Director Bio/ARIZONA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Background

The Arizona Academy of Science, one of the many Phoenix charter schools is the joint vision of co-founder/executive director Joan E. Miller and co-founder/academic director Thomas J. Rollins. With a philosophy focused on academic excellence and a curriculum steeped in the sciences and facilitated by small class sizes, Miller and Rollins received acceptance from the Arizona Department of Education for their charter school in November 1997. The fall of 1998 saw the arrival of grades 6-8 and in the following spring and summer, the current school building at 1111 North 1st Street was purchased and renovated. Over the course of the next two years, the computer and science labs were completed and additional grades were added to include all four years of high school. In 2004, Rawlins Elementary, the final piece of the founders' K-12 scholastic vision, completed its first year at its Glendale location.

Miller holds an MBA from Wake Forest University , and earned her undergraduate degree, a bachelor of science in chemistry, from Simmons College .

Rollins graduated from LaSalle University with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and applied math as well as a master's degree in applied math.

Arizona Academy of Science, a phoenix Arizona school, is one of many Maricopa Arizona schools putting your student's achievements and college futures FIRST, making us different than other Arizona public high schools.