Appendix C

Committee and Staff Biographies

James Gentile (Chair) is emeritus dean for the natural and applied sciences and Kenneth G. Herrick professor of biology at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He is also a past president of Research Corporation in Tucson, Arizona, a foundation dedicated to science since 1912. He has conducted extensive research on metabolism and the conversion of natural and xenobiotic agents into mutagens and carcinogens with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the World Health Organization. He is the author of more than 150 research articles, book chapters, book reviews, and special reports in areas of scientific research and higher education, and he is a frequent speaker on issues involving the integration of scientific research and higher education. He serves on the Biosphere2 Governing Board and the boards of the Science Friday Foundation, and American Association of Colleges and Universities Project Leap Initiative. He received his Ph.D. in genetics from Illinois State University and undertook postdoctoral studies in the Department of Human Genetics at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Ann Beheler is executive director for emerging technology grants at Collin County Community College, near Dallas, Texas. She has been involved in the information technology (IT) industry for more than 30 years. She is the principal investigator for an NSF National Center that focuses on IT and communications as well as other NSF grants. She also led a large national Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant (Department of Labor). She has corporate experience through lead-

ing her own consulting firm and managing IT-related divisions and grants in community colleges in Texas and California. She created and taught in one of the first networking degree programs in Texas. She is known for bringing together business and industry effectively, using a streamlined process to identify with them the knowledge, skills, and abilities they predict will be needed by “right-skilled” job candidates in the future. She then works with faculty to align curriculum such that those who complete certificates and degrees in IT have the knowledge, skills, and abilities that will make them readily employable in high-paying IT positions. She holds an M.S. in computer science from Florida Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in community college leadership from Walden University.

Janet Branchaw is assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also the director of the Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement and associate director of the Mentor Training Core of the National Research Mentoring Network. She is chairperson of the Leadership Committee for NSF’s Biology Research Experiences for Undergraduates and directs an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates on integrated biological sciences. She developed training curricula for research mentors and for undergraduate research mentees. She led a project to develop a common assessment tool for use across NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduates programs. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative approaches to undergraduate science education, with an emphasis on undergraduate research, assessment of student learning, and broadening participation in science among underrepresented groups. She received her Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Kerry Brenner (Study Director) is a senior program officer for the Board on Science Education. In addition to directing this study on Strengthening Research Experiences for Undergraduate STEM Students, she recently coordinated a workshop on service learning in undergraduate geosciences education and collaborated with the Board on Life Sciences (BLS) on a convocation on Integrating Discovery-Based Research into the Undergraduate Curriculum. In past work with BLS, she served as study director for the project that produced Bio2010: Transforming Undergraduate Biology Education for Future Research Biologists. As an outgrowth of that study, she participated in the founding of the National Academies Summer Institutes for Undergraduate Education. She has led a standing committee for the Department of Defense on Medical Technologies, multiple studies related to microbiology and biosecurity, and a study of the decision-making process for reopening facilities contaminated in biological attacks. Her bachelor’s

degree is from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut) and her Ph.D. in molecular biology is from Princeton University.

Deborah Faye Carter is associate professor of education in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Previously she was an assistant professor of higher education at Indiana University, where she also was program chair of the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. While at the University of Michigan, she was an associate professor in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education and then became the center’s director. She was awarded the Bobby Wright Dissertation of the Year Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the Harold Johnson Diversity Award from the Univeristy of Michigan. She has been a member of or has chaired several committees in national organizations inluding the American Educational Research Association, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the American College Personnel Association. Her areas of research include the impact of college on students, especially students of color or low-income students; students’ degree aspirations; students’ transition to college; and the effects of undergraduate research on students’ major choices and graduate school attendance. She received her Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Michigan.

Melanie Cooper is the Lappan-Phillips professor of science education and professor of chemistry at Michigan State University. Her research has focused on improving teaching and learning in large-enrollment general and organic chemistry courses at the college level, and she is a proponent of evidence-based curriculum reform. She has also developed technological approaches to formative assessment that can recognize and respond to students’ free-form drawings, such as the beSocratic system. She is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She was on the leadership team for the Next Generation Science Standards. She has received a number of awards including the American Chemical Society award for achievement in research on teaching and learning in chemistry, the Norris award for outstanding achievement in teaching chemistry, and the Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher Award from the Society for College Science Teaching. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Manchester, England.

Edward J. Coyle is the John B. Peatman distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. He is the founder and director of the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program, which integrates research and education by embedding teams of undergraduates in the graduate research

groups of faculty. He is also the founder and director of the VIP Consortium, a group of 15 universities committed to growing and disseminating the VIP program. He was a co-recipient of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for innovation in engineering and technology education and a co-recipient of the American Society for Engineering Education’s 1997 Chester F. Carlson Award for innovation in engineering education and the IEEE Signal Processing Society’s 1986 Best Paper Award. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1998 for his contributions to the theory of nonlinear signal processing. His current research interests include undergraduate education, signal and image processing, and wireless sensor networks. He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University.

