F. JOSEPH MERLINO

Mr. F. Joseph Merlino was one of the founders of The 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education (21PSTEM) and has served as its president since its founding in 2007. He has 33 years of experience in education beginning his career as a math tutor and high math teacher. He has been a principal or co-principal investigator and/or project director on numerous federal grants. Joe currently directs a sub-award on a four-year USAID grant the Education Consortium for the Advancement of STEM in Egypt (ECASE). Joe leads a 21PSTEM team who have designed and implemented a new integrated STEM curriculum and assessment system for the Ministry of Education that is regarded as a model for the country. He also is Co-PI on a five-year, NSF funded research project studying Innovation through Institutional Integration in six higher education institutions. He has been the PI for the six-year, IES-funded 21st Century Center for Research and Development in Cognition and Science Instruction (Cog Sci Center) which involved 180 middle schools in a large scale randomized control trial to test the effectiveness of cognitive science interventions to improve science learning.

Previous to the 21PSTEM, Joe was at La Salle University for 14 years where was PI to the Math Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSPGP), a nine-year NSF funded higher education and secondary education partnership involving 13 colleges and universities and 45 school districts. He also was PI on a six-year NSF grant involving secondary math reform called The Greater Philadelphia Secondary Mathematics Project. He also directed the five-year NSF funded Philadelphia Regional Dissemination Site for the Interactive Mathematics Program. From 1989 to 1994 he was a program officer at PATHS/PRISM: the Philadelphia Partnership for Education where he coordinated The Urban Math Collaborative and the Quasar Project’s Philadelphia site.

​

M.A. Arcadia University, Education
B.A. University of Rochester, Psychology, Child Developmental