I believe science and engineering education should empower students to think critically, act ethically, and recognize themselves as change makers who can shape a better future.”
Kelly’s Story
Kelly Melendez Loaiza is an environmental engineering educator committed to helping students engage with complex, real-world challenges through science, engineering, and interdisciplinary thinking. Her work centers on connecting ethics, environmental science, engineering design, artificial intelligence, and media literacy so students can better understand both the technical and societal dimensions of today’s most pressing issues.
In her classroom, students investigate authentic environmental problems, evaluate the impacts of emerging technologies, and consider the ethical responsibilities of engineers and scientists. Kelly emphasizes learning experiences that extend beyond content mastery to build curiosity, systems thinking, collaboration, and student agency in solving real-world problems.
Kelly holds a bachelor’s degree in geology/Spanish from Hartwick College and a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of New Hampshire. She has extensive experience in curriculum development. More recently, she has been involved in standards development, including collaborating with VHB, a professional engineering firm and other post secondary partners to help design and launch a new state Environmental Engineering standard in Rhode Island. The standard reflects the evolving needs of the field and the growing importance of environmental engineering education.
Her work has also been recognized nationally through two featured pieces by The News Literacy Project, highlighting her integration of news literacy into science and engineering instruction. (NLP 2019 and NLP 2024) These pieces spotlight her efforts to help students critically evaluate information, distinguish credible sources, and understand how media shapes public perception of scientific and environmental issues.
Across all of her work, Kelly remains grounded in the belief that education should do more than prepare students for future careers; it should inspire them to imagine a better future, and most importantly, empower them to build it.