On February 26, 2025, we celebrated the STEM Ecosystems Initiative’s 10-Year Anniversary in our annual State of STEM Ecosystems virtual event. This resource compiles key questions from our audience organized by theme, with responses from our expert panelists.
Our webinar brought together leading voices in STEM education and workforce development to discuss the growth, challenges, and opportunities ahead for the STEM ecosystem. As we reflected on a decade of innovation, we also looked forward to the future of STEM learning and career pathways.
Featured Panelists
Jan Morrison – Founder and CEO of TIES, a pioneering force in STEM education with over 35 years of experience as an educator and consultant who has shaped innovative STEM programs nationwide and internationally.
Dr. Jeff Weld – STEM Education Futurist and Consultant who brings 40 years of experience spanning high school teaching, university leadership, statewide STEM coordination, and federal policy development at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez – Director of the STEMM Opportunity Alliance at AAAS, bringing evidence-based approaches to education, workforce development, and policy advancement with extensive experience in federal agencies and nonprofit organizations.
James Brown – Executive Director of the STEM Education Coalition with a background in nuclear engineering, legislative affairs, and advocacy who has dedicated his career to advancing STEM education policy.
During the live event, we asked the audience to submit questions about their most pressing thoughts and concerns around the future of STEM. Here is summary of those questions and our panelists’ responses.
Theme 1: Funding and Sustainability in the Current Political Climate
Q: Given the current environment for funding from FED and State level, what are 3 critical components to help ensure a STEM ecosystem can not only survive, but thrive (sustainability)?
James Brown: In this challenging funding landscape, STEM ecosystems should focus on three critical components:
- Diversification of funding sources: Don’t rely solely on federal or state funding. Explore partnerships with local industries, foundations, and community organizations.
- Demonstrating impact: Develop robust metrics to showcase the tangible outcomes of your ecosystem’s work. This data will be crucial in securing continued support.
- Adaptability: Be prepared to pivot and realign your initiatives with emerging priorities. For instance, framing your work in terms of workforce development and economic growth can resonate with a wide range of partners.
While the political climate may shift, the fundamental need for STEM learning and workforce development remains constant. Stay true to your mission while being strategic in how you communicate its value.
Q: What strategies do you recommend for maintaining focus on increasing access to STEM in the midst of the current challenges?
Jan Morrison: The strongest ecosystems blend support from education budgets, workforce grants, corporate partnerships, and community foundations. Demonstrating tangible economic impact has become non-negotiable. This means tracking education-to-career pathways and documenting how graduates fill industry needs. Community ownership ensures sustainability beyond any particular grant cycle. When local businesses, schools, and families see STEM initiatives as essential infrastructure rather than “nice-to-have” programs, they find creative ways to maintain support regardless of external funding fluctuations. The most encouraging trend is seeing ecosystems evolve from grant dependency toward sustainable models that include earned income, shared staffing, and partner contributions.
Q: How can ecosystems integrate workforce development strategies to strengthen their funding position?
Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez: Integrating workforce development strategies not only advances your mission but also opens up new funding avenues. At the STEMM Opportunity Alliance, we’ve seen several approaches yield significant returns:
- Data-driven skill mapping creates compelling funding cases. When ecosystems analyze workforce data to identify specific skill gaps, then design targeted programs addressing these needs, both industry and government funders take notice.
- Industry co-design strengthens both programs and financial support. When employers actively participate in developing curriculum, providing work-based learning experiences, and evaluating outcomes, they transition from occasional donors to sustained investors. Their financial contribution often becomes the smallest part of their overall value to the ecosystem.
- Workforce boards represent an underutilized funding partner. These entities control significant federal workforce dollars and are increasingly recognizing STEM ecosystems as efficient delivery mechanisms for reaching youth and building talent pipelines. Building relationships with your local workforce development board can unlock resources for both in-school and out-of-school STEM programs.
Q: What are the most innovative ways you have seen ecosystems collaborating to secure funding?
Jeff Weld: The most innovative funding approaches go beyond grant writing to fundamentally rethink resource generation and allocation:
- Shared positions create sustainability and alignment. In Indiana, a STEM specialist’s salary is split between a school district, museum, and manufacturing association. The employee serves all three entities, creating natural collaboration while distributing costs.
- Resource exchanges replace cash transactions in many communities. A community college provides instructor credentials for high school courses; in return, the high school offers facilities for evening adult programs. These exchanges create sustainable program models without constant fundraising.
