Yvonne A. Kielhorn, Ph. D. is the founder and curriculum development leader of Why Science, and a high school science teacher. She has extensive research and development experience in academia, industry, and government spanning more than 20 years. Her scientific and leadership abilities have been recognized by many research, education and entrepreneurship awards. After recognizing the link between learner difficulty to master STEM concepts with the lack of effective STEM professional development for K-12 teachers, Dr. Kielhorn was inspired to create an online learning platform to solve this problem.

In 2014, she received a CTNext Entrepreneur Innovation Award. Business New Haven has named Dr. Yvonne Kielhorn the 2013 Minority Businessperson of the Year for her creation and development Why Science. She has been a three-time Woman of Innovation Finalist. While a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dr. Kielhorn received the Martin Luther King Faculty/Staff Award for faculty and staff engaged in activities fostering academic excellence and leadership skills in minority students. She also won an award from the National Science Foundation to create “Ease the Quiet Storm,” a 40-minute documentary exploring solutions to American’s growing education problem and how this problem impacts global competitiveness. Dr. Kielhorn’s research awards include a National Nanotechnology Initiative Early Career Scientist Scholarship Winner X-ray and Neutron Scattering and a Paul W. Schmidt Award Small-Angle Methods and Applied Small-Angle Scattering.

She holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Science & Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Amherst, MA) and a B. A. in Chemistry (High Honors) and Physics from Smith, College (Northampton, MA).