Michael Windelspecht

Educator/Teacher, Philanthropist, Writer/Editor

As an educator, Dr. Windelspecht has taught introductory biology, genetics, and human genetics in the online, traditional, and hybrid environments at community colleges, comprehensive universities, and military institutions. For over a decade he served as the Introductory Biology Coordinator at Appalachian State University, where he directed a program that enrolled over 4,500 students annually. He received degrees from Michigan State University (B.S., zoology–genetics) and the University of South Florida (Ph.D., evolutionary genetics), and has published papers in areas as diverse as science education, water quality, and the evolution of insecticide resistance. His current interests are in the analysis of data from digital learning platforms for the development of personalized microlearning assets and next-generation publication platforms. He is currently a member of the National Association of Science Writers and several science education associations. He has served as the keynote speaker on the development of multimedia resources for online and hybrid science classrooms. In 2015, he won the DevLearn HyperDrive competition for a strategy to integrate student data into the textbook revision process. As an author and editor, Dr. Windelspecht has over 30 reference textbooks and multiple print and online lab manuals to his credit. He has founded several science communication companies, including Ricochet Creative Productions, which actively develops and assesses new technologies for the science classroom, and Inspire-EdVentures, which provides experiential learning opportunities online and in Belize.

Science education and addressing the needs of underrepresented groups in the sciences. Developing experiences that encourage people to understand the relevancy of science to their lives.