Hannah O.

Dr. Hannah Oldham is a 16-year veteran teacher and STEM Scholar Academy Coordinator at Sprayberry High School in Marietta, GA. She helped the school become the first STEM certified school in the district that works as an integrated STEM model, allowing STEM students get enhanced curriculum and experiences while maintaining connections to the entire school community. Within that school community, Hannah is passionate about giving the next generation of women safe spaces to grow, learn, and be inspired to pursue STEM careers. Dr. Oldham has been the Girls Who Code club facilitator since 2017, and has had 16 students graduate from the program who chose to pursue STEM careers in college. Among these graduates include a student who has self-published a book on biomedical engineering and another student who has applied for a patent for their work on Machine Learning algorithms for Farsi Ghazal poems. Hannah has also been selected as a keynote speaker for the 2020 Girls Who Code virtual graduation and is one of the national lead facilitators for the GWC Loops program which pairs up college clubs with high school clubs to foster mentoring and sisterhood bond. Recently Hannah expanded this idea and brought her high school club to the local elementary school. Over 36 girls from elementary to high school bonded over coding and computer science. In addition to being a Girls who Code facilitator, she also became the first Varsity eSports coach in her district and took her team to state playoffs in their first season. She is excited that she is able to provide another platform where she can support, encourage, and build up young women in an area where they lack representation. She continues to highlight under-represented groups by bringing in professional women leaders from a variety of STEM fields. Within just the last 3 years has brought in 14 different women from across the country and of those women, 11 are BIPOC and 2 are member of the LGBTQ+ community. “Representation matters” is a mantra that Hannah consistently says to her students and that can be seen in her tireless efforts to support the young women she educates. Hannah has helped 14 students be recognized with NCWiT awards at both the high school and college level. In 2022 and 2023 she was awarded the NCWiT Georgia Educator award and was selected as the National Award recipient in 2024. Additionally, Hannah was selected as the 2023 Woman of the Year in STEAM Education by Women in Technology (Wit). She was also selected to be part of the first all-female cohort of the NASA Lift-off institute, spending a week at Johnson Space Center and learning hands on from NASA astronauts and researchers. When she is not working tirelessly to help empower the next generation of women in STEM, she is an Ironman Triathlete having competed in 7 Ironman70.3 events including representing team USA at World Championships in Finland in 2023.