Solar System Ambassadors
Krista Testin
Krista Murnane Testin is a third-year graduate student at the University of Nebraska Omaha. She graduated with an Earth and Space Teaching Bachelors of Science in 2003 and have returned to complete a Masters of Science in Secondary Education with a concentration in STEM to be completed spring 2020. She spent five years teaching in the Minnesota public schools before moving to Rapid City, South Dakota where she started in the public schools before changing to informal education and working at the Journey Museum running the Journey Into Space portable planetarium program. In that position she had the opportunity to be an Earth Ambassador for two years. Another move five years later and currently, she is the planetarium operator at the UNO Mallory Kountze Planetarium. Her position continues to allow her to inspire, encourage, and mentor people in all stages of life and backgrounds. She joined the Omaha Astronomical Society a few years ago because of her passion for the night sky and had been working with their outreach programs already. Then she became the Amateur Astronomer for the Spirit of Nebraska Girl Scout Council as part of NASA’s Girl Scout Reach For The Stars grant program. She works with Girls Scouts across the state of Nebraska supporting their astronomy club, Beyond Our World (NE BOW) Astronomy Club, with astronomy and educational expertise and as a STEM role model. She continues to find ways to pass on her knowledge and resources to others, to encourage individuals to become observers and citizen scientists of the natural world around them.