Deb Harding (She/Her)
Deb Harding is a middle school computer science teacher at STEM Launch in Thornton, CO. She began her career in 1988 as a math teacher and established a computer lab for students to explore computer science. In 1999, she joined the business world to work in the CS field. After experiencing the lack of diversity in the field, she returned to the classroom seeking to inspire students not represented in the CS field to consider it as a career choice. She published a related article in Ed Week, “Time Out of the Classroom Made Me a Better STEM Teacher.” Deb established the Family MakerSpace to help reduce the digital divide and has received $40,000 in grants over the last few years. She is proud of the amazing solutions that her students are developing. In 2019, two of her middle school teams earned first and third place in the Congressional App Challenge for creating their Safe Space and Immigration apps.