The characteristics of a Pi STEM student and staff member:

Dr. Hettinger is an Idaho native with teaching credentials in Elementary Education (K-8 All Subjects), Secondary Education (6-12: Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Physical Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Standard Mathematics), and Administration (K-12). She has 16 years of public school teaching experience and has taught all levels K-16.

Dr. Hettinger holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Zoology and Secondary Education from the University of Idaho. She holds a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership, and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction focused on STEM Leadership from Boise State University. Her dissertation was a statewide study that evaluated the quality of science instruction in high achieving low and high socioeconomic elementary schools in Idaho. The title of her dissertation was, Finding Success in Elementary Science across Socioeconomic Boundaries.

After being in various teacher-leader roles at North Star Charter School (K-12) for 11 years, Dr. Hettinger joined Project Impact STEM Academy and took over as the Executive Director in the Spring of 2019. Dr. Hettinger completed her administration internships at ANSER Charter School (K-8) and St. Joseph’s Catholic School (K-8). Dr. Hettinger was an active member of the Idaho STEM Leadership Cohort I & II, was a member of the Idaho STEM School Designation Committee in 2018, and is currently a member of the Idaho STEM Ecosystem. She enjoys helping teachers build confidence and self-reliance in developing and implementing engaging core and STEM instruction. Dr. Hettinger has an expansive background in curriculum across all content areas and grade-levels.

Dr. Hettinger considers herself a STEMinologist, one who studies and implements best practices for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. In the classroom, she has engaged her students in real-world application of science and opens their eyes to the world of opportunity that awaits them. She directed the Student Spaceflight Experiment Project (SSEP) at her last school, where over 500 students in grades 5-12 participated in developing microgravity research proposals. One team of 5th-grade students were selected to send their experiment to the International Space Station. She engaged her students each year in growing trout from eggs through Trout in the Classroom. While Dr. Hettinger was at Boise State University, she developed and taught a course titled Investigations into Sustainable Development in which she engaged students from biology, geosciences, and environmental Studies in service-learning enhanced instruction. Her work in this class was featured in the book, The ACTivist Learner: Inquiry and Service Learning to Make Learning Matter.

Dr. Hettinger enjoys immersing herself in STEM experiences. One of these opportunities included flying in microgravity onboard NASA’s microgravity plane to collect data on the movement of cerebrospinal fluid in humans with Boise State University students majoring in Biology, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science. In summer 2017, she worked with Washington State University paleontologists and graduate students at the DIG Field School where they were in the process of unearthing Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and Duckbill dinosaurs. Then in the summer of 2018, she spent time at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research learning about the technology their research scientists are using to save endangered species all over the world, including the California Condor, African Elephant, Polar Bear, Desert Tortoise, and White Rhinoceros. While in graduate school Jill worked with raptor biologists and graduate students from the Idaho Bird Observatory to capture and release raptors in an effort to gather information on their health and migration patterns. Over the years, Dr. Hettinger has also had the opportunity to work in the field of informal education within zoological parks, such as Zoo Boise, and coaching and assisting with several Lego League and Jr. Lego League programs.

Dr. Hettinger and her husband, Rob, have two sons, ages 14 and 17. They also share their home with a long-haired Weimaraner. As a family, they enjoy skiing, rock climbing, horseback riding, camping, and traveling. Dr. Hettinger has an adventurous spirit and loves to travel to places to expand her knowledge. She has been to the rainforests of Costa Rica and the savannas of South Africa. She enjoys expanding and sharing her passion for STEM with others.

Mrs. Weber lived in Cherry Hill, New Jersey until she moved to Eagle, ID with her family in July of 2015. She attended Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA where she obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. She continued her education at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ and graduated with her Master’s in Human Resource, Training and Development. She has worked in the Human Resources, Recruiting and Finance fields in the private sector, has been a school substitute while her children were young, and since moving to Idaho has worked in school finance for Charter Schools in the Treasure Valley. Mrs. Weber has three children, a son, Chase age 19, a daughter, Lily age 17 and her youngest son, Cole, age 12. Her husband, Tom, is a retired law enforcement officer. The family also has a Black Labrador Retriever named ‘Jasper’. The family is enjoying the more relaxed lifestyle out west as well as all of the amazing people and outdoor activities Idaho has to offer.

