Dr. Tara O’Neill is the Director of the STEMS^2 Masters in the College of Education at the University of Hawai‘i- Manoa. She is the designer of the STEMS^2 construct and co-designer of the STEMS2  Masters. Dr. O’Neill specializes in multicultural, place-based science and STEM/STEMS2 education. Her scholarly activities focus around three primary areas: 1) science identity development of middle school girls from non-dominate (Native Hawaiian, African American, Latino/a, Micronesian, Filipino and high poverty) backgrounds; 2) the role of place-based education in building culturally integrated STEMS2 (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Social Sciences and Sense of Place) learning experiences; and 3) effective professional development models for building in-serve teachers’ willingness and capacity to teach interdisciplinary STEMS2 curricula that integrates both Indigenous and Western knowledge, skills, and practices. Dr. O’Neill served as an appointed member of the Journal of Research and Science Teaching Editorial Review Board and Chair of the American Education Research Association Science Special Interest Group. She has published on science and STEM education in multiple journals, including the American Education Research Journal, Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Equity and Excellence in Education.