Mackenzie Miller

I am a science educator completing my M.Ed. in Secondary Education at DePaul University, serving as a Resident Teacher with the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) and AmeriCorps. I currently teach five sections of high school Chemistry at George Washington High School in Chicago, including IB MYP courses.

Before transitioning into teaching, I spent more than five years as a research chemist developing new drugs to treat persistent and debilitating diseases. I worked at biotech companies in Boston, MA and Madison, WI synthesizing and characterizing peptides and RNA conjugates for targeted therapies. That background in the lab shapes how I teach: I want students to see science as something real, precise, and genuinely interesting rather than a set of formulas to memorize.

Molecute started as a small collection of HTML simulations I built to scaffold abstract concepts for my students. It's grown into a full suite of interactive tools covering topics like atomic structure, bonding, and stoichiometry, designed to meet students where they are and make the invisible visible. Molecute will always be a free, open-access resource. When I'm not building simulations, I'm probably sewing, reading, or chasing my toddler around a park where we live on the north side of Chicago.