Staff Spotlight

Desiree Rowland, the new addition to the science department, is teaching Honors Chemistry I, Chemistry I, and Chemistry II and has been teaching for nine years. She started her teaching career student teaching at Pleasant Valley High School and started full time teaching at Davenport North the following school year.

Rowland wanted to work with endangered animals and was also interested in conservation biology. Previously, she worked for the US Fish and Wildlife service for two years in her junior and senior years of college.

One of her many jobs was helping with education outreach and she fell in love with it. After she got married and had children, she decided to put her career on hold to be able to stay home to raise her two kids while they were young.

Later, when her youngest child was three, Rowland decided to go back to school to get an undergraduate degree in secondary education to go along with her degree in biology so that she could teach.

“I love being able to share my knowledge of science with others,” Rowland said.

“And hopefully encourage others to try and make this planet better than how they found it.”

She came to teach at Bettendorf because of fellow educator friend, Brooke Tisue, who taught with her at Davenport North before moving here. Tisue notified Rowland of a new position in the science department teaching chemistry, a course she taught at North. She wanted to wait for her children to graduate before becoming a Bettendorf Bulldog, but the timing seemed too perfect, so she accepted.

“I would just like all the staff and administration to know that I am very appreciative of how welcoming and accommodating everyone is,” said Rowland.

“I really miss my students from North, but the students here at BHS are just as amazing, and they have made my transition to a new school much easier. It’s a good day to be a Bulldog!”