STEAM project leader, Viewbank College

Veena Nair is a leading educator in STEM with more than 20 years’ experience teaching science-based subjects across three different countries – India, the United Arab Emirates and now Australia and has taught through American British Indian and Australian curricula. Veena was recently awarded the 2022 PM Awards in Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools and was the finalist in the Commonwealth Bank awards

Veena has been a key instigator of numerous initiatives to improve the quality of STEAM education not only for her own students but for students across Australia and other countries She collaborates with industry leaders and academics to introduce STEAM careers to her students, aligning technology and education. Veena’s efforts to get recognition for the VCE subject Systems Engineering as a bonus subject for engineering by all Universities in Victoria were recognised by the Design and Technology Teachers Association of Australia by awarding her the ‘Teacher of the Year’ award. Veena has been instrumental in starting the STEAM Futures conference initiative aimed at developing ongoing and active partnerships between schools, industry and academia. She serves as an education expert on academic and industry panels and initiatives ranging from sustainability to space exploration.

Veena is passionate about female participation in STEAM especially engineering and works closely with industry and academic partners to improve this outcome. Her passion for discovering innovative ways of making STEAM more engaging has helped increased the number of students who receive first-round offers to study engineering and technology subjects at university, especially young females and students from diverse backgrounds.

Veena currently teaches Engineering and Maths at Viewbank college Victoria and is the STEAM and Sustainability leader at the school.