A Nome teacher heads to Stanford to rethink how schools teach

A Nome reading teacher is heading to Stanford to spend five years figuring out how to build Inuit knowledge and values into the way schools teach.

Kastyn Lie, who teaches reading at Anvil City Science Academy and runs Nome's "We Read" literacy program, was accepted into Stanford's Ph.D. program in education. Her research centers on multigenerational teaching models — how the ways knowledge has always been passed down in Inuit communities can shape a school curriculum, rather than being left at the classroom door.

It's a homecoming of sorts: Lie graduated from Stanford in 2023, then earned a teaching master's from the University of Alaska Southeast before returning to work in Nome, where she's also a Bering Straits Native Corporation shareholder, the Nome-Beltz head volleyball coach, and — for good measure — the owner of a local bakery.