Lee Silva Ferguson, a lifelong resident of the Dallas area, is a 1996 graduate of Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas. She holds a BA in Biology with a minor in Spanish, and holds a Master's degree in Science Education from The University of Texas at Dallas. Her ultimate educational goal is to earn a PhD in Science Education.

An award-winning biology educator for the past 13 years, Mrs. Ferguson taught at Plano Senior High, Shepton and Clark High Schools in the Plano Independent School District, where she was named the 1999-2000 Secondary Teacher of the Year. While in PISD, she also served as a member of the curriculum leadership team, which was responsible for restructuring the district's biology curriculum.

In 2003, Mrs. Ferguson began her career at Allen High School as an AP/IB Biology teacher and has enjoyed great success there. Her students consistently achieve passing scores on AP and IB exams, as well as state standardized exams. Many of her students continue their studies in Biology at the undergraduate level, with a great many going on to pursue careers or graduate studies in Biology or a biology-related field.

Mrs. Ferguson has also been involved with science fairs at all levels since 1998, and has mentored several award-winning student projects at the regional, state and international level. She has previously been named an Outstanding Educator by the Dallas Morning News-Toyota Regional Science Fair. Currently, she is the science fair sponsor for Allen High School and most recently attended the 2008 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with AHS student Camden Miller, who received a second Grand Award in Chemistry at the fair.

Mrs. Ferguson worked in the lab of Dr. Gregg Dieckmann of UT-Dallas during the summers of 2001-2003 as the recipient of a grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board which encouraged professors to take on science educators as guest researchers in their laboratories for the summer. She worked on projects involving manual synthesis of peptides used in de novo protein design as well as peptides used in MRI contrast agents. For her work in the Dieckmann lab, Mrs. Ferguson was awarded commendations from the THECB.

Mrs. Ferguson has served on TAKS test item and item data analysis review committees for the Texas Education Agency, and has authored test questions used on the TExES certification exam. She has also written test items used on science exams in both California and Tennessee. During the 2008-09 school year, Mrs. Ferguson served on the state's biology TEKS review committee, which was charged with revising the biology curriculum standards for all Biology I courses taught in Texas public schools. She has been a College Board AP Reader for the AP Biology exam since 2006 and has served as a consultant for AP Strategies.

Mrs. Ferguson has also served as a mentor to several student teachers, and is a TxBESS mentor for beginning teachers.

Mrs. Ferguson holds professional memberships with TSTA/NEA, ASCD, NSTA and NABT.

Mrs. Ferguson and her husband, Jim, an art educator, make their home in Plano, Texas. She enjoys cooking, traveling, reading a good book, photography and spending time with family and friends.

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