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Elections 2020

Elections - 2020 -- Executive Board Officers

NJAAPT will be holding elections for Executive Board officers August 13-19, 2020.

Nominations have been submitted, and the candidates are listed below.

All nominees are previous officers, but we hope in the future that more teachers will consider running. All are welcome to attend Executive Board meetings to help us plan our events.

We will still run the election because we would like to test out how the process works (online).

Information about voting will be emailed out soon.

The nominees for 2020 are:

Dr. Jim Ferrara (President)

NJAAPT & AAPT member since 2002. NJAAPT Executive Board member since 2005.

BS-Materials Science & Engineering

MS-Polymer Engineering, MIT 87 & 88.

PhD-Chemical Engineering (Aerospace composites), Univ of Washington 1994.

Worked internationally in scientific instrumentation & manufacturing industry from 1994-2001

Teaching all levels of physics in NJ public schools since 2002.

Senior physics teacher at Bernards HS in Bernardsville since 2005.

AP Reader and question writer since 2013.

John Valente (Vice-President)

NJAAPT member since 1983 and Executive Board member since 1990

BS-Biology Education, Queens College, NYC

MS Physical Science Education, Trenton State College, NJ

Science and Physics Instructor for the past 43 years.

Co-Chair of the NJAAPT Physics Olympics Committee since 2000

NJAAPT Physics Teaching award, 2005

Physical Science Instructor for the Stars Challenge from 2005-2020

Physics Instructor (Advanced & AP physics) at the Marine Academy of Science & Technology, NJ, from 1988 to present.

Dr. Daniel Kaplan (Treasurer)

Dr. Kaplan received his B.S. in Physics from SUNY at Albany in 1977 and his PhD in Physics from Princeton University in 1981. He spent 25 years in industry, mostly at Bell Laboratories, working on a number of diverse research and development projects ranging from using ion beams as probes of near surface phenomena in solids, extending X-ray interferometric techniques for detailed studies of physical phenomena, and developing fabrication, reliability, and testing of devices for ultra-high reliability fiber optical communication. Fifteen years ago, Dr. Kaplan found his true calling as a high school Physics teacher. In 2012, Dr. Kaplan received the Distinguished Secondary School Teacher Award for the state of NJ.

As of the 2020-21 school year, Dr. Kaplan is teaching AP Physics at Montclair HIgh School.

Dr. Kaplan enjoys spending time with his family, and long-distance bike rides.

Randall (Randy) Pratt (Secretary)

NJAAPT & AAPT member since 2012, NJAAPT Executive Board member since 2018, NJAAPT Secretary since February 2019.

BS Electrical Engineering, MIT 1983; MS Electrical Engineering, University of Minnesota 1986. Designed integrated circuits for telecommunication systems, hard disk drives and oscilloscopes for over 20 years at AT&T/Lucent Bell Laboratories, Agere Systems, and LeCroy Corporation.

Taught elementary/middle school science in Newark and East Orange from 1991-1995. Began teaching high school physics in 2012, currently at New Providence High School.