Stephanie M.G. Wright, Ed D, is a Delaware teacher and the founder, president, and CEO of the Delaware AeroSpace Education Foundation. DASEF is an independent non-profit educational organization focused on accelerating the academic development of Delaware’s youth, educators, and the general public in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It currently serves approximately 20,000 people a year at its 40-acre Kent County campus, and in schools and libraries throughout the State.
Dr. Wright’s transition from teaching in a middle school in Stanton, DE, to founding DASEF started when she applied to compete in President Reagan’s NASA Teacher-in-Space Program in 1985. She won one of only two Delaware slots and was a semi-finalist in the national competition. After personally witnessing the Challenger shuttle disaster in 1986, Dr. Wright resolved to help children understand that good can come from tragedy and to inspire them to link the science and technologies of earth and space.
That choice strikingly defined her own path ahead as a teacher. Since founding DASEF in 1989, Dr. Wright has touched over a half million students, teachers, and parents. With the Environmental Outpost at the campus, along with the Innovation Technology Exploration Center (ITEC), currently under construction there, she is materially helping Delaware tackle its current technology educational challenges. Her goal is to enable the State, its youth and teachers to have one of their very own best-in-class STEM resources.
Dr. Wright and DASEF have become recognized forces for educational excellence. Whether the children she has touched go into aviation, aerospace, or other fields of endeavor, they will do so with a more finely tuned appreciation for the earth and its place in the universe.
