PNNL

Margarita Vidrio Magaña is a senior STEM education consultant and has served her community in various roles since 2011. As a first-generation, bilingual Latina student, Magaña completed two local internships at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She was a high school math teacher in an underserved, low-income community and served as a STEM Education Assistant Professor and the Undergraduate Director of Recruitment and Retention for the Teacher Preparation Program at Heritage University (a Minority Serving Institution and Native American-Serving Non-Tribal Institution). She developed a culturally relevant curriculum utilizing a student-centered approach to instruction while implementing a family-centered approach to outreach, recruitment, and retention. These experiences solidified Magaña’s commitment to promoting STEM throughout K-20 education and has now transitioned to serving Hispanic/Latinx and Native American communities as a member of the STEM education team in hopes of diversifying the population of students pursuing STEM careers.