Dr. Nona Marlene B. Ferido is presently the Deputy Director of ACTRC. She is an Affiliate Associate Professor of the Faculty of Education of the University of the Philippines (UP) Open University.
Dr. Ferido holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from U.P. Diliman and an M.S. Agricultural Chemistry degree from U.P. Los Baños. She completed her Ph.D Science Education (with specialisation in Chemistry) from U.P. Diliman. Before her stint at the University of the Philippines National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development (UP NISMED), she was a chemistry instructor at the Department of Chemistry, U.P. Los Baños and subsequently an assistant professor at the Institute of Chemistry, U.P. Diliman.
Dr. Ferido is a retired Science Education Specialist V and former Chair of the Chemistry Group of UP NISMED. She served as its Deputy Director for Research and Extension of UP NISMED for six years and as Deputy Director for Administration for three years.
She coordinated a number of UP NISMED’s teacher training programs, as well as research and curriculum-related projects, which resulted in the production of teacher resource materials and sourcebooks for teacher trainers and teachers in high school chemistry. She served as UP NISMED’s coordinator in the development of the Curriculum Guide of Science for K to 10 in collaboration with the Department of Education. She was one of the writers of DepEd’s Grade 7 and Grade 8 Learner’s Modules and Teacher’s Guides in Science and one of the curriculum developers for Physical Science of the K to 12 Senior High School curriculum as well as the Chemistry portion of the Grades 11 & 12 Senior High School Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) strand of the K to 12 program. She was a Project Writer and Trainer for CHED STEM Education Program from 2016 to 2017 tasked to develop a STEM Teacher Training Design and Toolkit for faculty of higher education institutions teaching senior high school.
Dr. Ferido was a researcher and project leader in various science education projects of UP NISMED with UNESCO Bangkok, the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education (Japan), Canada-Pakistan Basic Education Project (CPBEP), Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).
Dr. Ferido was the recipient of the 2014 UP Diliman Gawad Chancellor Award for Outstanding Research, Extension & Professional Staff and the 2013 Philippine Federation of Chemistry Societies Award for Chemistry Education.