Roger and Liz Rea STEAM Speaker Series
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Roger and Liz Rea |
Founders of the Roger and Liz Rea STEAM Speaker Series
Roger and Liz Rea are lifelong educators. Both have received recognition for their volunteer activities and service to their communities.
Roger received a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Kansas State University (1966) and a Master’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of South Dakota (1973). He has additional graduate hours from a number of other universities. Roger received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching in 1985; was one of two Nebraska Candidates for the NASA Teacher in Space Project in 1986; was named the Nebraska Teacher of the Year in 1989; and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Marquis Who’s Who Publications Board in 2019. He served as President of the Omaha Education Association (1984-85); President of the Nebraska State Education Association-Retired (2008-2017); Chairman of the Board for First Nebraska Credit Union (2002-2019); President of the National Council on Teacher Retirement (2018-2019), and served as a Trustee for both the Omaha School Employees’ Retirement System and the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement System for more than 25 years.
Liz received an Associate in Arts Degree in Education from Ottumwa Heights College (IA) (1967), a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Creighton University (1969) and a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Nebraska-Omaha (1987). She served in a variety of roles for the Omaha Education Association, culminating with being OEA President (1998-2001). After retiring from a 29-year teaching career with the Omaha Public Schools, she worked as the Director of Education for the Douglas County Historical Society (DCHS) for five years. While at DCHS, she wrote and published an historical timeline for Douglas County, Nebraska, and the City of Omaha from 1671 to 2005, and developed a curriculum project for teaching the history of Omaha and Douglas County for 3rdgrade students called History in a Trunk. She is currently the President of the Omaha Education Association Foundation, a charitable organization which awards scholarships to deserving high school seniors in the Omaha area. Each year the OEA Foundation awards $400,000 in scholarships to more than 100 deserving students.
Both Roger and Liz have a keen interest in STEAM projects. Roger taught high school chemistry in the Omaha Public Schools for 34 years. He was on the Planning Committee for the 1993 National Science Teachers Association Annual Meeting in Kansas City; has organized a variety of workshops for science teachers over the years; was the chief editor for the American Chemical Society High School Chemistry Examinations Committee for 20 years (this is the only nationally standardized test in any curriculum area prepared entirely by practitioners of the art), and served as Chair for the 1977 Exam. He has written a number of articles on science history, and is the author of the chapter on Science Museums of Eastern Europe for Science History: A Travelers Guide (© 2014). Liz taught language arts, history and American government at the middle school and high school levels for 29 years. She helped organize and participated in a series of workshops called Tech Savvy, a project of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to encourage middle-school-aged girls to learn about STEM careers for women.
Roger and Liz Rea are pleased to sponsor the STEAM Speaker Series for K-State. They believe that learning more about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and how the Arts can play a role in these technical areas will help young people prepare for the future in a diverse and technologically complex world.
Speaker Series
Meet – AstroClay
Education Syposium
