Preeti Gupta

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Senior Director for Children, Family, and Youth Learning and Research

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Preeti Gupta CV

Bio

Dr. Preeti Gupta, Senior Director for Children, Family and Youth Learning and Research, is responsible for strategic planning and program development for out of school time children, family and youth initiatives at the American Museum of Natural History. She leads a research agenda centered on youth learning and serves as faculty for the Masters of Arts in Teaching program for Earth Science teachers. She is also co-editor of the Journal of Museum Education. Prior to this she was serving as Senior Vice President for Education and Family Programs at the New York Hall of Science. In that role, she led the internationally replicated Science Career Ladder Program, key initiatives in school change, teacher professional development, and family programs. 

She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioengineering from Columbia University, a Master’s Degree in Education from The George Washington University and a doctoral degree in Urban Education from the City University of New York Graduate Center. In 1999, she was selected as one of forty-two women who have contributed to the community in unique ways showcased in a photo exhibition, The Many Faces of Queens Women. In 2005, she won the Inaugural National Roy L Schafer Leading Edge Award for Experienced Leadership in the Field from the Association for Science Technology Centers. Her research interests include science teacher preparation, youth employment and workforce development and the role of cultural institutions in mediating identity development in youth. Her recent and more notable projects included the the NSF-funded study, Staying in Science, a longitudinal tracking of high school youth to examine persistence with STEM careers, an NSF-funded project focused on studying what and how middle school youth learn computational thinking skills and an IMLS-funded program to prepare college youth to effectively engage visitors in practices of science while interacting with exhibits. She also works closely with colleagues at AMNH to develop and implement professional learning for staff focused on diversity, equity, access and inclusion.

 

 

Education

The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Division of Urban Education
Ph.D. in Urban Education, Program Advisor: Dr. Kenneth Tobin.    2009

The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development
M.A. in Education.    1999

Columbia University in the City of New York, Fu School of Engineering and Applied Science
B.S. in Bioengineering.    1995

Select Publications

Journal Articles

Lee, I.A., Rabinowitz, G., Gupta, P. Chaffee, R. (2026). Decoding agent-based models supports students’ mechanistic and causal reasoning about scientific phenomena. IJ STEM Ed  13, 12

Moore K.S., Rabinowitz G., Ali S., Weckel M., Lee I., Gupta P. & Chaffee R. (2026). Design of a science integrated secondary school AI literacy curriculum: A youth & AI expert guided design-based research approach. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence.

Rabinowitz, G., Moore, K.S., Ali, S. Weckel, M., Lee, I., Gupta, P., Chaffee, R. (2025) Study of an effective machine learning-integrated science curriculum for high school youth in an informal learning setting. IJ STEM Ed 12, 23. 

Knutson, K., Crowley, K., Gupta, P., Perez, A., Martinez, N., Chaffee, R. (2025) Talking to Strangers About Science: Youth facilitators and family learning at the natural history museum. Curator. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cura.12669

Chaffee, R., Todd, K. T., Gupta, P., May, S., Abouelkheir, M., Lagodich, L., Wang, J., Murphy, C., & Lawrence, X. (2024). Methods for Co-researching With Youth: A Cross-Case Analysis of Centering Anti-AdultistFrameworks. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23. 

Gupta, P., Perez, A., Martinez, N., Knutson, K., Crowley, K., & Chaffee, R. (2024). From “Let Me Show You Something Cool” to “What Do You Notice?” Preparing College Interns for Floor Facilitation in a Natural History Museum. Journal of Museum Education, 49(4) 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2024.2403198

Chaffee, R., Bjorklund, P., Braverman, C., Gupta, P., Hammerness, K., MacPherson, A., Daly, A., Adams, J. D., Abouelkheir, M., Francis, J., Hinton, P., Lagodich, L., & Wu, L. (2025). Finding people “like me”: Student strategies for increasing belonging and flourishing in STEM. Paper in press in Special Issue of Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 

Hammerness, K., Chaffee, R., Bjorklund, P., Hinton, P., Daly, A., Macpherson, A., Gupta, P., Adams, J., Braverman, C., Francis, J., Lagodich, L., Wu, L. Abouelkheir, M. (2024). The role of flourishing in the STEM trajectories of emerging adults. Frontiers in Education.  Vol. 9. 

Hammerness, K., Gupta, P., Chaffee, R., Bjorklund, P., MacPherson, A., Abouelkheir, M., Lagodich, L., Podkul, T., Princiotta, D., Anderson, K., Adams, J. D., & Daly, A. (2024). From opportunity gap to opportunity yield: The benefits of out-of-school authentic mentored research for youth historically marginalized communities in STEM. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

Chaffee, R., Todd, KT., Gupta, P., May, S., Abouelkheir, M., Lagodich, L., Wang, J., Murphy, C., Lawrence, X. (2024). Methods for co-researching with youth: A cross-case analysis of centering anti-adultist frameworks. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. (23)

Hammerness, K., Gupta, P., Chaffee, R., Bjorklund, P., MacPherson, A., Abouelkheir, M., Lagodich, L., Podkul, T., Princiotta, D., Anderson, K., Adams, J. D., & Daly, A. (2024) From opportunity gap to opportunity yield: The benefits of out-of-school authentic mentored research for youth historically marginalized communities in STEM.  Paper in press in Special Issue of Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 

Hammerness K, Chaffee R, Bjorklund P Jr, Hinton P-SL, Daly AJ, MacPherson A, Gupta P, Adams JD, Braverman C, Francis J, Lagodich L, Wu L and Abouelkheir M (2024) The role of flourishing in the STEM trajectories of emerging adults. Front. Educ. 9:1409672. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1409672 

MacPherson, A., Chaffee, R., Bjorklund, P., Daly, A., Adams, J. D., Gupta, P., Hammerness, K. (2024). Pipeline schmipeline: Exploring youth pathways in science. Paper submitted to Teachers College Record. 

Cooke-Nieves, N., Wallace

Book Chapters

Chaffee, R., Gupta, P., Jackson, T., Hammerness, K. (in press). Centering equity and access: An examination of a museum’s mentored research youth program. In B. Bevan & B. Ramon (Eds.), Making Museums More Equitable: Structural Constraints and Enduring Challenges Surfaced through Research and Practice Perspectives. Taylor and Francis.

Chaffee, R., Hammerness, K., Gupta, P., Anderson, K., Podkul, T. (in press). Re-examining Wenger’s

community of practice theoretical framework: Exploring youth learning in science research. In P. Patrick (Ed.), Applying Learning Theories in Research Outside the Classroom. Springer.

Gupta, P. & Correa, J. (2017). There is no “Off Button” to Explaining: Theorizing identity development in youth who work as floor facilitators. Book Chapter. In Patrick, P. (Ed) Preparing Informal Educators. Springer Publications