Dr. Mary Urquhart is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Science/Mathematics Education in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Texas of Dallas (UT Dallas) as well as an Affiliate Associate Professor of Physics. Dr. Urquhart is the physics and Earth/space science content specialist for the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in Science Education at UT Dallas in Science Education and in her role as Department Head now leads both that program and the MAT in Mathematics Education. She is also Director of the UTeach Dallas secondary STEM teacher preparation program, president of the national UTeach STEM Educator Association, and college representative for the Texas Section of AAPT. In addition to her teaching and administrative roles, Dr. Urquhart is a Co-PI and Curriculum Team Lead with the NSF-funded STEPP project, and has served as Pi/ Project Director for NSF Noyce grants and several programs for in-service teachers through the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, WeTeach_CS, the Texas Education Agency, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Her current scholarly and creative work continues in instructional design, professional development, and assessment. She serves on multidisciplinary research teams involving educators, physicists, computer scientists, animation experts, and geoscientists. Since 2003 she has served as the founding faculty advisor for the student-run Women in Physics camps targeting middle school girls. She continues to be passionate about, and active in, science communication with students, teachers, and the public. Dr. Urquhart began her career as a planetary scientist and holds degrees in Physics/Astrophysics and in Geophysics from New Mexico Tech and M.S. and Ph.D. in Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her postdoctoral work was conducted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA Ames Center for Mars Exploration.