Grace Church School

Chrissy Dilley is the Science Department Chair and a veteran high school science teacher at Grace Church School in Manhattan. She has taught biology, chemistry, and environmental science throughout her career, and in recent years has focused her work on BioDesign. Since first participating in the Biodesign Challenge in 2019, she has woven design thinking into her science curriculum as both a framework for course design and a tool to empower student learning. Under her leadership, Grace students have participated in the Biodesign Challenge each year since 2019 and earned the Outstanding High School Prize in 2024. Chrissy encourages her students to think as designers and to creatively apply their scientific knowledge to complex real world problems. Her work emphasizes rigorous science, empathy, systems thinking, and imaginative problem solving to help students envision responsible and innovative biological futures.