Post-show Forum- Come for the Show; Stay for the Company!
All of Epic Theatre Ensemble’s programming is designed to place a theatrical experience at the center of a larger public dialogue about vital social issues. As a part of that effort, all of our Off-Broadway productions
include a Forum Series where following a performance, guest speakers join our company onstage to discuss the key questions and ideas that emerged with our audiences.
Thursday October 4, 8PM: Sabrina D. Avila, Director of Course Redesign, STEM Bridges Across Eastern Queens and Science Education Field Supervisor, School of Education, Queens College
Sabrina D. Avila
STEM Course Redesign Director
Project Coordinator, Queens College
Sabrina joined the CUNY community in December 2016. Prior to her current role as a project coordinator with the STEM Bridges Across Eastern Queens project with Queens College & Queensborough Community College, Sabrina was an administrator and professional development facilitator with the Urban Advantage NYC Middle School Science Initiative, housed in the American Museum of Natural History. She has extensive experience in education program management and as a K-16 science classroom teacher and science instructional coach in both formal and informal environments to include the Garden School, Teachers College Center of Professional Education of Teachers, WCS Bronx Zoo, Queens Botanical Garden and other major NYC science cultural institutions. Serving as an adjunct lecturer with New York Institute of Technology School of Education, Sabrina led undergraduate students’ participation in a U.S. Department of Education service-learning research grant in partnership with NYC School District 28’s STEM magnet schools, which engaged students and teachers in science learning.
With Queens College and Queensborough Community College designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI), the STEM Bridges Across Eastern Queens project is funded by the US Department of Education’s Title V office, with the aim of improving student access to STEM knowledge and aligning institutional processes across both campuses, particularly for freshmen and transfer students. As the Course Redesign Director and project coordinator of STEM Bridges Across Eastern Queens, Sabrina guides faculty to help close the achievement gap in the STEM majors by creating intentional spaces for faculty to critically reflect on their instructional practices and curriculum on ways to increase student engagement with the overall objective to strengthen academic community building which will help ALL students elevate their success in their higher education journeys. Understanding that a student’s interaction with science knowledge begins before college, Sabrina also supervises pre-service science teachers with Queens College’s School of Education to guide them through similar critical conversations as these soon-to-be teachers define their own teaching practices.
As a member of the National Association for Research on Science Teaching, Sabrina holds a B.A. in Economics and Environmental Science from Barnard College and a M.Ed. in Science Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she will continue to pursue doctoral research on science learning and teacher education.