Recognizing Excellence: ULRI Education Leaders Win Futurist Awards
UL Research Institutes’ Becki Rowan and Justin Finesilver were honored for their excellence in safety science education through the Futurist Awards.
Becki Rowan and Justin Finesilver from the Institute for Research Experiences & Education were recognized at the 2026 AI NEXTGEN America Conference & Futurist Awards on Oct. 10 in Baltimore, Maryland.
These prestigious awards celebrate leaders driving innovation, workforce advancement, and industry impact. Rowan received the Educator of the Future Award and Finesilver received the Technology Rising Star Award — recognizing their dedication to education, community engagement, and improving lives through their work with the institute.
Becki Rowan, senior manager of education programs, has spent more than 25 years advancing STEM education, public safety, and workforce readiness. Her leadership with the Institute for Research Experiences & Education has helped bring ULRI’s safety science research into engaging educational experiences for students worldwide. Her unique perspective as an educator, instructional designer, and longtime firefighter plays a strong role in shaping educational programming that inspires the next generation of safety scientists.
Rowan sets the vision for the future with her expert-level team, fosters impactful partnerships, and ensures that complex scientific research reaches students and educators across the country in a meaningful, accessible way. Under her leadership, students who engage in these resources and programming are encouraged to think, work, and lead like scientists and engineers, to build resilience and awareness of safety science issues in their own communities, and to build agency in problem-solving.
Justin Finesilver, program operations manager, demonstrates a long-standing commitment to using technology in thoughtful, accessible, and human-centered ways to expand access to education and career pathways. His work reflects his belief that technology can be used for the greater good.
In his current role, Justin brings this same human-centered mindset to his work. He project managed the opening of the first ULRI Immersive Classroom — Xplorlabs’ first permanent physical classroom space — as well as the opening of a second immersive space at ULRI Headquarters in Evanston. These classrooms support immersive and experiential learning for middle school students, and will help extend this learning model and ensure its scalability across various communities. These projects exemplify his ability to prioritize and manage budget, project management, and organizational commitment behind a strong passion for community education.
