GLAS STAFF
Kate Meredith
President/CEO
Kate Meredith has guided Geneva Lake Astrophysics & STEAM (GLAS) Education since its founding in 2018. GLAS was established as an independent nonprofit devoted to making science education accessible to all students, regardless of ability, socioeconomic status, or hometown. In 2020, the National Federation of the Blind chose GLAS Education to receive that year’s Bolotin Award; the award, named for Jacob Bolotin, a blind medical doctor, is presented each year to support accessibility and innovation.
Kate has taken a national leadership role in advancing sonification — the process of turning visual information and scientific data into non-speech audio – as a tool for scientific research and a pathway for BLV researchers to access and analyze data. Internationally, she leads a team of scientists, educators, and science students in discovery, creation, and application to advance STEM education and careers. In May 2023, Kate and GLAS Education were credited in a United Nations report for their contributions to research on sonification as a space science tool. She is also cited as the education and accessibility consultant with the Space Telescope Science Institute for developing Astronify, software designed to sonify astronomical data. In October 2025, Kate’s team was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to support the Sonification Network for the Geosciences.
Kate Murauskas
Director of Development
With over 20 years of nonprofit development experience, (our second) Kate joined the GLAS team in late 2025. Her experiences include the creation of a nonprofit, including policy design and implementation; board and staff development for numerous nonprofits; national accreditation, and asset management resulting in multi-million dollar growth for an establishing community foundation. If you ask Kate, she’ll tell you her favorite role in fund development is bragging about the good work of those for whom she brings in support. She considers her work to be comparable to a successful matchmaker – matching the personal interests and passions of donors with the efforts of those who serve through their talents and skills in nonprofit work. Together, Kate will tell you that we can make a difference. Through GLAS, that difference is in disability access to explore, learn and discover STEAM.
Adam McCulloch
Education and Outreach Manager
Adam McCulloch discovered his strong interest in astronomy while studying Physics at Carthage College. Since 2018, his interest in astronomy has benefitted many as he has helped develop and implement GLAS outreach and education efforts for both students and community members alike. As an experienced telescope operator, Adam leads telescope expeditions during GLAS Star Parties where retired educators and scientists pair up with GLAS to educate and entertain all who attend. Adam further educates about environmental impact managing our Dark Skies program through which he works with communities to adopt best practices for maintaining dark night-time skies throughout Southern Wisconsin. Working with student interns, Adam leads the Lakeshore Environmental and Night Sky Sensor (LENSS) project. In this work, students use sensors to measure the darkness of night skies around Geneva Lake. The goal of LENSS was to build and deploy remotely-operable Sky Quality Meters to take continuous measurements of how dark the night skies can be. Its success even captured the interest of PBS in 2023. As Adam advances the GLAS summer internship program, his goal is to not only provide hands-on STEM education, but to introduce students to career opportunities through STEM education.
Beth Davis
Business Manager
Beth Davis is the newest member of GLAS, serving the team as the first Business Manager. With the addition of Beth’s role, the STEM educators at GLAS can now concentrate more time and talent on STEM programming. Beth’s 30 years of experience in both business and nonprofit finance, provides the GLAS team opportunities to expand to meet developing workshops, community outreach, and nationwide collaborations, all in support of access to STEM. While new to STEM herself, Beth is an evergreen learner, and enjoys sharing her new discoveries to benefit GLAS and those we serve. Beth has a BS in Business Management and Finance from Columbia College of Missouri, and is active in music and community theatre, emphasizing the A for the STEAM in Geneva Lake Astrophysics and STEAM.
Chris Schultz
Communications Manager
Serving the Geneva Lake region as a newspaper reporter for more than 20 years, Chris is an engaged member of our community. He began covering the area as a reporter at the Janesville Gazette. Chris has over 40 years of journalistic experience with daily and weekly newspapers throughout the Midwest. The last 10 were spent writing for the Lake Geneva Regional News. Since 2018, Chris has created much of the news copy that appears on the GLAS website and in our social media posts. Although not an astronomer, he attends most every GLAS Star Party and community event capturing the positive impact of GLAS outreach efforts.
Olivia Smithmier-Bohn
Curriculum Specialist
While working on an astronomy accessibilities project in seventh grade, the wise and curious Olivia Smithmier-Bohn discovered her love of astronomy. Considering her own challenges with sight, she opted to study theology and philosophy in college. After college, she tutored students with special needs working as a lead member on a team at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison, Wisconsin. While her work was rewarding, her heart brought her back to her love of astronomy, and for that GLAS has benefitted from her work since 2021. Olivia has used her teaching skills as well as her own life experiences to assist GLAS with its Plug Plate Project. This program attempts to provide a deeper understanding of cosmological distances, red shift, field of view, and depth of field to persons who are blind or visually impaired. At GLAS Education, Olivia designs focus groups and develops supplementary materials for Universal Design Learning (UDL) tools created at GLAS. Olivia herself is visually impaired and is eager to make astronomy accessible to everyone who desires to discover.
Chris Kirby
Project Manager
GLAS was very fortunate the day Chris walked in and offered his services. Over time, his responsibilities have grown in significance and importance. Having grown up in the warm climes of South Africa, Chris claimed that he joined GLAS as a distraction from the frigid Wisconsin winters. His distraction has immensely benefited GLAS. With an MBA, Chris brings business experience. Being a project manager by training and experience, Chris brought a new perspective and structure to LENSS and has given shape and direction to the GLAS Geneva Lake water quality project. And he speaks engineering! Chris has proven himself to be a natural teacher, using the important elements of GLAS’s project and design experiences to engage students in building the technology that makes those projects work.
Ed Sadler - Master Teacher
A retired high school science teacher, Ed is an expert in setting up and aiming telescopes. A frequent visitor to the GLAS office, Ed is quick with a quip, an original limerick, (usually political but always clean) or a story from his varied background in teaching and building construction. And he combines his expertise in teaching and skills with hand tools to solve practical problems we come across here at GLAS. You’ll find that Ed is behind many of the inventions and devices we use to teach astronomical concepts to students who are blind or visually limited. One of those devices cleverly uses a light detector and a sound device to explain parallax, a concept easy for sighted students to understand, but something hard to explain to someone with limited vision.
