Leland Melvin poses in front of a photo of the Earth taken from space. Patches on his jacket include his nametag, the flag of the United States, the 25th-anniversary patch of the Space Shuttle, and the STS 129 mission patch.
Leland Melvin, former NFL football player, engineer, astronaut and entrepreneur, will deliver a keynote address at a STEM summit at VCU on Oct. 11 (Courtesy photo)

Sept. 20, 2019

VCU to host statewide STEM education summit

Speakers will include former astronaut and NFL player Leland Melvin and a former official who led production of America’s strategic plan for STEM education.

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By Brian McNeill

Editor's note: This event is invitation-only. Media are welcome to attend.

The School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University will host a summit of education leaders from across the state to envision future science, technology, engineering and math opportunities for all Virginians.

The summit was organized by a consortium of Virginia universities — George Mason University, James Madison University, the University of Virginia, VCU and Virginia Tech — that has a mission to promote collaborations that leverage the strengths of each partner university and improve efficiencies in higher education across Virginia.

Keynote speakers at the event will be Leland Melvin, former NFL football player, engineer, astronaut and entrepreneur; and Jeff Weld, executive director for the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council and former senior adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he led the production of America’s strategic plan for STEM education, published in late 2018.

The summit will provide participants with the opportunity to share information about current STEM programming in their regions, identify STEM education and workforce needs, and envision the type of infrastructure needed to ensure the network’s success. 

The event comes after Gov. Ralph Northam in July issued an executive order establishing a Virginia STEM Education Commission, which is tasked with developing a state plan to create “a unified vision and adopting a set of dynamic shared goals to strategically inform how we prepare students for STEM jobs of the future.”