Our Work

We amplify the voices and impact of South Carolina’s STEM community

Mission

To be an advocate and catalyst for consistency and quality in STEM education in South Carolina. 

Vision

To see South Carolina become a national leader in STEM education and to provide support leadership toward this end.

Purpose

To inspire learning and leadership in STEM education in schools, out-of-school time, business and industry, and community.

Our Team

Dr. Tom Peters
Executive Director

Dr. Peters serves as Executive Director of South Carolina's Coalition for Mathematics & Science (SCCMS) founded by BMW Manufacturing Co., DuPont, Michelin North America and Duke Energy and hosted by the College of Engineering, Computing, and Applied Science at Clemson University.  

Among the initiatives managed by SCCMS are the S²TEM Centers SC statewide support network for economic and workforce development through STEM education, and two regional STEM Collaboratives focused on community engagement and out of school time learning.  Additionally, as Principal Investigator, Tom manages a research grant funded by Boeing SC that identifies instructional strategies in disciplinary literacy to enhance student learning in middle school mathematics and science.

Dr. Peters is a recipient of the Outstanding Leader in Science Education award from the National Science Education Leadership Association. He has applied his instructional, scientific, and management expertise a variety of settings including middle school, high school and university classrooms.

Tom holds Doctorate and Masters degrees in Science Education and Bachelors degrees in the Teaching of Biology and in Ecology, all awarded from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  

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Our Family of Organizations

SCCMS provides an umbrella for our organizational family to operate.  Collectively, these organizations serve educators, business and industry leaders, government, community organizers and out of school organizations focusing on STEM education and its relevance to economic and workforce development.

Our History

SCCMS is a convergence of alliances in STEM education forged over the past decade. Key among these are the former South Carolina Coalition for Science and Mathematics Education (SCCSME) and SC Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (SC LASER) a regional site of the National Science Resources Center's LASER initiative (1997-2003).

SCCSME, was instrumental in developing strong ties with NASA. Through the Linking Leaders initiative business, education and public policy leaders from South Carolina joined with NASA and the National Alliance of State Science & Mathematics Coalitions (NASSMC) to establish a common vision for improvement in STEM education and to engage NASA resources in accomplishing its goals.

SC LASER brought together BMW, Dupont, Michelin and Progress Energy to impact K-8 science education across the state. With the assistance of the SC Department of Education and the National Science Resources Center, SC LASER developed and implemented Strategic Planning Institutes directly impacting school districts and Institutions of Higher Education from South Carolina and 11 other states.

In 2004, after the consideration of many alternatives and acronyms, our partnership began to operate under the name of South Carolina’s Coalition for Mathematics & Science. As we refined our vision and set our mission we also began preparing for our first statewide STEM Summit in April of 2005. With the help of the National Alliance of State Science & Mathematics Coalitions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Department of Education we began a dialog that continues to inform our state’s thinking and action in STEM Education.

Our Board of Advisors, as an indicator that we are purposeful about our work, adopted our tag line, “Achievement By Design”. We also like it because of its simplicity of form...three words that say a lot about our intentions.

Advisory Board

The SCCMS Board of Advisors is responsible for providing broad policy and programmatic guidance for SCCMS in accordance with the collective views of the membership, partners and funding agents.

We appreciate the service of our current Board Members:
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Cynthia Bennett
SC Chamber of Commerce
Vice President of Education
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Rep. Sylleste H. Davis
SC House of Representatives, District 100
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Dr. Terry Pruitt
Spartanburg School District 7
Deputy Superintendent
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Madeline Brown
JTEKT North America
Talent Acquisition Specialist
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Dr. Donna Foster
Piedmont Technical College
Associate Vice President, Assessment and Compliance
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John D. Tully
Michelin Development Company
 President & COO
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Greg Bunner
BMW Manufacturing Co
Corporate Communications
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Dr. Regina (Wragg) Ciphrah
University South Carolina
College of Education, Director of Assessment and Accreditation
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Linda S. Hannon
Duke Energy
District Manager, Greenville-Spartanburg
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Dr. Anne Pressley
South Carolina State Dept. of Ed.
Director, Standards and Learning
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Zelda Waymer
SC Afterschool Alliance
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Cheryl Wiggins
Fluor Corporation
Community Relation
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Dr. Calvin Williams
Clemson University
College of Science, Assoc. Dean for Undergraduate Excellence and Community Engagement
Ex Officio
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Anand K. Gramopadhye
Clemson University Center for Workforce Development
Assoc. Vice President for Work Force Development
Dean of College of Engineering and Science
Max Metcalf
BMW Manufacturing Co.
Manager
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Sheila Myers-Stratford
Michelin Americas Research Corporation
Mindy Taylor
Duke Energy
District Manager-Government & Community Relations

Our Partners

SCCMS is funded, in part, by the State of South Carolina, and by grants, contracts, gifts and in-kind support from corporations, foundations, government agencies and other sources. We appreciate the organizations and individuals who share our passion for constancy and quality in South Carolina's approach to STEM education.

Thanks to our founding partners - BMW Manufacturing Company, Duke Energy (formally Progress Energy), DuPont, Michelin North America, and the South Carolina Department of Education. Their vision and support established SCCMS in 2005 and sustains us today.

Thanks to our current program partners- Battlle, Boeing, Bosch Community Fund, Comporium, Fluor, GE, Golf for Greenville, JTEKT,  Lockheed Martin, and ScanSource for their interest and enthusiasm in STEM Education.

Thanks to those we have previously had the pleasure of partnering with - the Appalachian Regional Commission, David E. Maguire Foundation, NASA,  Public Education Partners of Greenville, Santee Cooper, SC Department of Commerce, SC Department of Education, 3M, The Self Family Foundation, and the US Department of Education.

Thanks to Clemson University, the College of Engineering & Science, the Center for Workforce Development, and the Clemson University Foundation for continuing to provide SCCMS with expert operations and infrastructure support and tothe SC General Assembly for their continued support of STEM Education in our state.

Affiliations

Clemson University Center for Workforce Development
SC Association of Non-Profit Organizations
SC Future Minds
STEMx
The STEM Education Coalition