Mrs. Prillaman has her Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Science from California Polytechnic State University and her Master of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of Idaho. She is a graduate of the Professional Technical Education Leadership Institute and served as an Attendance Dean at Columbia High School in Nampa from 2013 to 2016.

Mrs. Prillaman grew up in the mountains of California riding horses on a Christmas tree farm. She has always loved the outdoors and animals. Her favorite place is sitting on a stump at Bull Trout Lake taking in the view. She loves hiking, camping, biking, swimming, paddle boarding, and riding horses. She grew up on a ranch where working and playing hard was the only way to live life. She loves balancing life with new experiences and challenges. Her passion for traveling has taken her all around Idaho, the United States, and the world.

Mrs. Prillaman loves helping people find meaning in what they are doing and teaching others how to make their life easier. She has enjoyed sharing her passion for technology to the students at Pi STEM for the last three years, but also looks forward to sharing with them a love for agriculture. Through her work she hopes to help students to discover the important connections that exist between the agriculture industry and technology. She is excited to bring Agriculture education to the students at Project Impact STEM Academy during the 2021-2022 school year.

Mrs. Prillaman loves country music and classic rock music, she enjoys action movies. She considers herself one of the original 80's Star Wars fans.

She lives in the country with her family, three horses, and one dog.

Mrs. Keesee graduated from Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. She received her teacher certification in Special Education and Elementary Education through American Board. Prior to joining PiSTEM Academy, Mrs. Keesee worked in several areas of education and child advocacy. She began her journey as a Court Appointed Child Advocate for the state of Iowa. Additionally, she taught preschool in Iowa for 5 years before realizing her true calling...Special Education. She then worked as a Special Education Paraprofessional for 4 years in Iowa and spent another 4 years as a Special Education Paraprofessional at North Star Charter School in Eagle, Idaho.

Mrs. Keesee is married with three daughters, Madeline (20), and twins, Allison and Amelia (16). She also has three fur babies, a dog (Ernie), and two cats (Lucy and Autzen). In her free time, you can almost always find Mrs. Keesee hiking somewhere in the Idaho foothills with her husband, Scott.

This will be Miss Lake’s first year as a school counselor/ social worker. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Boise State University and continued on to complete her Master’s degree in Social Work at Northwest Nazarene University. While completing her master's degree she worked with children of all ages within the Nampa School District. Over the last year, she has worked at a trauma clinic providing community-based mental health services and helping people achieve their goals. She has a passion for working with children and families. She is incredibly excited to be part of Project Impact Stem Academy and help us grow.

Miss Lake was raised in Central California and relocated to Boise with her family when she was school-aged. She has a passion for the great outdoors and her golden retriever fur baby named Milo. In her free time, she enjoys stand-up paddleboarding, yoga, hiking, biking, camping, and socializing with friends. She loves adventure which led her to explore different parts of the world including Indonesia, Thailand, and Italy. One thing she will never forget is when she went to an elephant sanctuary and had the opportunity to bathe, feed, and brush elephants.

Miss Lake is excited to work with all the students and families here at Project Stem Impact Academy. She looks forward to meeting all of you and learning how she can best assist the PiSTEM community.

Mrs Fleming is an Army veteran with her undergraduate degree in Microelectronical engineering, and an MBA. She is currently employed by the Veterans Administration in cost accounting.

She has 6 children and 7 grandchildren, her youngest child attends PiSTEM and will be in the inaugural graduating class in 2022.

She was driven to become a founding member of the PiSTEM board because as a parent, she recognized that her older children were oddly under-prepared for “adult-life” when they reached 18. She believes that one contributing factor was that her children were sheltered far too much from failure. She has continued to be an advocate not only for PiSTEM but for all families to have a choice in the education of their children. While she only has one child that will benefit directly from her learning and growth as a parent and work with PiSTEM, she hopes that her work can impact the lives of many others.

Mrs. Jensen is the mother of 3 children and is married to a Kuna Native. Professional speaking she wears a lot of hats but all within helping professions. She has a Bachelors degree from BSU. Mrs. Jensen is passionate for early intervention education (special education more specifically), informed choice/consent, and the transition of families (pregnancy, birth, and postpartum). She and her husband are both Project Impact STEM Academy founders and she gave birth to her 3rd child the day before PiSTEM was approved to be a Charter! She chose to be a founder because she wanted more school choice for Kuna Families. Her personal belief is that we are all unique individuals and we should be treated as such- that includes how we learn. She felt very driven for choice for her own children, but also for any child and family that would like a choice in their education. She is a proud member of the PiSTEM Board of Directors.

