Jaime Chao Mignano is the director of technology and innovation at the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Maryland, an all-girls K–12 independent school. In this role, she builds a schoolwide culture of enthusiastic maker-centered learning and purpose-driven innovation in the service of peace and justice. For over a decade in the Washington, DC, area she has managed makerspace and academic technology programs at public, independent, and charter schools. Jaime’s diverse classroom applications of Project Zero (PZ) ideas have grown her practice and leadership at the intersection of technology and justice education. She has presented PZ-inspired workshops at conferences such as the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Conference, the NAIS People of Color Conference, the International Coalition of Girls Schools Symposium, the Project Zero Perspectives conference, and Washington International School Institute for Teachers (WISIT).
Jaime has been a member of the DC-based leadership team for the PZ research projects Making Across the Curriculum and JusticexDesign. She has coauthored practitioner field notes and lesson plans published by Agency by Design, JusticexDesign, and Enslaved.org, as well as the chapter “JusticexDesign: Exploring Power, Representation, and Participation through Maker-Centered Learning” in the Handbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education (2021). Jaime holds BAs in international relations in public policy and East Asian languages and cultures from Michigan State University, as well as an MA in technology in education from the University of Michigan. Jaime is a mom of two teens and an avid gardener with a backyard flock of hens.
What might it look like when two educators from different schools create a single point of connection that brings their students together in community for one year? In 2017 Jaime Chao Mignano, the director of technology and innovation at Stone Ridge...