Catherine Pangan

Have you ever inflated a life-sized blue whale in a school parking lot? Talked with astronauts in real-time aboard the International Space Station with 200 third graders? Led science and social studies explorations with one thousand fourth graders around the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? If you’ve had class with Dr. Catherine Hagerman Pangan – most likely you have!

Dr. Pangan is a Professor in the College of Education. She is honored to work with first-years through graduate students and many community partners around the city. Her work focuses on science and social studies methods, teacher leadership and innovation, and pre-service teaching. She is also an Innovation Fellow for Butler's Transformation Lab.

She also has a unique role as a “Faculty-in-Residence and lives with 630 sophomores in Fairview House with her family. Dr. Pangan contributes as a columnist in The Teacher Advocate magazine as “Dr. P.” and has written curriculum for teachers for exhibits at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. She wrote a children’s book titled“No Peanuts for Me!” about her son’s peanut allergy. She also authored chapters for “The Power of Teacher Leaders” and “Connecting Children to Nature” and advised on a student-led publication “The Gifts of Indiana.” She serves as president of the Board of Trustees for Sycamore School. Formerly, Dr. Pangan was an elementary teacher in St. Louis, MO and Indiana. She traded in her “golden apple” teaching award for the Big Apple and helped start the NewTeacher Academy at Columbia University and worked with teachers in Harlem and Brooklyn. She received her B.S. in Elementary Education, Master’s in Educational Administration at Butler University, an endorsement in Gifted Education, and a doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching with an emphasis on policy and education law. Dr. Pangan has been working in education for over 25 years.