Title: Science Teacher
Company: PACE (Palmetto Achievement Center for Excellence) Academy
Location: Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Debbie J. Bond, founding science teacher at PACE Academy (Palmetto Achievement Center for Excellence), has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in the area of STEM education, advocacy for students with dyslexia, and other disabilities that impact student’s ability to read and write.
With more than 30 years of experience in the field of education to her credit, Ms. Bond has excelled as a science teacher at PACE Academy, where she has utilized her renowned and innovative teaching methods. She is a certified Orton Gillingham instructor. In addition to her science teaching duties, she applies Orton Gillingham techniques to her classroom, which supports students with reading and writing difficulties. Having built an esteemed career through the enhancement of learning experiences for all students, Ms. Bond additionally spearheads a science club at PACE Academy that is aimed at nurturing young minds’ interest in STEM subjects.
Ms. Bond’s stellar efforts as an educator extend to securing resources for her students and PACE Academy through grant proposals, having garnered recognition via the South Carolina NASA Grant Consortium after accepting a challenge to use simulated moon dust for students to participate in the Plant the Moon Challenge from International Competitive Sciences (ICS) to observe how plants could be grown on the moon. Additionally, she collaborates with the ICS to facilitate her students’ involvement in developing experiments aboard the International Space Station. As a result, her students recently received the opportunity to engage in live sessions with the International Space Station as well as astronaut Loral O’Hara, and the students have submitted research ideas to alleviate the pain of muscular dystrophy in microgravity.
Beyond her responsibilities in the classroom, Ms. Bond found much success in athletic endeavors. In 2009, she made history as the first female captain of an all-male team to win a hockey tournament in the United States. Further, as part of women’s hockey teams and working with the ECHL in women’s hockey for the South Carolina Inferno and Buffalo Sabres, she helped to win three different championships. In 2011, Ms. Bond was proudly honored as the Most Valuable Player at the Can/AM Adult Hockey Camp.
Ms. Bond continues to flex her creative muscles as well, performing both piano and violin in her spare time. Driven by her own experiences living with dyslexia, she remains a vocal advocate for dyslexic student’s rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1973 and is a strong proponent for the use of service dogs and the rights of people with hidden disabilities and their need to have a service dog to ensure they are afforded the same opportunities in public as others. In fact, Ms. Bond and her own service dog were featured in Nick Hamm’s film “Gigi & Nate,” a drama that focused on the bond between a quadriplegic man and his service monkey. Further, her service dog, Apollo, is the South Carolina State Museum’s “hero dog” and has been invited to sit on the Harlem Globetrotters’ bench each time they come to town. Apollo was also named as a VIP by Cary Elwes for his book tour promoting “As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride,” and he appears on the local news station when Ms. Bond is featured for her advocacy and STEM activities. Currently, Ms. Bond is starting to train her next service dog, Sir Artemis Creed, so Apollo will be able to retire and be a therapy dog for students with reading disabilities to come visit and have students read to him a few days a week.
Before embarking on her professional path, Ms. Bond pursued an education at Wells College, from which she earned a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and physical sciences with a minor in computer science. During this time, she was presented with the Zabriskie Science Award in 1997 for her pioneering work on proving that a binary nxn matrix’s determinant did not follow Fibonacci sequence. She continued her studies with a Master of Arts in interdisciplinary education with a concentration in culture, language and diversity from Santa Clara University. Ms. Bond was inducted into the Alpha Sigma Nu Society at Santa Clara, a prestigious Jesuit honor society.
After her master’s degree, Ms. Bond eventually continued her academic ambitions at Syracuse University, where she worked for Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA) and became a leader in the creation of online surveys using SQL and the analysis of written text from paper surveys and online surveys. In addition to her work at SUPA, she completed a teaching fellowship and taught classes in statistical analysis and multimedia message design.
Attributing her success to her genuine concern for her students, Ms. Bond was recently distinguished as the finalist for the STEM Educator of the Year Award of the Midlands of South Carolina. She is incredibly proud to have refined multiple skills despite the inherent obstacles that she encountered from her own experiences with dyslexia, as she is fluent in five languages and has conducted research at the University of York and Sheffield University, in which she led the way to ensure students with disabilities who were enrolled in the Open University’s online learning program were afforded the same opportunities and funding as those students who attended courses on campus.
Working as a professor at Villa Maria College allowed Ms. Bond to teach students such subjects as physical sciences; mathematics, nature and art; algebra and statistics. Looking toward the future, Ms. Bond hopes to obtain her doctorate in meteorology and severe weather while simultaneously helping PACE Academy meet all of its academic and state requirements.
For more information, please visit:
Contact Ms. Bond:
