Montessori Children’s House (MCH) environmental specialist Ali Yeates recently joined a panel of speakers featured in Seattle’s STEM-convention targeted toward girls, GeekGirlCon.

GeekGirlCon is an organization that empowers women and girls to pursue their passions —whether they love science and technology, comics, literature, gaming “or anything else!” according to their website. “Everybody is a geek at heart, in one way or another,” convention organizers said.

Yeates has been with MCH in Redmond for two years, and has been a long-time advocate of girls in tech — and nature. Before joining MCH, she worked with the National Park Service as an outreach and education ranger, interpretative ranger and co-director of the Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps in Yellowstone and Big Bend National Parks. She spent four years teaching in Expeditionary Learning at two local charter schools and was the director of the Girls in Research, Invention, Technology and Science Program. In addition to being a part of the MCH education team, she is a candidate for master’s in environmental management.

When one of her student’s parents, Kari Ramadorai, invited Yeates to be a part of the “Science Isn’t Scary” panel, she jumped at the chance. They discussed how to incorporate science into everyday activities and conversations with the goal of empowering young women to see themselves as scientists, she said.

The rest of the panel was made up of female scientists and other Montessori educators.