College of Natural Sciences Staff Spotlight: Lynn Hicken
Posted: April 24, 2025 | Author: Southern Utah University | Read Time: 3 minutes
The SUU STEM Center for Teaching and Learning is a hotbed of outreach learning and engagement. Part of the leadership team of this important center is Assistant Director, Lynn Hicken. Joining the SUU STEM Center in April 2021, Lynn has recently commemorated her 4-year anniversary with the university. Lynn’s role at the STEM Center includes overseeing the STEM Library, Wonder Wednesday, field trip funding for schools, and social media and marketing.
Lynn’s background in the sciences includes a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brigham Young University-Hawaii. A current master’s degree student at SUU in education, Lynn’s thesis project involves her work in the STEM Center. Even though the STEM Library is full of valuable educational equipment, only a few teachers from each school in Iron County are using it regularly. Wanting to increase usage and thus improve the STEM education of Iron County students, Lynn began exploring options to increase usage and engagement. In the end, Lynn discovered that teachers often did not know how to use the equipment and how it might benefit their pedagogy. So, Lynn developed a professional development program known as the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Integrated Education (STEMIE) Professional Development Program. Lynn now trains teachers at each grade level how to use the equipment in the STEM Library that coincides with the Utah SEEd Standards and UEN Math Standards for each of those grades. She will be documenting the success of this intervention as part of her master’s degree.
When asked about her favorite thing working in the SUU STEM Center, Lynn reported that the capacity to have a positive impact on the kids in our community is very valuable to her. This positive impact is real. Last year, the SUU STEM Center contacted over 20,000 individuals in southwestern Utah. This level of engagement speaks to the dedication of the STEM team in supporting STEM education and STEM learners of all ages. Lynn’s favorite activity is Wonder Wednesday. This program is a collaboration between SUU artsFUSION, the Southern Utah Museum of Art, the Cedar City Public Library, SUU STEM Center, Frontier Homestead State Park & Museum, and the SUU Frehner Museum of Natural History. Designed to engage K-5 students in STEM learning, in this role, Lynn gets to dream up ideas to provide fun, hands-on, educational experiences with a team of community collaborators.
Outside of her work at SUU, Lynn is married to Bret Hicken, who also works at SUU, in facilities management. This year they will be celebrating their 20th anniversary! Lynn and Bret have two children, a senior at Canyon View High School and a freshman at Success Academy. In addition to spending time with her family, Lynn enjoys travelling (she has visited 11 countries), cooking (which she regularly shares with the STEM team), gardening, and enjoying nature.
We here in the College of Natural Sciences certainly enjoy our interactions with Lynn and her enthusiastic and collaborative nature. She and her colleagues in the STEM Center are fostering the fascination and the wonder that are critical to support STEM engagement for learners of all ages.
Tags: College of Natural Sciences Career and Professional Development FacStaff STEM
