Lisa Niver Rajna, an elementary science teacher from Los Angeles, California, is an amazing chalkboard champion. Lisa was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1967, and earned her master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her career as a professional educator, she is also a sought-after motivational speaker, travel agent, and travel writer.

Lisa is well-known in science teacher circles for her instructional strategies that emphasize her students use technology and real world connections to explore their passions and to work towards solving today’s most complex issues. She has also developed a successful summer science camp for students and maintains a science-based web site entitled Science Isn’t Scary. In 2009, Lisa founded the Los Angeles Science Teachers Network (LASTN),  a professional development network that by May, 2012, involved over seventy teachers and forty schools. The effort has been praised by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Lisa Niver Rajna has published many articles in online and offline magazines, including National Geographic, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, and The Jewish Journal. She was a 2012 nominee for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching.

Here is a link to her educational web site: Science Isn’t Scary

Here is a link to her travel web site: We Said Go Travel