DOROTHY LALONDE STOUT: REVOLUTIONIZING EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION THREE STEPS AT A TIME

Dorothy Lalonde (Dottie) Stout was a true educational pioneer, boldly going where few geoscientists have gone before. During the last three decades, Dottie served the geoscience profession with vision, dedication, and boundless energy. She was an innovative teacher, curriculum designer, National Association of Geoscience Teachers' President, GSA Councilor, Community College advocate, and NSF program officer.

As a professor at Cypress College, Dottie introduced thousands of students to the wonders of geology and geophysics, led dozens of local, regional, and international field trips, and was one of the first geoscience instructors at either the 2- or 4-year level to infuse new computer and information-based technologies into her classroom instruction. Dottie was also a catalyst for change and a leader in the geoscience education community at the national level. In the early 1990s she helped to create both the GSA Geoscience Education Division and the national Coalition for Earth Science Education (CESE). She worked tirelessly to insure the success of the 1994 AGU Chapman Conference Scrutiny of Undergraduate Geoscience Education, and the 1996 AGU/National Science Foundation Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Earth Science Education conference.

During 1999 and 2000, Dottie worked at the National Science Foundation. Her efforts there were instrumental in advancing the cause of two-year colleges and raising awareness about the important role they play in the early training of geoscientists and science teachers. Dottie's unique ability to bring diverse constituents together led to new collaborations between the Geoscience and Education Directorates at NSF, and between NSF, NASA, and other government agencies. One outcome of these collaborations is the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE), an initiative that promises to transform teaching and learning at all grade levels across the geosciences.

Truly one of the great earth science educators of our generation, Dottie also capitalized on the power of humor and the media by producing "Geology Goes Hollywood I and II", two wonderful videos that depict the influence of the geosciences on our culture and society. The coming revolution in earth and space science education owes much to the pioneering work of Dorothy Lalonde Stout.