- Collective impact funding models allow organizations to approach funders with unified proposals rather than competing for the same grants. This approach has proven particularly effective with community foundations tired of funding fragmented efforts.
- Earned income strategies supplement philanthropic support through fee-based professional development, industry membership models, and consulting services. While these revenue streams start small, they provide flexible funding that supports innovation and core operations.
The ecosystems making greatest progress treat funding as a shared challenge requiring creative collaboration rather than competition for limited resources.
Theme 2: Industry Partnerships and Workforce Development
Q: How can we create a hub of collaboration and co-design with industry partners to foster industry-connected learning?
Jan Morrison: Creating effective industry partnerships requires a multi-faceted approach:
- Establish clear communication channels: Develop a platform or regular forum where educators and industry leaders can exchange ideas and needs.
- Co-design curriculum and experiences: Involve industry partners in developing real-world projects and internship opportunities that align with both educational goals and workforce needs.
- Leverage ecosystem connections: Utilize the STEM ecosystem model to bring together cross-sector partners, including K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and industry.
- Focus on mutual benefits: Highlight how these partnerships can address industry talent needs while providing valuable experiences for students.
Remember, successful partnerships are built on trust and mutual understanding. It’s crucial to ensure that all parties see the value in their participation and feel their voices are heard in the collaboration process.
Q: What are effective strategies for engaging business and industry in STEM ecosystems?
James Brown: The most effective industry partnerships start with understanding business motivations beyond philanthropy. Companies engage when they see clear connections to their talent needs and bottom line. The most sustainable partnerships position companies as co-creators and co-owners rather than donors. When they help design the solutions to their talent challenges, their commitment extends far beyond writing checks.
Q: How can we create industry-connected learning experiences that prepare students for future careers?
Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez: Creating meaningful industry-connected learning requires reimagining how students experience STEM both in and out of school. Project-based challenges sourced directly from industry problems create authentic learning while developing career-relevant skills. Teacher externships dramatically improve classroom relevance. When educators spend time in industry settings understanding workplace applications, they bring these contexts back to their teaching. Near-peer mentoring connects students with early-career professionals who reflect their backgrounds and communities. These relationships make career pathways seem attainable.
The key to successful implementation is designing these experiences to reflect actual workplace practices rather than simplified simulations. When students engage with the real tools, teamwork structures, and problem-solving approaches used in industry, they develop both technical and professional skills that transfer directly to career settings.
Q: How do you see work-based learning evolving to meet future workforce needs?
Jeff Weld: Work-based learning is undergoing profound transformation driven by both technological shifts and changing workplace expectations. The age continuum is expanding dramatically. What was once primarily a high school and college experience now begins with career awareness in elementary grades and extends through mid-career retraining.
Micro-credentials and skill verification systems are creating more flexible pathways into technical careers. Students can now accumulate verified competencies through various learning experiences, with employers increasingly recognizing these alternative credentials alongside traditional degrees. The most forward-thinking ecosystems are building infrastructure that connects these evolving work-based learning opportunities into coherent progressions that reflect regional workforce needs while accommodating student interests and learning styles.
Theme 3: The Future of STEM Education
Q: How will AI and emerging technologies transform STEM learning experiences?
Jeremy Shorr (moderator): We’re at an inflection point where AI and related technologies will fundamentally reshape STEM education in three critical ways:
- AI is changing what we teach. The content focus must shift from information recall to higher-order skills that remain uniquely human: critical analysis, creative problem-solving, ethical reasoning, and collaborative innovation.
- AI is transforming how we teach. Adaptive learning systems are enabling truly personalized education paths at scale. Projects that previously required intensive teacher supervision can now be supported through AI coaching, allowing more students to engage in complex, open-ended inquiry.
- AI is democratizing access to sophisticated tools. Technologies that were once confined to specialized research labs can now be utilized in any classroom through cloud-based platforms with intuitive interfaces. This democratization is particularly significant for schools in communities that have lacked advanced resources.
Q: What do you see as the most promising models for integrating computational thinking across all STEM disciplines?
Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez: Computational thinking isn’t just for computer science class anymore. We’re seeing a transformative shift as leading education systems weave these practices throughout the curriculum. When students investigate real-world challenges requiring multiple perspectives, computational approaches become natural tools rather than isolated skills. This integration succeeds brilliantly when teachers from different disciplines collaborate to identify authentic connections between computational thinking and their subject expertise. Sustainability comes through learning communities where educators share implementation strategies and celebrate work that transcends traditional boundaries. What matters most is treating computational thinking as a fundamental problem-solving approach, not focusing on specific coding languages that will inevitably change. This broader vision prepares students for a future where computational literacy is essential across virtually every field.
