Ted Willard is a Program Director of NGSS@NSTA at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). During the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), he oversaw NSTA's feedback and now coordinates NSTA's efforts to support teachers in implementation of NGSS. Prior to joining NSTA in 2012, Ted spent a dozen years at AAAS Project 2061. There he was responsible for the development of the growth-of-understanding maps published in Atlas of Science Literacy , Volume 2. Ted also was involved in many other areas of Project 2061's efforts towards standards-based education reform including science education research, curriculum resources development, assessment development, and teacher professional development. Earlier in his career, Ted spent five years teaching high school physics in Asheville, North Carolina and five years editing elementary and high school science textbooks for the Globe Book Company (now part of Pearson) and Harcourt Brace School Publishers (now part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Ted holds a B.S. in earth, atmospheric, and planetary science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.