Lalitha Murali

About Lalitha's Community Action Project (CAP) 

Glen Hills Middle School students will team up to improve the health of their local river through a community action project. They will organize clean-up days to remove trash from the riverbanks, plant native vegetation to reduce erosion, and conduct simple water quality tests. Students will also create educational posters and present their findings to the community, raising awareness about protecting local waterways and promoting environmental responsibility.

Some of the activities that they have participated in this year so far are include: a river cleanup, water testing and biotic index at the Milwaukee River, a STEM Fair at the elementary school, a STEAM Fair at the middle school, and a presentation at the SYSTEM NOW STEM Conference. They will be participating in the World Water Day, Earth Day, School Clean up, and the Spring River cleanup in the next few months. They are thankful to the local community partners and EArthEcho International for their ongoing support.

About Lalitha

Lalitha is a gifted and talented teacher for the Glendale River-Hills School District. Sixteen years ago, when she started her job as a gifted and talented teacher, she noticed that there were only a handful of immigrant and minority children in the gifted programs. Lalitha’s belief is that given the right resources and experiences, every child can reach his/her true potential. Through starting educational outreach programs and organizing workshops, she started to reach out to the underrepresented groups in her school and in her community. 

Today, she has strong advanced-level programming for all of her students where more minority and immigrant children are participating. Lalitha was chosen as one of the top 20 Women of Influence Awardees in Wisconsin for her educational leadership in 2017. She was also chosen as one of the top 21 International Rotary Peace Fellows in 2019 and spent three months in Thailand. She is one of the 2023 Kohl's Fellows for her skill as a leader and agent for positive change and her superior ability to inspire a love of learning. Her commitment to advancing STEM education has earned her recognition as the 2023-24 Global STEM Award Winner for the Inspiring Leader Category for the USA and Canada region.

As the President of the Wisconsin Science Education Foundation, she organizes and conducts the Badger State Science and Engineering Fair every year for WI students. Her goal is to close the opportunity gap that exists among the inner-city and suburban school districts and provide opportunities for inner-city students to participate in science fairs and other STEM programs. Lalitha’s students designed two microgravity experiments for NASA last year and she had an opportunity to fly in a Zero-G flight to
conduct those experiments in March 2024. Lalitha’s remarkable contributions to STEM education, dedication to fostering diversity and inclusion, and tireless efforts to empower students to reach for the stars make her an outstanding STEM educator.

More About Me

What keeps you hopeful for the future?

Seeing my students participate in various community action projects and believe in their vision for a sustainable future gives me hope that they will change our world for a better future.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a lawyer.

What is one fun fact people should know about you?

I was an All India Radio Programmer for 10 plus years in India.