Education advocate: Deborah Patterson honored at Salute gala on October 1
The story was published August 31, 2016, in The St. Louis American. Written by staff reporter Rebecca Rivas. Click here to see original article.
Scientists at Sigma-Aldrich, a chemical-supply company in Midtown St. Louis, turned down the lights in a classroom-size laboratory, where about 50 K-8 school teachers stood around lab tables wearing white coats.
When the scientists combined two chemicals, the mixture glowed a magical turquoise blue in the dark.
“As the kids would say, that’s tight,” said Cardellia Brand, a 5th grade teacher in the Normandy School District.
The Sigma-Aldrich team members were teaching the teachers a few science experiments that they could do in their classrooms, as part of the STEM Teacher Quality (TQ) Institute.“If we help a teacher get better at teaching, then we affect so many students,” said Deborah Patterson, recently retired as president of the Monsanto Fund and vice president of global contributions and employee engagement at Monsanto.
“And if they leave a district, they are taking that knowledge with them. A lot of our investment has been helping teachers improve their teaching methodology.”
Over the last four years, the Monsanto Fund contributed $850,000 to STEM TQ, one of the many education advocacy programs Patterson supported during her 17 years leading the Monsanto Fund.