Dr. Freda Deskin • United States of America

Freda Deskin is an award-winning educator more than 4 decades of experience as a veteran teacher in rural, suburban and inner-city schools throughout Oklahoma. Freda Deskin taught at the University of Oklahoma College of Education where she was honored with the Career Achievement Award. She was the founding dean of STEM education at Oklahoma City University before founding ASTEC Charter School in 2000. Freda Deskin has served as the schools’ superintendent and CEO.

ASTEC is an inner-city public school in Oklahoma City. The state’s first start-up school serves a highly diverse student body with a 97% poverty rate.

Out of necessity, Deskin began working when she was 13 years-old and continued working while earning three degrees and additional post-doctoral studies. She was recognized as a “Distinguished Scholar” as an undergraduate and as a National Collegiate Scholastic All-American Scholar as a graduate student. Freda Deskin earned a B.S. in education from the University of Central Oklahoma, a Masters in Education and a Ph.D. in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Deskin holds a certificate in Strategic School Management from Harvard University; she has completed post-graduate work in International Finance at Oklahoma City University (OCU) and has more than 2500 clock hours training in the aerospace sciences.

While teaching in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, Freda Deskin was selected from a field of more than 11,000 applicants, to become a finalist in the NASA's "Teacher-in-Space" project. The shuttle mission associated with this program claimed the lives of teacher, Christa McAuliffe and the crew of the Challenger space shuttle. After returning to Oklahoma, Deskin founded the Oklahoma Aerospace Academy summer space camps where tens of thousands of students were introduced to the STEM subjects for 26 summers. Freda Deskin’s contributions earned her a place in National Women in Aerospace Hall of Fame.