Willa McGriff is a graduate of North Carolina Central University obtaining a bachelor of science degree in Biology.  She also obtains a Master of Science degree from Atlanta University.  After completing the graduate program, she worked for fortune five hundred company, Kraft.  It was there that she realized that she wanted to return to the educational field and obtained a research position in Dr. Bartness’ lab at Georgia State University (GSU).  It was a Georgia State University where she started teaching in the biology department in the labs.  Wanting to continue teaching, she accepted a biology instructor position at Spelman College teaching both lectures and laboratories. After teaching for several years she became an interim dean working with the first-year students’ experience.  After completing the interim dean position, she was offered the Freshman Success position working with science, mathematics and engineering students (STEM) with professors designing programs to retain these students in their respective majors.   After obtaining a science broad field teaching certificate from the TEEM program at Georgia State University, in 2011 she started teaching at Miller Grove High School.  While at Miller Grove High School, she has participated in a number of professional development program:  Georgia Adopt A Steam GA Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division Chemical Certificate/Volunteer,  Macroinvertebrate QA/C Certificate/Volunteer , Master Gardener Awardee for Outdoor Classroom – 2018-2019, Monarch Certificate -Fernbank-Fall 2018, Natural Communities with Fernbank-2017-2018, River to Reef Program – Georgia Aquarium-Summer 2017, Georgia Intern-Fellowships for Teachers-GIFT-Summer 2017 Studied microbes-Dr. Frank Stewart Mentor, SWiMS-The Summer Workshop in Marine Science at Georgia Tech, Flynn High School Laboratory Safety Course -August 3, 2016, Key Stone Science School – Awardee Summer 2016, and 21st Century Learning Using Technology to Flip Your Classroom- November 13, 2012.