Julie Nelson

My name is Julie Nelson.  I am a full time faculty member in the Math/Science Division Grays Harbor College, a small community college located in Aberdeen WA.  I teach Introductory Chemistry for Health Science majors as well as the sophomore Organic Chemistry Series here at Grays Harbor.  I was very fortunate to have participated in the VISIONS’13 voyage and am again very grateful for the opportunity to participate in VISIONS’14.

In addition to teaching at Grays Harbor College, I have formed a partnership with Stevens elementary here in Aberdeen.  They are a STEM school, and are working very hard at incorporating more Science, Math and Technology in their classrooms.  I have partnered with the 6th grade teachers and have those students come up to the college to perform chemistry experiments with my Introductory Chemistry Students each Spring Quarter.  This has been extremely beneficial to both the college students and the elementary school students. 

I was born in Olympia and my family moved to Aberdeen when I was 3 years old.  Other than a few stints in college and a two year fellowship with “Teach for America”(New Jersey, 2001), I have lived in Aberdeen all my life.

I have always liked the outdoors, water environs especially.  I enjoy fishing, and camping and just being on or around the water.  The ocean is such an amazing place.  I am looking forward to this journey and perhaps adapting some aspects of the research performed on this voyage to some experiments performed in either of the chemistry courses that I teach. 

In addition to incorporating experiments in my courses, I am serving as an informational ambassador for the Ocean Observatories Initiative in the community.  I have given several presentations on campus and also to the business community through a Rotary Club presentation.