Sarah C.R. Elgin is Viktor Hamburger professor of arts and sciences and a professor of biology, professor of genetics, and professor of education at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research on fruit flies focuses on epigenetics, gene regulation, and heterochromatin formation. In 2002, she became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor with the goal of integrating primary research in genomics into the college curriculum. This project has been expanded and disseminated as the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP), a consortium of more than 100 college and university faculty. GEP undergraduates participate in gene sequence improvement and annotation projects, with the goal of publishing the results in primary research journals; more than 900 undergraduates are co-authors on GEP papers. She has awards for contributions to science education from the Genetics Society of America and other professional societies. She is a fellow of AAAS and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She serves on the editorial boards of Chromatin & Epigenetics and CBE–Life Science Education, on the science advisory board for CyVerse, and on the advisory board for CourseSource. She earned her B.A. in chemistry from Pomona College and her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

Mica Estrada is an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute of Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Nursing. Her expertise is in social influence, including the study of identity, forgiveness, intergroup relations, and integrative education. She is leading longitudinal, theory-driven research and evaluation for several interventions designed to increase persisentence of historically underrepresented students in STEM fields. Her publications from these studies assess how students’ orientation toward the scientific community predicts their perseverance in and commitment to that community. She is co-principal investigator on a NSF Climate Change

Education Partnership grant that provides educational tools and learning opportunities to San Diego regional leaders and residents regarding the changing climate. Her work in the local community includes promoting the Quince Project for Latina teens. She received a Leadership Institute Graduate Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science in 2013 and the Adolphus Toliver Award for Oustanding Research in 2016. She earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University.

Eli Fromm is Roy A. Brothers university professor and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Drexel University. He has been principal investigator on bioengineering research projects involving implantable transmitters and sensors for physiologic measurements and on initiatives for undergraduate research. At Drexel, he was vice president for educational research, vice provost for research and graduate studies, interim dean of engineering, and interim head of the biosciences department. He held positions with General Electric and E.I. DuPont and was a NSF program director, Congressional Fellow on the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee staff, and visiting scientist with the Legislative Office of the Research Liaison, Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He is a fellow of multiple professional societies in engineering and engineering education, a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the inaugural recipient in 2002 of the NAE’s Bernard M. Gordon Prize for significant contributions to engineering and technology education. He has received numerous other awards and honors from professional societies in engineering, from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, and from multiple universities. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Drexel University and a Ph.D. in physiology and bioengineering from Thomas Jefferson University.

Ralph Garruto (NAS) is research professor in biomedical anthropology at the State University of New York, Binghamton. He is a human population biologist whose research focuses on natural experimental models of disease, using both field and laboratory approaches. His cross-disciplinary research include studies of neurodegenerative disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, as well as food chain disorders, health transition studies, obesity and bionutrition, malaria, Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and prion diseases, especially chronic wasting disease. He has field research projects in Micronesia, Vanuatu, Ukraine, China, Siberia, and upstate New York. His laboratory focus is on cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuronal degeneration, host-pathogen interactions, experimental modeling, use of mitochondrial DNA in biomedical and evolution-

ary studies, and the study of gene-environment interactions in health and disease. He currently has 50 undergraduates associated with his laboratory. They work in teams with graduate students, and he meets with each at least weekly. The undergraduates typically stay for several years working in the field or laboratory or modeling risk of infection. He received his B.S. in zoology, M.A. in anthropology, and Ph.D. in anthropology (human population biology) from Pennsylvania State University.

Eric Grodsky is associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His expertise is the sociology of education and quantitative methods. His research is on understanding the pathways students take into and through higher education, including the changes over time in the effects of grades, test scores, and course-taking on college attendance and completion. He has also evaluated the relationship between STEM course-taking, degree completion, and labor market outcomes for students who complete sub-baccalaureate degrees or who start but fail to complete their postsecondary credential. He serves on the editorial board of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, is the deputy editor for Sociology of Education, and is an incoming associate editor for the American Educational Research Journal. He served as chair of the Sociology of Education Special Interest Group for the American Educational Research Association and as president of the Sociology of Education Association. He chaired the Sociology of Education section of the American Sociological Association in 2015-2016. He received his B.A. in anthropology and sociology from Kenyon College, his M.S. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his Ph.D. in sociology with a minor in education policy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

James Hewlett is a professor of biology at Finger Lakes Community College, where he also serves as director of Biotechnology/Biomanufacturing. He is the New York Hub Director of the Northeast Biomanufacturing Center and Collaborative and serves on the editorial board of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, the editorial board of CBE–Life Sciences Education, the advisory board for Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Bioscience Education and Technology, and the steering committee for the University of Georgia’s Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) Network. His areas of research include molecular and macro-level indicators of stress in corals and coral reef ecosystems, biomarkers for early detection of symbiotic breakdown in corals, and employment of noninvasive DNA-based mark-and-recapture methods in studying populations of the eastern red-tail hawk and North American black bear. He leads the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative, which uses inquiry-based teaching to expose students to scientific

investigation in introductory biology courses and provides resources for 26 institutional partners throughout the United States and a portfolio of support services to institutions and faculty. He earned a B.S. in biology from Bucknell University and an M.S. in physiology/marine science from the University of Connecticut.

