Caitlyn Dixon

Director of Auxilliary Programs

So many students have felt, at some point, like school wasn’t built for the way they think, and I love creating hands-on, informal learning opportunities that change that story, the kind that let a student engage the world with curiosity and discover just how capable they really are.

Much of my own background is in STEM. I’ve spent nearly fifteen years in K-12 education, most recently as Director of STEM and Educational Technology Coordinator at The Out-of-Door Academy in Sarasota, Florida, where I led school-wide technology integration and chaired the Curriculum and Innovation Committee. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and two Master’s degrees from Clemson University, one in STEM Teaching and Learning and the other in Biological Sciences. That background also connects me to some wonderful partners outside our walls: I serve as Faculty for the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s STEAM School of Distinction program, and I’m both a Smithsonian NESST Teacher Ambassador and a NASA Sea Level Rise Education Teacher Ambassador. These days I’m also a first-year PhD student at Texas Tech University, studying Curriculum and Instruction with a STEM focus.

While I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, these days you’re more likely to find me with paint on my hands or salt on my boots. My husband and I are slowly refitting a 1978 Downeaster 32 sailboat, and our two dogs, Artemis Fowl and Rosalind Franklin, have appointed themselves our four-legged first mates. I also love a long trail, having hiked sections of the Appalachian Trail and, in 2023, walked the full length of Ireland’s Dingle Way. I think the best educators stay students themselves, and I try to live that out one adventure at a time.