Michael Odell

Michael R.L. Odell, Ph.D.  joined the University of Texas at Tyler in 2005.  He is the Sam and Celia Roosth Chair in Education. He also holds a joint appointment as Professor of STEM Education in the School of Education and the College of Engineering.  He also serves as the Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer and the Director of Federal Relations for the university. His K-12 teaching experience includes 6 years at the middle school and high school levels in Irving ISD (Irving, TX) with secondary teaching certifications in Earth Science and English. Past positions in higher education include working as an Chair and Interim Assistant Dean at Illinois State University and Director of the Division of Teaching, Learning and Leadership at the University of Idaho. He has also served as a National Space Grant Fellow at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA Faculty Fellow at Kennedy Space Center, and as a GLOBE Program Fellow at UCAR in Boulder, CO. Dr. Odell holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geosciences (1984) and a Master of Arts in Teaching (1987) from the University of Texas at Dallas. He earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University (1993). Dr. Odell’s research interests include educational reform and project evaluation. He is currently working on developing a Core Research Facility that provides a laboratory that models the STEM Education Ecosystem and allows for longitudinal education research. The core components of the model include the UT Tyler Innovation Academy, the Discovery Science Place, UTeach Tyler, and the Ingenuity Center.