Anita Krishnamurthi

Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi is the Director of STEM Policy at the Afterschool Alliance in Washington, DC. Trained as an astronomer, Anita received her PhD from The Ohio State University and conducted her postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Anita has been involved in science education and outreach to a wide variety of audiences for the past decade. She worked at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC in the Office on Public Understanding of Science and then at NASA. She was a Program Manager for space science education at NASA HQ and then moved to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to become the lead for Education and Public Outreach in Astrophysics. While at Goddard, she led the development of a very successful astronomy afterschool program that led to her engagement in afterschool. As a scientist, she feels the urgency of expanding STEM learning opportunities for our children and youth and is passionate about promoting the afterschool space as an effective learning environment for STEM. She joined the Afterschool Alliance in June 2010 after serving as the John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow for the American Astronomical Society.

In her current role, Dr. Krishnamurthi works to create and advance federal, state, and local opportunities and policies to expand resources and activities that provide students with access to a rich STEM curriculum in their after school programs.