Ben Peterson was born and raised in Southeast Idaho, where became fascinated with his family's first computer and has been tinkering with them since. In high school, he gained a love of projec- based education from his electronics teacher. The teacher sent them out into the schools to support technology and solve problems. He also was able to build an electronic device that taught physics students the principles of falling objects. He continued this love in college and was able to compete in the IGVC competition. He now resides in Kuna with his wife and 3 children where he works as an IT Systems Engineer at Boise State University. He hopes to continue supporting project-based education by helping PiSTEM to grow and become a strong learning community for all ages.

Haley Edgington has worked in education for nearly 15 years serving in myriad capacities including instruction, administration, and scholarly research. Her educational career began as a K-12 substitute teacher, and she later founded a nature-inspired early learning center, Maple & Pine ELC, finding joy in teaching young learners across multiple states and in the Caribbean. She taught sociology at Idaho State University, worked as a charter school administrator at Peace Valley Charter School overseeing human resources and data management, was a Disability Services Coordinator for Idaho State University and now serves adult students with disabilities at College of Western Idaho. As her proudest accomplishment, Haley is the mama of three spirited PiSTEM Dinos.

An avid lifelong learner, Haley never passes up an opportunity to soak in more knowledge. She holds an M.Ed. from Penn State in Higher Education Administration, a Graduate Certificate in Institutional Research, and an M.S. in Criminology from Florida State University. A fervent STEM enthusiast (data makes the world go round!), Haley’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals. She enjoys conducting both qualitative and quantitative research on institutional assessment and improvement, campus safety, public health, and whatever biosocial quandaries keep her up at night.

While serving on the board at North Star Charter School, Haley spearheaded a successful school safety initiative that enhanced the protection of Idaho’s most valuable assets, this next generation of learners and leaders. As an educator, Haley strongly believes that helping children to “gain confidence, practice failure until it is no longer intimidating, and become invested in the life-long pursuit of knowledge” is key to the success of each individual student, regardless of their learning style. She is excited to support PiSTEM in this mission as part of the Board of Directors.

My family joined the PiSTEM family when it first opened in the fall of 2018. In the years since then, we have continued to be impressed with the teachers and administrators as more of my children have enrolled in the school. As a former first-generation college student who struggled to pass classes within elementary and middle school, I know firsthand how education can help transform the story of one’s life. PiSTEM’s mission of providing an adaptive and personalized learning environment that will foster confidence while practicing failure is something that I wish would have been available during my younger years. Hence it is my desire to help build and expand the school with the hope that thousands of lives will be changed through a life-long pursuit of knowledge and experimentation.

I have worked for two tech startups within the online brand protection industry with over seventeen years of experience helping multinational companies protect their intellectual property online. I am an Associate Member of the World Association of Detectives and a Professional Certified Investigator (PCI®) by ASIS International specializing in open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis aimed at providing clients with actionable intelligence used to dismantle and disrupt counterfeit or otherwise abusive networks. Between 2018-2021 I served on the Board of Directors of the Idaho chapter of InfraGard, a partnership between the FBI and members of the critical infrastructure private sector. I am also currently serving on the 2022-2023 International Trademark Association’s (INTA) Indigenous Rights Committee. I hold an Associate of Science in Design Technology Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from LeTourneau University (Longview, TX, USA) along with a Master of Arts in Theology and Culture from St. Stephen University (St. Stephen, NB, CA). In addition, I am a published author and a Cherokee Nation tribal member who gratefully acknowledges that we live in the traditional lands of the Shoshone and Bannock tribes, people who are still with us today.

Mr. White has a Master's in Physics from Texas State University-San Marcos. He had worked for Micron Technology for nearly 7 years as a program manager and engineering manager when he decided to leave working in industry and try his hand at entrepreneurship, starting his own grill company. As an entrepreneur, he designs and manufactures handmade pellet grills that are sold to individuals and to companies across the United States.