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Region Network - The STEM Foundation (Deb Bowen)
Since 2008, the Washington State STEM Education Foundation (The STEM Foundation) has engaged the Mid-Columbia region’s top leaders from business, labor, K-12, higher education, and the community at large in initiatives to advance STEM education and career connected learning opportunities. In addition, we design and scale innovative STEM programing across the state and nation. Our impact is leveraged by working as both the Southeastern Washington Network for Career Connect Washington, one of nine regional hubs, and the Mid-Columbia STEM Network, one of 11 Washington STEM-led regional networks.
We focus on helping build a local STEM education infrastructure that enables more of our local youth to meet the ongoing and future demand for STEM-proficient workers. To learn more about the value of STEM education in our region, click here.
The STEM Foundation began with a successful effort to design, fund, and build a STEM high school, Delta High School, in the Tri-Cities. A cornerstone of that work was to create and staff a career connected learning (CCL) system, first within Delta High, the only such high school in eastern Washington, and then eventually to share those best practices across the region. For more on The STEM Foundation’s accomplishments, click here.