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Dick on the deck of his Virginia home - National Geographic

RICHARD A. METHIA

Dick is an author, educator, trainer, and professional speaker with a career spanning more than forty years. In his spare time Dick is a (self-trained) gourmet cook. In the time left over he runs his own consulting business.

Dick has been a consultant for some of the nation's most distinguished non-profit organizations, among them, the Educational Testing Service of Princeton (ETS), the Verizon Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has consulted for the State of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

As a published writer, Dick has been a judge for the Association of Education Publishers’ annual Golden Lamp Award and the Shell Foundation’s Century III Leaders. In addition he chaired the 2009 Link Americas Foundation international L.I.N.K. Awards whose recipients include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Dr. Laura Chincilla, the president of Costa Rica.

Dick is also an expert in education technology policy. He was the only educator elected to two terms as president of the National Coalition for Technology in Education & Training (NCTET) in Washington, DC.

In June 1985 when he was a classroom teacher in Massachusetts, Dick was chosen from 11,000 applicants worldwide to be one of the ten National Finalists in NASA's Teacher-In-Space Program vying for the seat aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger eventually filled by his colleague and friend Christa McAuliffe.

After the Challenger explosion Dick was invited to be a member of the original creative team that established Challenger Center, the international educational organization founded by the families of the astronauts who perished in the Space Shuttle. For tenyears Dick had overall responsibility for Challenger Center's North American educational programs.

Before joining Challenger Center, Dick was a loaned educator at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., where he served as liaison to national education organizations and conducted an international speaking tour. For his achievements NASA honored him with its Public Service Award.

In further recognition of his contributions to education, the Air Force Association named him a General Jimmy Doolittle Fellow, an award he received from General Doolittle himself.

Dick is also an accomplished speaker. In 1988 he was the first U.S. educator invited to Beijing, China, to deliver the keynote address in the Great Hall of the People at the American-Chinese Youth Science Exchange.

Dick’s primary philanthropic activity is the chairmanship of Link Americas, a California non-profit that cultivates technology-based strategic alliances between academic and private sector partners in the United States and Central America. Link Americas’ mission is to improve the quality of life for under-developed communities through technology.

Dick’s wife Linda is an executive management consultant. They live in Fairfax County, VA, with their rescue dog Ginger and their rambunctious cockatiel, Sunny.