Laura Frost

Laura Frost is Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and Former Director of the Whitaker Center for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education and Professor of Chemistry at Florida Gulf Coast University. As Associate Dean Dr. Frost manages Faculty Affairs and Graduate Affairs for the College which includes developing faculty as teacher-scholars. The Whitaker Center serves as a regional hub for expertise and leadership in STEM education reform across all levels of education including professional development for STEM faculty. Dr. Frost continues to be actively engaged in reforming STEM education through inclusive and evidence-based practice and has demonstrated increased student learning in her courses using such approaches.

Dr. Frost served as PI on an NSF-WIDER grant (DUE-1347640) that implements a year long STEM faculty academy at FGCU that asks faculty to incorporate evidence-based practices into introductory STEM courses and measure student learning through a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project. She also served as PI on an NSF Noyce Teacher Scholarship program and a privately funded initiative to identify undergraduate STEM majors as 6-12 STEM teachers in an effort to enhance secondary STEM teaching in SW Florida. Both programs are still active today.

Dr. Frost is also author of a series of guided-inquiry activities and a chemistry textbook for the health professions (Pearson Education). Her textbook takes a unique, active, integrated approach to the delivery of chemical topics that has been shown to increase student interest in the course.

Dr. Frost received a BS in chemistry from Kutztown University and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. She has been teaching chemistry in higher education since 1995 and has been recognized with several teaching awards over the years.