New NSF project studying how mentoring networks help faculty build greener chemistry curricula

I’m excited to share a new NSF-supported project that sits right at the intersection of one of my research interests: how faculty learn, change their teaching, and build sustainable chemistry programs. Beyond Benign has received a five-year, $1.83M award from NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education (IUSE) to launch the Green Chemistry Professional Mentoring Networks (PMNs), and I’m serving as a Co-PI focusing on the research aspects of the project. If you want the official overview, you can read Beyond Benign’s announcement here: Beyond Benign Awarded $1.83M NSF Grant to Launch Green Chemistry Professional Mentoring Networks.

The PMNs are designed as a national professional development model for undergraduate chemistry educators. Over the next five years, the project will develop 16 mentoring networks engaging about 160 faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and instructors, with each network aligned to the four learning objectives of the Green Chemistry Commitment and its higher-ed student learning objectives.

A central part of this work is educational research. Our team will study how mentoring networks shape faculty practice, curriculum transformation, and culture change using methods such as surveys, reflective journals, interviews, and field observations.

This effort also connects to a broader shift in the field. As of 2025, ACS-approved undergraduate chemistry programs must include the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry in their curricula, which raises the stakes for effective, research-informed faculty support.

New publication on green chemistry professional development (and a big milestone for Natalie!)

I’m excited to share a new paper from our group, Exploring Instructors’ Professional Development Experiences and Needs in Green Chemistry Education, published in the Journal of Chemical Education.

A special highlight for me: Natalie Gil-Arcos, an undergraduate researcher in my lab, is a co-author on this work, and this is her first publication.

What the study asked

With green chemistry and sustainability now more explicitly emphasized in chemistry curricula, we wanted to understand how prepared instructors feel to teach these topics, what training they have pursued, and what support they still need.

We surveyed 89 chemistry instructors from over 17 countries (with just over half based at U.S. institutions).

A few takeaways

• Strengths: Instructors reported high familiarity with Chemical Safety (76%) and Green Chemistry Principles (72%).

• Clear gaps: Familiarity and perceived teaching ability were lower for topics like toxicology and life cycle impacts (for example, 44% reported being less familiar with toxicology at the molecular mechanisms level, and 74% reported Beginner/Intermediate ability with life cycle impacts).

• Professional development barriers: About half of respondents had not pursued professional development in these areas recently, and cost and lack of funding came up repeatedly.

Overall, the results point to a real need for coordinated, accessible professional development that helps instructors build confidence and practical teaching approaches, especially in toxicology and life cycle thinking.

Presented at GRC 2025!

This July, I had the honor of presenting at the 2025 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Chemical Education Research. My talk, “Mapping Student Perceptions of Chemistry Labs: A Shift from Qualitative to Quantitative Approaches,” focused on exploring how students interpret and experience chemistry labs and how those experiences can be captured through a survey.

Standing in front of the GRC community, I shared how my work has evolved from deep, qualitative inquiry into student narratives to the development of frameworks that allow for broader, more scalable insights using quantitative tools. This shift isn’t about leaving stories behind instead it’s about finding ways to honor complexity while reaching more learners.

Huge thanks to everyone who asked questions, offered feedback, and pushed my thinking forward. And shoutout to Monmouth University for supporting this work and the students whose voices helped shape this research.

I left the conference energized and deeply inspired by the work happening in chemistry education research spaces.

Stay tuned, there’s much more to come!

Natalie first Poster presentation

We’re proud to celebrate our research student, Natalie Gil-Arcos, who presented her first research poster at the CLEAR 2025 Symposium, an online conference dedicated to innovative laboratory teaching in chemistry.

Her poster, titled "A Snapshot of Chemistry Instructor Knowledge of Green Chemistry Topics in the Laboratory Curriculum", examined how familiar higher education instructors are with green chemistry concepts and how often these topics are integrated into lab courses. This work is particularly timely as more institutions aim to embed sustainability into undergraduate chemistry education.

Natalie’s project, conducted in collaboration with Beyond Benign, drew from the Teacher-Centered Systemic Reform (TCSR) model to explore how personal, contextual, and instructional factors influence topic adoption in the lab. Survey results highlighted that instructors were most familiar with chemical safety, green chemistry principles, and chemical hazard assessment and safer alternatives. However, life cycle impacts of chemicals and toxicity concepts were less frequently understood and implemented—revealing potential areas for faculty development.

We’re thrilled to see Natalie take this important step as a researcher, and we’re excited about the impact her work can have in supporting broader adoption of green chemistry education.