Gale Olp Ekiss is a past Co-coordinator of the Arizona Geographic Alliance (June 2001- January 2019). Gale was the project manager for GeoLiteracy, GeoMath, and GeoLiteracy for ELLs--three National Geographic Society Education Foundation grant projects. She has managed two STEM institutes for K-12 teachers introducing them to concepts of integrating STEM with social studies. She also has collaborated on projects using primary sources to teach geography.
Gale taught for Mesa Public Schools for 28 years before moving to the university level. She is well known for her expertise in geography education and is a winner of the Distinguished Teaching Award from the National Council for Geographic Education and the Great Moments in Teaching Social Studies Award and the Wilbur Murra Award from the Arizona Council of the Social Studies. Gale has presented over 25 sessions on geography education at local, state and national social studies conferences/workshops in the past few years.