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An experienced education director with outstanding leadership, strategic planning, and design and implementation skills, Ms. Karl has designed and implemented educational programs for thousands of students and educators during her career. An accomplished leader of high profile education initiatives for both USAID and NASA, she has led multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams, working with key stakeholders including local governing institutions,non-profits, corporate partners, and school administrations. With the ability to adapt quickly to new challenges and situations, she has a proven record of designing and implementing successful complex large-scale multi-million dollar donor-based programs with regional, national and international staff.

With two decades of experience as an educator and program director and a Masters Degree in instructional technology, Ms. Karl served for six years as the Director of Education at the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Prior to this position, she served as Director and Senior Education Advisor of the multi-million dollar USAID/Egypt program, Educational Technology in Schools, promoting inquiry-based technology-enhanced educational reform. The program trained 2,500 educators and administrators, impacting over 25,000 children. Under her co-leadership USAID awarded the program the highest possible score of “outstanding” and “found the program to be the best in USAID” in 2004.

Committed to working with organizations that are dedicated to strengthening society and creating sustainable reform programs, Ms. Karl has managed projects that have targeted gender equity, equitable access and improved policies, including training and upgrading of facilities. Previous positions include Director of the NASA Discovery Science Museum at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas; Project Manager for educational programs and publications at the Lunar and Planetary Institute and Education Manager of the Texas Aerospace Scholars program at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas (with Universities Space Research Association, USRA).

Qualifications include:

•    Senior-level strategic planning, implementation and evaluation
•    Hiring, supervision and evaluation of staff
•    Fund-raising, public relations, marketing and fiscal management
•    Development of public and private sector partnerships
•    Design and development of training and education curricula
•    Implementation of monitoring, evaluation and quality assurances
•    Design of museum exhibits, interpretive galleries and publications
•    Comprehensive knowledge of best practices in education
•    Presentations and publications for leading international conferences

As Director of Education at Challenger Center for Space Science Education, a non-profit formed by the families of the astronauts lost in the Challenger tragedy. Challenger Center serves a diverse audience in four countries, reaching 400,000 students and 40,000 teachers each year.
As Education Director, Ms. Karl supervised, designed and implemented high-profile formal and informal education and outreach programs for an international network of 48 Challenger Learning Centers and their professional staff. She worked closely with key stakeholders to identify funding sources and develop partnerships with organizations in development of new educational initiatives. From 2010-2012 she was a primary fund-raiser for the organization and through her proposal writing was selected as Principal Investigator of four NASA research awards and cooperative agreements totaling $3.1 million dollars. Ms. Karl led the recent Challenger Center Global Climate Change Education initiative, designing professional development workshops, classroom curricula and an online climate interactive reaching over 10,000 students. Challenger Center and its network serve a diverse audience in four countries, including 400,000 students and 25,000 educators annually, program administrators, museum staff, and parents.

As Director of the USAID program, Educational Technology in Schools, introducing inquiry-based educational methods and technology to administrators, educators and students across Egypt, Ms. Karl supervised over 50 technical, educational and administrative staff. She designed and led the bilingual K12 training program and supervised the technical implementation plan for the installation of 7,500 computers in classrooms, administration and libraries at 14 schools and four libraries in seven governorates. Her responsibilities included the design and delivery of professional development workshops, and the design of an on-line educational portal (in Arabic and English) providing communication tools and digital resources to 2,500 educators and administrators and hosting over 6,000 educator-developed resources mapped to the national Egyptian curriculum.

Ms. Karl's leadership position was charged with the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation procedures, developing programmatic quality assurance processes, and building community awareness, acceptance, and expertise in student-centered technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Working closely with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of International Cooperation, and Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and USAID, she supervised the development, implementation and evaluation of training programs for 2,500 educators and administrators in change management, strategic and financial planning, building community involvement, the integration of technology in student-centered learning environments, assessment and program sustainability. In concert with USAID and Ministry officials, she worked to help focus efforts on community participation in policy reform activities, including the creation and implementation of school and community improvement and sustainability plans, and the development of educational public outreach programs.

As Director of the NASA Discovery Museum at Moody Gardens, Ms. Karl developed and authored over 60 unique interactive hands-on science and technology exhibits in a major renovation of the museum, handling all construction and fabrication, and managing all contracts and contractors.  Supervising educational and volunteer staff, she designed the museum’s educational outreach program, and managed the IMAX theatre, concessions and gift shop. As Education Manager of programs and publications with USRA at the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the NASA Johnson Space Center, she designed a broad variety of interactive educational activities, professional development materials and museum exhibits with scientists, educational and technology teams, collaborating with partnership organizations to provide funding for educational outreach initiatives.

With extensive experience in grant compliance and program management, including the development of work plans, staff recruitment and supervision, program implementation, monitoring and evaluation, grant acquisition and compliance, and fiscal management, Ms. Karl has successfully led multi-cultural technical, education, and administrative management teams including contractors and consultants. Ms. Karl has maintained successful working relationships with government representatives, funding agencies, and partners in the private sector. Creating multiple partnerships with donor organizations, she has successfully marketed programs to state legislatures, foreign ambassadors and their delegations, leaders of corporations, senior officials of government organizations (both U.S. and foreign), the media and the foreign press. Balancing her management experience, she has been a teacher, reporter, filmmaker, motivational lecturer and presenter at many national and international conferences.

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Phone: (703) 317-7250 – E-mail: ritakkarl@gmail.com