Professional Bio

Dr. Sandra Toro is a program officer at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), in the Office of Library Services. Sandy came to the IMLS from the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she was a program officer in the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings for the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program. She was on loan to NSF from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), where she was a faculty member in the Learning and Development Area in the Department of Educational Psychology and for the Museum Studies Program in the Department of Anthropology.

Sandy received a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, in Seattle, a M.A. from Seton Hall University, in South Orange, and a B.A. and B.F.A. from Cornell University, in Ithaca. She was a guest editor, along with Dr. Heather Toomey Zimmerman, of a 2008 issue of the Journal of Museum Education dedicated to exploring the intersection of the learning sciences and museum education. Sandy was also PI of the NSF-funded Building capacity and collaboration at the intersection of the Learning Sciences and Informal Science Education project, which brought together informal science education researchers and informal science professionals/practitioners to build capacity and collaboration related to how people learn, teach, use technology, and address issues of access and equity.

She has worked in the education departments of ethnically-specific museums and museums of art and culture, including El Museo del Barrio, the Jersey City Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, among others. Sandra's research looks at learning across academic disciplines like art and science among diverse urban learners and across disparate settings, including schools, museums, and the outdoors.

Planned Conference Participation

Attending :: CAISE Forum: Intersections between the learning sciences and informal science education
July 13-17, 2009

Attending :: Building Capacity and Collaboration at the Intersection of the Learning Sciences and Informal Science Education
August 6- 7, 2009

Attending :: Intersection Discussion: Facilitating Learning - What do we know that works?
February 22-26, 2010

Attending :: Informal Science Education Summit 2010
March 4- 5, 2010

Attending :: Intersection: Bringing Informal Science Education and Learning Sciences Together
May 10-19, 2010

Attending :: 21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings
February 12-15, 2012