Student Spark Story

The Legacy of a High School Math Teacher:
Julie Dunkle

Most math teachers teach formulas. Julie Dunkle taught futures.

A now-retired high school math teacher of more than a decade, Julie Dunkle has touched the future in more ways than one. Committed to showing students how abstract concepts come to life in real-world settings, Julie held six Ignited summer fellowships at Bay Area companies during her career, completing tangible project deliverables for the teams she worked on.

She also shaped the Ignited program for hundreds of teachers after her, mentoring other fellows as a curriculum coach and later serving on the Board of Directors, including as board chair/president.

Three decades later, her students share how her legacy has spanned generations – shaping not only their futures, but also those of their own students, mentees, and children.

Ted Graves

Professor at Stanford University

Ted Graves has been a faculty member of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University for the past 22 years. With two scientists as parents, Ted had a practical safety net for his childhood aspirations of becoming a professional video game player or a rock musician. His career path bounced from one interest to another, eventually landing him at the intersection of technology and biology. Ted is now working in the field of molecular imaging related to radiation treatment, with a specific interest in leveraging the immune system’s interaction with radiation to better fight cancer.

That trajectory began years earlier, in Julie Dunkle’s classroom. Julie’s class helped Ted recognize there was “a real world use for math and science and technology that could open up career doors.” He remembers going on a field trip with Julie’s class to a semiconductor company. “You don’t often hear about field trips in a math class,” he said, “but it was really useful to connect the more idealized world of equations and derivatives to something actually concrete and see that these are skills that we can use in the real world.”

Elaine Chao

Manager, Product Management at Adobe

Twenty years into her career at Adobe, Elaine Chao is now a Principal Product Manager working at the intersection of engineering and customer and business relations. Elaine’s initial interest in computer science was sparked during a career panel in Julie’s class where she met an FBI agent – a job entirely foreign to the daughter of an accountant. While she ultimately majored in Spanish, the agent sparked her interest in cybersecurity and ultimately set her on a path to the tech industry. After a brief pivot into teaching following the dot-com crash, Elaine now defines priorities for engineering teams supporting projects across various customer segments.

The career panels Julie brought into the classroom every year were eye-opening for Elaine. “I think it set me on a different path because it shook me out from ‘I’m doing a career report on the one person I know who has a career and it’s my dad’ into ‘here’s what else is available to you.’” She also remembers projects that allowed her to bring her creativity into math class in unexpected ways, like making a video about a historical mathematician. “Because of Julie, I felt I could bring my whole self to a career in STEM.”

Heather McLane

Lead Product Manager at Boeing

Heather McLane is a Lead Product Manager at Boeing, where she has worked for the past seven years. After her sister warned that she wouldn’t like thermodynamics, Heather decided to go into computer science instead of mechanical engineering. She held several internships in college and quickly became a leader, organizing company tours so her peers could also experience computer science in the workplace. Heather was at the forefront of what later became known as UX (User Experience) design, recognizing the psychological side of how people interact with technology. Now, Heather is an agile Scrum Master responsible for keeping a nine-developer team moving quickly amid shifting priorities.

Reflecting on Julie Dunkle’s influence, Heather notes that Julie taught with careers in mind – not just graduation requirements. She remembers Julie being especially committed to supporting the girls in her class, helping them see they were just as capable as their male peers, which had a lasting impact on her path. Julie’s mentorship went beyond math content and STEM identity. As Heather recalls, “She listened, and she had utter faith in me. Because of her, I didn’t let being a girl stop me from being anybody or anything I wanted to be.”

Beyond Julie’s Classroom

Julie’s legacy lives on through Ted, Elaine, and Heather, who now shape the next generation as mentors, teachers, and parents.

Heather mentors early career professionals who are considering switching into UX design to expose them to the field before they take the leap. She also encourages her teenage daughter to explore different career paths through her Scout Troop’s merit badges, which require Scouts to connect skills to careers so they can see how studying a wide range of subjects can help them find a meaningful major or career.

As a teacher, Ted stresses the importance of “relating to people on an individual level and finding ways to support what they feel drawn to do.” This applies both to his teaching at the university, where more students are considering careers beyond academia given the changing landscape, and his parenting of his 8-year-old aspiring-paleontologist son, who is still learning to navigate subjects he is less interested in.

Elaine drew inspiration from Julie’s expansive view of math education and is still in touch with her former students, who are now in their thirties and well established in their own careers. One even works at Elaine’s company, Adobe. “As an adult now, I understand what Julie was going through as a teacher – and I think she gets a lot of joy in keeping in touch with her former students as well.”

Igniting the Future

Julie shared that Ignited had a profound impact on her teaching, empowering her to bring real-world projects, field trips, and guest speakers into her classroom. “But its impact goes far beyond individual teachers,” she says. “Ignited sparks innovation and prepares students for the future. I’m proud to have helped guide this transformative organization.”