Katherine Mauro

Katherine Mauro

Fellowship Placement: U.S. Department of Defense
Hometown: Brookfield, CT

Katherine Mauro brings over 10 years of experience in education to her role as an elementary school Library Media Specialist in Newtown, Connecticut. She is passionate about empowering students to become the next generation of changemakers and enjoys creating cross-curricular STEM lessons.

Katherine holds an MLS in Information and Library Sciences from Southern Connecticut State University, and a MAT in biological sciences from Miami University. Katherine's studies in biological sciences took her to the Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galapagos Islands, and the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia. Following these expeditions, Katherine published an article for Edutopia titled, "lmmersive VR Experiences for Middle and High School Students" to inspire educators to create engaging cross-curricular virtual reality tours for students.

Her accolades include being honored as a Connecticut state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, recognizing her outstanding work in coding and robotics. She was also named a 2020 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. As a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, Katherine traveled to Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) to help bring an explorer mindset, geographic knowledge, and a global awareness to her students and community.
Afterword, Katherine published another piece for Educopia titled, "Lessons from Antarctica: Bringing Virtual Reality Into Environmental Education".

In addition to her time as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, Katherine served as a mentor for National Geographic's Educator Certification online course. Over three years, she mentored and guided 800+ formal and informal educators by moderating online course discussion boards, actively engaging with participants, providing support, and evaluating capstone submissions.

Most recently, Katherine has served as a Subject Matter Expert for Developing & Using Critical Comprehension (DUCC), a program led by the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab at American University. The focus of DUCC is to build a K-5 curriculum aiming to increase critical thinking and digital literacy skills and prevent online radicalization and targeted violence.