Michelle Rabkin
Michelle Rabkin is a leading educator for programming that reaches students and trains teachers in the Chicago area. Her professional work stems from a longtime passion for education, conservation, and sustainability, specifically within urban areas.
As the current vice president of education at the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Rabkin oversees cross-institutional partnerships and manages the museum’s education programming. Rabkin’s career at the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum began in 2010, when she joined as a student programs coordinator, teaching and developing curriculum for student field trips. Before her most recent role as vice president of education, she was the senior director of education. Under her leadership, nearly 800,000 students, over 15,000 teachers, and hundreds of thousands of museum visitors have been served to date.
In addition to leading programming and partnerships, Rabkin contributes to the environmental and education fields through publications. She co-wrote the chapter “Tree Squirrels: Narrators of Nature in Your Neighborhood” in the National Science Teachers Association publication of Citizen Science: 15 Lessons that Bring Biology to Life and published an article in Beyond Trees, a publication of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service.
Rabkin has also taught for DePaul University for nine years. The course she co-teaches, Environmental Education and Stewardship, empowers environmental science students to use educational approaches that foster curiosity in others. This work reiterates Rabkin’s passion for education and hearkens back to her first professional position as a Chicago Public Schools teacher at Carrie Jacobs Bond Elementary School.
The collective power of multiple institutions working together is essential to Rabkin’s mission. In recent years she led a multi-museum coalition to increase the use of museum resources in Chicago school districts and was selected to be a member of the leadership team of the Chicago Wilderness Priority Species initiative to help protect the monarch butterfly population. Additionally, she was a United Nations delegate to the World Forum on Urban Forests, a Teach for America Greater Chicago–Northwest Indiana Elevate Fellow, and a Certified Interpretive Guide.
She has presented her work at the Chicago Public Schools Summer Leadership Conference, in annual meetings of the Visitor Studies Association and American Alliance of Museums, and as part of the USDA Forest Service’s Sustainable Cities Speaker Series. She has also delivered a keynote address to the Field Museum of Natural History’s Youth Conservation Action conference.
Rabkin graduated from Northwestern University, cum laude, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature and History. She has a master’s degree in Elementary Education from National Louis University. In 2019, she completed san Elevate fellowship in the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Michelle Rabkin is a leading educator for programming that reaches students and trains teachers in the Chicago area. Her professional work stems from a longtime passion for education, conservation, and sustainability, specifically within urban areas.
As the current vice president of education at the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Rabkin oversees cross-institutional partnerships and manages the museum’s education programming. Rabkin’s career at the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum began in 2010, when she joined as a student programs coordinator, teaching and developing curriculum for student field trips. Before her most recent role as vice president of education, she was the senior director of education. Under her leadership, nearly 800,000 students, over 15,000 teachers, and hundreds of thousands of museum visitors have been served to date.
In addition to leading programming and partnerships, Rabkin contributes to the environmental and education fields through publications. She co-wrote the chapter “Tree Squirrels: Narrators of Nature in Your Neighborhood” in the National Science Teachers Association publication of Citizen Science: 15 Lessons that Bring Biology to Life and published an article in Beyond Trees, a publication of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service.
Rabkin has also taught for DePaul University for nine years. The course she co-teaches, Environmental Education and Stewardship, empowers environmental science students to use educational approaches that foster curiosity in others. This work reiterates Rabkin’s passion for education and hearkens back to her first professional position as a Chicago Public Schools teacher at Carrie Jacobs Bond Elementary School.
The collective power of multiple institutions working together is essential to Rabkin’s mission. In recent years she led a multi-museum coalition to increase the use of museum resources in Chicago school districts and was selected to be a member of the leadership team of the Chicago Wilderness Priority Species initiative to help protect the monarch butterfly population. Additionally, she was a United Nations delegate to the World Forum on Urban Forests, a Teach for America Greater Chicago–Northwest Indiana Elevate Fellow, and a Certified Interpretive Guide.
She has presented her work at the Chicago Public Schools Summer Leadership Conference, in annual meetings of the Visitor Studies Association and American Alliance of Museums, and as part of the USDA Forest Service’s Sustainable Cities Speaker Series. She has also delivered a keynote address to the Field Museum of Natural History’s Youth Conservation Action conference.
Rabkin graduated from Northwestern University, cum laude, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature and History. She has a master’s degree in Elementary Education from National Louis University. In 2019, she completed san Elevate fellowship in the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.