When Regina Schofield, now director of corporate engagement and education outreach at Battelle—a global research and development firm—was an undergraduate at Mississippi College, in Clinton, Miss., she invited former Governor William Winter to address her business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi. When Winter accepted, the president of the college summoned Regina to his office to ask how she had mustered the courage to cold call such a revered figure. “And I looked at the president of my college and I literally said ‘Like my dad says, we’re all the same—everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time.’”
For the Honorable Regina B. Schofield, a veteran of a string of important jobs in both Bush administrations and the nonprofit world, confidence comes naturally. It was instilled early by her father, a schoolteacher, who worked to help desegregate Mississippi’s public schools.
“My dad spent a lot of time talking to me about how people are the same. He served in the Army for three years, came back to Mississippi, and was doing some work for someone at their home, and the guy taught in Jefferson County, and he saw my dad doing some math to fix some kind of problem. He realized how good my dad was at math and asked him if he’d thought about going to college. My dad hadn’t thought about going to college. All his brothers and an uncle had served in the military but hadn’t gone to college. Black people weren’t given the same access to the G.I. Bill, but this man told my dad that he would help him go to college. And he helped my dad access the G.I. Bill.”
Schofield’s father taught in Jefferson County, where the schools then were separate but not equal. She can remember her father using his own money to purchase gym equipment for his students. Schofield’s mother was pulled out of high school only months before she was to graduate to help with picking cotton and raising her siblings.
More than an acronym, as one piece of STEM literature observes, a STEM education “fosters the next generation of innovators.”
Schofield, who earned a BS in Business Administration from Mississippi College and an MBA in Business Management from Jackson State, leads one of the country’s largest STEM initiatives. Battelle “works with educators, policymakers, industries and communities to bring STEM learning to young, talented students.” Schofield is passionate about ensuring that as many kids as possible have access to STEM programs.
STEM stands for “science, technology, engineering, and math.” More than an acronym, as one piece of STEM literature observes, a STEM education “fosters the next generation of innovators.” STEM education helps “students connect classroom learning to the real world.” The industrialist Gordon Battelle, who died in 1923, left behind a vision of scientific and technological education to improve society. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle does both internal research and development and funds philanthropic endeavors.
“In a rural area, you really have to talk people out of a mindset of ‘we don’t have STEM.’ It’s like, yes you do.”
“We’ve been around for more than 90 years,” says Schofield, but it has been in the last 18 years that we’ve had the STEM iteration, with the goal to ensure that all students have access to high-quality STEM. Somebody whose mom or dad works at Los Alamos knows what STEM looks like, but if you’re in rural Mississippi, you don’t know what that looks like.
“My job is to support staff that are not in central Ohio—51 percent of our workforce is outside of Central Ohio, primarily to make sure that we support high-quality STEM projects. We were given a mandate in fiscal year 2020 to reach a million students by the year 2025. We reached 1.67 million students in 2024. Honestly, my passion is for rural areas, and so when we have staff located near rural areas, I encourage them to make sure we’re funding some really good, high-quality STEM programs—these programs do exist in rural areas or you can build them with great educators. In a rural area, you really have to talk people out of a mindset of ‘we don’t have STEM.’ It’s like, yes you do. There are some organizations that want you to go in and give them a quarter of a million bucks and then go away. That’s not how I work with organizations. For me, it’s a trust-based relationship, so I work and try to find small organizations that need a little bit of money to do a lot of work in a rural area. And that’s where we are.”
Schofield continued, “I was just talking to someone this morning about the work that we’re doing near Port St. Joe, Fla. The schools are small, and educators have not had the opportunity to put high-quality STEM programs for all students into consistent practice. And so, I spend a lot of time working with our liaisons in those communities. Some school districts can be really hard to work with because, in many places, there is a belief that STEM practices are not for every student. When we can’t get past that barrier with school leaders, we don’t fund the schools, rather we often end up funding non-profits that are interested in supporting the community.”
“Honestly my passion is for rural areas,” says Schofield, “and so when we have staff located near rural areas, I encourage them to make sure we’re funding some really good, high-quality STEM programs.”
Schofield works in a variety of ways. “My colleagues in Tennessee have a contract with the State of Tennessee to provide good quality teacher professional development,” she explains, “and we do that in a lot of ways. We do that with teachers directly. A teacher in rural Tennessee might want to learn more about immersive STEM practices, and so my colleagues create a cohort, those teachers learn from each other, and they’re given professional development by our staff—we have former teachers on staff, and we have a former principal on staff. They are steeped in education and the delivery of STEM principles and culture that can transform a school. The idea is that once you teach a teacher, that teacher will recycle that and teach other students. Sometimes a teacher who’s doing project-based learning STEM practices will close her door and not share it with others because she doesn’t want the principal to shut her down. And so, we started saying to a teacher, ‘Hey, grab a leader, and bring a principal or assistant principal with you.’”
Schofield is particularly insistent that girls are not slighted. “Sometimes young women are deterred from learning science and math, and often by their own mothers. Sometimes our mothers say ‘Oh, girls aren’t good at STEM.’ I mean, it’s just the way we are brainwashed in society to think that women can’t do tough things.”
Schofield realizes that not all young women had the early training in self-confidence she got from her father. She often coaches young women. She tells them to “lean into your power and like don’t go in a room and sit on the side, at the back of the room rather go sit at the table. Grow into your space, and become more comfortable with who you are.” She is proud of women’s progress but shares a worry that things may be going backwards.
Schofield realizes that not all young women had the early training in self-confidence she got from her father. She often coaches young women.
Schofield lives in Virginia and is the mother of two adult children who are both in college. She attends Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, where she sings in the choir, and has enjoyed a distinguished career. It’s quite a resume: She has served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, where she oversaw the AMBER Alert program for the entire country. She worked on Project Safe Neighborhoods, Project Safe Childhood, the President’s DNA Initiative, the Prisoner Reentry Initiative, and Helping America’s Youth.
Schofield was Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and White House Liaison at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She was managing director of the Casey Family Programs, where she worked to reduce the time kids spend in foster care. To top it off, she was awarded an honorary J.D. from her alma mater, Mississippi College School of Law.
“I decided that the only way I can wake up in the morning and justify having spent time away from my kids is to be helping kids who are less well off than my kids are.”
If you look at Regina Schofield’s resume, you’ll notice something: she has spent much of her career advocating for children. There’s a reason for that. “When I was in the Bush Justice Department,” she says, “I spent so much time traveling, doing speaking engagements, and going all over the country. I spent a lot of time away from my kids. And, so, I decided that the only way I can wake up in the morning and justify having spent time away from my kids is to be helping kids who are less well off than my kids are.”
Regina is making a difference for children across the country by introducing them to the skills they’ll need to thrive.