Niki Aktipis is a new teacher and this year is her sixth year as a teacher. Before teaching, she did a little bit of everything in science- anywhere from working in a preclinical lab to doing wildfire prevention work out west to being a primate zoo keeper.

Aktipis loves to teach and her favorite subject is science but outside of teaching she loves playing games with and without her family.

“I absolutely love playing video games, reading mangas (graphic novels), and building Pokemon card decks. I play a few TCG rounds every Sunday with some of my teacher friends,” Aktipis said. “I also do a lot of amateur zoo keeping; I have over 20 animals at my house that keep me pretty busy outside of school.”

Aktipis believes that by committing to be a scientist, “you also commit to being a teacher.” She wants to pass her knowledge down to the next generation and hopefully inspire one student to lean into how awesome science is.

“I was a pathology technician for a while and before that I did a lot of conservation work across the United States,” Aktipis said. “I also did some work for the Missouri Department of Conservation monitoring fish populations.  My most challenging, yet rewarding, job was being a field researcher in Costa Rica working with Leatherback sea turtles.”

About six and half years ago,  she worked in a lab for a while and it just wasn’t for her doing the same thing everyday. She thought she’d try out teaching through Teach for America and here we are now in my sixth year as a high school science teacher and loving it more every season.

“I’m originally from Ohio. I grew up in Toledo, Ohio,” Aktipis said. “Left to go overseas for a while in my 20’s for grad school. When I came back I followed my family down to Kansas. Been in Kansas City since 2017.”