“Why do I work for social justice by addressing the issue of access to science? Because I believe it may be one of the most dynamic vehicles available to us for changing people’s lives. You don’t know what people are going to be – or who they may become. Project Exploration allows me to work to ensure that all kids - particularly those least likely to have successful experiences with science or school - have opportunities to explore their own potential and the world around them.”

As the co-founder and Executive Director of Project Exploration , Gabrielle Lyon combines social justice activism with a passion for informal science education.

Gabrielle Lyon spent her childhood in New Mexico and attended high school in New Jersey. Lyon earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in history from the University of Chicago, and is working on a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In 1994 Lyon was selected to be a Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center where she worked as a writer and researcher for the education magazine Teaching Tolerance, a national forum for educators to discuss tolerance, diversity and justice in and beyond the classroom.

In 1996 Lyon returned to Chicago to direct the School Change Institute and serve as the Outreach Coordinator at the Small Schools Workshop at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Lyon’s honors include representing the International Association of Educators for World Peace as a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, addressing the U.N. Subcommittee on Human Rights on "The Prevention of Racism and the Protection of Minorities” in 1995, and, in 1999, being recognized as one of “Tomorrow’s Leaders Today” by Public Allies.

Lyon has participated in seven international expeditions to Africa, China and South America, and, in 1995, discovered the predatory dinosaur Deltadromeus. Lyon co-founded Project Exploration in 1999 with paleontologist Paul Sereno and became the Executive Director in 2000.