Arizona’s 2022 Teacher of the Year: Nancy Parra-Quinlan

By Christine Leavitt

The Arizona Educational Foundation recently announced the 2022 Teacher of the Year. Nancy Parra-Quinlan was selected for this honor (see https://www.azcentral.com/mosaic-story/news/local/arizona-people/2021/11/28/arizonas-teacher-year-bring-women-students-color-into-stem/8574951002/). Parra-Quinlan teaches junior high STEM classes, including robotics, engineering design, aerospace, and medicine. She has taught STEM classes for 27 years and has focused her outreach to students who are under-anticipated in STEM fields, including girls and students of color (see https://www.12news.com/article/news/education/mesa-public-school-district-teacher-wins-teacher-of-the-year-award-oct-2021/75-3bc6eb0e-2e89-44ee-82ff-7b883ba528a9).

Parra-Quinlan currently teaches at Kino Junior High School, a school located in Mesa Public School District. The majority of students who attend Kino are Latinx, and many of these students opted for remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these unique circumstances, Parra-Quinlan continued to remain devoted to hands-on learning in STEM, recognizing such learning as an important component of STEM education. For example, she drove to each of the residences of her remote students to drop off a sheep brain for them to dissection.

Parra-Quinlan explained, “We sort of did like a ding-dong ditch. We would leave it at the front door, ring the doorbell and then stand way back. It was great that they actually got to participate. Students to dissect the brain in a socially-distanced environment. If I can give them that, when it’s been such a rough year and a half, if I can just give them a little bit of hands-on exploration, that’s gonna (sic) make them feel a lot better” (pp. 16-17, https://www.azcentral.com/mosaic-story/news/local/arizona-people/2021/11/28/arizonas-teacher-year-bring-women-students-color-into-stem/8574951002/).

In addition to teaching STEM classes, Parra-Quinlan leads a robotics after-school club. Several of her previous students have credited her as being the source of their desire to pursue a career in the STEM field. These students noted that Parra-Quinlan meets her students at their current level, supporting and caring for each one of them on an individual basis. She is additionally known for being passionate, engaging, and fun (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJedlZ_tRE). Parra-Quinlan will represent Arizona at the 2022 National Teacher of the Year program (see https://ntoy.ccsso.org/national-teacher-of-the-year/).

More about Christine Leavitt:

Christine is a doctoral student in Gender Studies at ASU. Her research interests include the intersections of gender, religion, and mental health. Christine has worked as an attorney in the field of employment and labor law for over 12 years and as an adjunct instructor for over 7 years. In these positions, Christine has been involved in research seeking to close the low-income gap graduation rate from higher education and has worked to promote women and minorities into positions of leadership. Christine has also been given the opportunity to be a guest lecturer in Ukraine and Moldova as part of the US Build Initiative. As a mother of 6 children, including 3 girls, Christine is very passionate about gender equity in STEM, especially for girls who come from underrepresented communities and face additional barriers in STEM fields. Christine graduated with honors from BYU Law School with her Juris Doctor, and she graduated Valedictorian of her class from Southern Utah University with a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish. She loves learning, traveling, exploring the outdoors with her family, hiking, camping, paddle boarding, and meeting new people. She is an accomplished pianist and a long-distance runner.