Q: How should STEM education adapt to prepare students for careers that don’t yet exist?
Jan Morrison: The future of work demands that we move beyond our rigid, outdated educational pathways. When we formed the ecosystem project years ago, we realized that traditional sequences of courses leading to predetermined careers simply don’t work anymore for students entering industries that transform almost overnight. As automation takes over routine tasks, we must emphasize the distinctively human capabilities that technology can’t replicate – empathy, ethical reasoning, creative thinking, and cross-cultural collaboration. That’s where our power lies! This shift isn’t optional anymore – it’s essential for creating lasting impact.
Q: How can we increase the teachers in the STEM Ed pipeline?
Jenny Frank (moderator): The teacher shortage in STEM fields is reaching crisis levels in many communities, requiring innovative approaches that expand the pipeline.
- Career-changers from STEM industries represent a valuable talent pool. Streamlined certification pathways that recognize their technical expertise while focusing preparation on pedagogical skills have shown success in several states. These programs work best when they include robust mentoring during the transition to teaching.
- “Grow your own” initiatives identify promising candidates from within communities – including paraprofessionals, after-school educators, and high school students – and provide supported pathways to teacher certification. These approaches typically yield educators with strong community connections and higher retention rates.
- School-university-industry partnerships create powerful teacher preparation models. When STEM professionals co-teach with educators, teacher candidates experience authentic applications of content knowledge. Similarly, when teacher preparation includes substantial industry experiences, candidates develop a deeper understanding of how classroom content connects to careers.
- Differentiated staffing models are also showing promise. Some districts are creating teaching teams that combine fully certified teachers with industry experts serving as adjuncts or co-teachers. This approach brings relevant expertise into classrooms while addressing immediate staffing needs.
Q: How will the current political climate affect the landscape of STEM education?
James Brown: The political landscape certainly impacts STEM education, but it’s important to remember that support for STEM is often bipartisan. Funding priorities may shift, but core STEM programs often maintain support. There may be increased emphasis on workforce development and economic competitiveness, which aligns well with STEM education goals. State-level policies may become increasingly important, potentially leading to more diverse approaches across the country. STEM ecosystem leaders should stay informed about policy changes and be prepared to articulate how their work aligns with broader economic and educational priorities.
The Path Forward for STEM Ecosystems
As we reflect on a decade of the STEM Ecosystems Initiative and look toward the future, several themes emerge that will guide our collective work:
- The ecosystem model has demonstrated its power to create lasting change by bringing together diverse partners around shared goals. In an era of political and economic uncertainty, these collaborative networks provide resilience and adaptability that single institutions cannot achieve alone.
- The connection between STEM education and workforce development has never been more evident or urgent. As industries transform through technological change, the ecosystem approach ensures education systems remain responsive to evolving needs while providing equitable pathways to prosperity for all learners.
- Each community must craft strategies that reflect local needs, assets, and priorities while drawing on evidence-based practices. The beauty of the ecosystem model lies in this balance between local adaptation and shared learning across a national and global network.
What You Can Do Tomorrow
No matter your role in the STEM education landscape, there are immediate actions you can take to strengthen your ecosystem:
- Educators: Invite industry partners to co-develop authentic learning experiences that connect classroom content to workplace applications.
- Business leaders: Move beyond traditional sponsorship to deeper engagement, including work-based learning opportunities, educator externships, and curriculum co-development.
- Community organizations: Map existing STEM assets in your community and identify both gaps and opportunities for coordination.
- Policymakers: Review regulations that may create barriers to innovation and create incentives for cross-sector collaboration.
- Parents and students: Advocate for expanded STEM learning opportunities and participate in ecosystem planning.
Over the past ten years, the STEM Ecosystems Initiative has grown from a bold idea to a global movement spanning 43 states and eight countries. The 120 ecosystems in our network have pioneered new approaches to collaboration, developed innovative learning models, and created pathways to prosperity for countless young people.
As we celebrate this milestone, we also look forward to the next decade with ambition and hope. The challenges before us are substantial – technological disruption, workforce transformation, resource shortages – but so is our collective capacity to address them. By continuing to work together across sectors and geographies, sharing both successes and failures openly, we can ensure that all learners have what they need to thrive in an ever-evolving STEM landscape.
Thank you for being part of this journey. The future of STEM education – and the communities it serves – will be shaped by the connections we forge and the innovations we create together.
