Certificate in Nonprofit Fundraising.  She has been as active member in the Association of Fundraising Professionals, The Denver Museum of Nature and Science Young Professionals, The Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, The Denver Botanic Gardens, and other nonprofit organizations.

Angeles Ortega, MBA

About Angeles

Serves as Director of Advancement at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. In her role, she is responsible for ensuring annual and long term funding for the Museum. Previously, she served as a Data Dissemination Specialist for the U. S. Census Bureau, Denver Region, where she developed and delivered data training workshops and presentations to Census partners. Prior to her appointment to the Denver Regional office, she served as a Partnership Specialist in the Charlotte Region.

While in North Carolina, Ms. Ortega served as Executive Director of the Latin American Coalition, a social service organization serving the needs of the Hispanic community in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Region. Originally from Mexico, she studied Languages at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Mexico and Non-Profit Management at University of Nevada-Reno. In 2009 she earned an MBA from Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. In 2016 she graduated from the Latino Leadership Institute at Denver University.

Angeles Ortega serves in several community boards including the Denver Art Museum Audience Alliance, The Flores Magon Charter School. Formerly, she served for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Broadcasting Authority (WTVI), the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, Arts and Science Council and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. She also served as a member of the North Carolina Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs. Angeles is a Fellow of the William Friday Leadership Initiative, a graduate of Leadership Charlotte class XXI and American Leadership Forum, class I.

Angeles has received several awards including Hero of Democracy, Charlotte Observer, The Business Journal’s Diversity Catalyst award, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Community Service Award, Hispanic Elected Official’s Community Service Award, Community Service Award, La Noticia Newspaper.