Sonica Dhillon serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) for the Center for STEM Education Research and Translation. 

In this role, she provides intellectual direction and ensures that Center activities are of high quality and relevance to community needs. 

Read below for Sonica’s thoughts on how the Center is meeting the needs of the field. 

What value does the Center bring to the PreK-12 STEM education field?

The Center for STEM Education Research and Translation brings value by serving as a hub for connection, collaboration, and shared learning across the formal PreK-12 STEM education community. Our goal is to bring together those who are committed to improving teaching and learning in STEM. We see the Center as a facilitator of community exchange—a place where ideas, innovations, and emerging insights can be shared, strengthened, and carried forward in ways that benefit the broader field.

How does the Center help bridge the gap between research and STEM classrooms?

I see both researchers and educators as essential partners in advancing PreK-12 STEM teaching and learning. Researchers bring expertise in research design, evidence generation, and theory building, while educators bring instructional leadership and deep knowledge of the realities and challenges within classrooms. The Center helps bridge these perspectives by building the knowledge, skills, and relationships needed for meaningful collaboration. Our aim is to support reciprocal exchange, where ideas can move in both directions and be explored, tested, and refined in ways that are relevant to practice.

"We see the Center as a facilitator of community exchange—a place where ideas, innovations, and emerging insights can be shared, strengthened, and carried forward in ways that benefit the broader field."

What hopes do you have for how PreK-12 STEM education researchers will benefit from this Center?

I hope NSF-funded researchers find a genuine sense of community within the Center. We want to create an environment grounded in trust, connection, and belonging. By fostering those conditions, the Center can help researchers build the partnerships and confidence needed to propose and conduct high-quality work with meaningful impact on STEM education. In that way, the Center can contribute not only to individual projects, but also to the strength and reach of the NSF STEM K-12 program more broadly.

How will the Center be able to support early career STEM education researchers who are new to NSF?

The Center will support early career PreK-12 STEM education researchers by developing resources and events that help demystify the NSF landscape and strengthen their capacity to pursue funding and conduct strong research. This includes helping newer researchers understand the proposal process and creating opportunities for them to connect with more experienced researchers and educators. By supporting relationship-building as well as skill development, we hope to help early career scholars grow their knowledge, confidence, and ability to successfully propose and carry out research.

What excites you most about this work?

What excites me most about this work is the opportunity to strengthen connections across the formal PreK-12 STEM education research community, build capacity for high-quality research, and elevate the visibility of the projects, ideas, and innovations emerging from this community. I’m also energized by the team we have assembled. We have experts in teaching, research, communications, and technology development. Together, we are well positioned to create innovative and responsive solutions to support the STEM education community.