Cynthia Wei

Cynthia Wei is the Assistant Director of Education and Outreach at SESYNC. In this role, she works to advance the teaching and learning of socio-environmental synthesis by developing, running, and supporting several SESYNC programs and initiatives. Prior to coming to SESYNC, she worked on several national STEM education programs and initiatives related to biology education, climate change education, evolution education, and the role of community colleges in STEM education, work which built on her experiences as a K-12 science teacher and college-level biology instructor. This work was completed during her time as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Undergraduate Education and a Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Prior to moving to DC, Dr. Wei researched animal cognition. At the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where she was a postdoctoral research associate, she combined psychological and biological approaches to research the cognitive abilities of corvids. She also studied learning and navigation in honeybees at Michigan State University, where she earned a dual-degree Ph.D. in zoology and ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior. She holds a B.A. in biology (neurobiology and behavior) from Cornell University.