Meet the Biology Institute Leadership

Tanea Hibler, Institute Director
Phillips Exeter Academy

Tanea is passionate about education, and loves teaching biology. She hopes to inspire students to think critically, to collaborate with others, and to argue from evidence. She strives to be culturally responsive in her teaching, and is continuously on a journey of contributing to education being a more inclusive and equitable space where all children thrive. With more than 17 years of teaching experience, Tanea has had the pleasure of teaching in public schools, international schools, and private schools, and I'm now working and living at Phillips Exeter Academy. Tanea earned a B.S. in Biology from California State University-East Bay, a master's in Secondary Education from Arizona State University, and a master's in Teaching Earth Science from Wright State University. She has previously served on the board of the American Modeling Teachers Association and led Biology modeling workshops and is currently a part of the HHMI Ambassador Academy, 20-23.

 

Andrew  Shtulman​, Featured Speaker
Occidental College

Andrew Shtulman is a cognitive developmental psychologist who studies conceptual development and conceptual change, particularly as they relate to science education. His research explores both the acquisition of domain-specific concepts and the development of domain-general inference strategies. His work has appeared in such journals as Cognition, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Child Development, Journal of Educational Psychology, Psychological Science, and Psychological Review, and he is the recipient of an Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation and an Understanding Human Cognition Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Dr. Shtulman is also the author of Scienceblind: Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong (Basic Books, 2017).

Katherine Hernandez, Biology Lab Leader 
Phillips Exeter Academy

Kate Hernandez’s passion for Harkness instruction is rooted in the challenges and opportunities afforded by building a collaborative and intentional learning community around the Harkness table. Kate earned her B.A. in Biology from Mount Holyoke College and her M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She brings over a decade of experience as a biology and chemistry teacher in independent schools. Appointed as an Instructor in Science at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2015, Kate’s instructional approach elevates the student voice, encourages metacognitive development, and places science learning within a larger social and cultural context. In Kate’s classrooms, students are encouraged to leverage the diversity of experiences and perspectives in the room while actively attending to classroom agreements (norms), which seek to honor the fullness of self in each student. Outside of the classroom, Kate has supported the growth of her colleagues at PEA and elsewhere on topics such as developing a Mentoring Mindset among teaching teams, centering justice, equity, and inclusion in science curricula, and supporting educators in taking the Harkness approach back to their classrooms. It is with great enthusiasm that she looks forward to welcoming the Summer 2023 Biology Institute participants to campus this June!