Laird Kramer is director of the STEM Transformation Institute and professor of physics in the College of Arts & Sciences at Florida International University. His work focuses on facilitating institutional change through implementation of, and research on, evidence-based educational practices. He led transformation of the undergraduate physics experience at the university, creating more well-prepared majors by implementing modeling instruction–based studio physics courses, establishing student-centric methodologies, and establishing a high school–university research and learning community. He fostered a community that enables future teachers to implement their instructional craft, built by operating more than a decade of intensive, summer professional development in modeling instruction for high school teachers. He earned a B.A. in physics from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in physics from Duke University.

Jay B. Labov is Senior Advisor for Education and Communication for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. He has directed or contributed to 25 National Academies reports focusing on undergraduate education, teacher education, advanced study for high school students, K-8 education, and international education. He directed the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine committee that authored Science, Evolution, and Creationism. He oversees the NAS efforts to confront challenges to teaching evolution in the nation’s public schools, coordinates NAS efforts to work with professional societies and state academies of science on education issues, and oversees the work of the BLS on improving education in the life sciences. An organismal biologist by training, he was on the biology faculty at Colby College for 18 years. He is a Kellogg National Fellow, Fellow in Education of AAAS, Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, 2013 recipient of the Friend of Darwin award from the National Center for Science Education, and current chair of the AAAS Education Section. In 2014 he was named a Lifetime Honorary Member by the National Association of Biology Teachers and received a National Academies Staff Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Marcia C. Linn is professor of cognition and development, specializing in education in mathematics, science, and technology, in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, where she investigates science teaching and learning, gender equity, and design of

learning environments. She leads the Technology-Enhanced Learning in Science Community and is a member of the National Academy of Education and fellow of AAAS, American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences. She was chair of the AAAS Education Section and president of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. She received the first award in educational research from the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, as well as rewards from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching and the American Educational Research Association. She twice won the Outstanding Paper Award of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching. She was a Fulbright Professor at the Weizmann Institute (Israel) and visiting fellow at University College, London, and the Institute J. J. Rousseau (Geneva). She served on the Science Board of AAAS, Graduate Record Examination board of the Educational Testing Service, McDonnell Foundation Cognitive Studies in Education Practice board, and NSF Education and Human Resources Directorate. Her B.A. in psychology with emphasis on statistics and a Ph.D. in educational psychology are from Stanford University.

Linda A. Reinen is an associate professor of geology at Pomona College. She uses field, laboratory, and numerical modeling methods to explore the mechanical behavior of crustal rocks in tectonically active regions. Through apprentice-style and classroom research experiences, her students investigate the surface deformation associated with active faulting in the San Andreas Fault system and the active margin in New Zealand. A long-time proponent of teaching through student research, she codeveloped a Research Methods CURE that for two decades has been central to the Pomona College geology curriculum. She led workshops on engaging undergraduate students in research for the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America (GSA), Council on Undergraduate Research, and Project Kaleidoscope. Her community outreach includes discussions of the Great California ShakeOut and other earthquake-related topics with grade school, college, local business, and community group audiences. She was a National Association of Geoscience Teachers Distinguished Speaker, Geosciences Counselor for the Council on Undergraduate Research, and 2003 recipient of GSA’s Biggs Award for Excellence in Earth Science teaching. She was a Visiting Research Scholar (University of Auckland, New Zealand) and a Visiting Assistant Research Geophysicist (University of California, Riverside). She holds a Ph.D. from Brown University.

Heidi Schweingruber is director of the Board on Science Education and has been involved in many of its major projects since its formation in 2004. She

co-directed the study that wrote A Framework for K-12 Science Education (2011), which became the first step in revising national standards for K-12 science education. She was study director for a review of NASA’s pre-college education programs and co-directed the study that produced Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. In addition to editing National Academies reports on education, she co-authored two award-winning books that translate findings of National Research Council reports for practitioners: Ready, Set, Science!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms and Surrounded by Science. She previously was a senior research associate at the Institute of Education Sciences in the Department of Education, director of research for the Rice University School Mathematics Project, and faculty member in psychology and education at Rice University. She has served on advisory boards for the Merck Institute for Science Education, the Discovery Learning Research Center at Purdue University, and Building Capacity for State Science Education. Her Ph.D. in developmental psychology and anthropology is from the University of Michigan.

Amy Stephens is a program officer for the Board on Science Education and an adjunct professor for the Southern New Hampshire University Psychology department, where she teaches online graduate-level courses in cognitive psychology and statistics. Her background is in behavioral and functional neuroimaging techniques, and her research has examined a variety of student populations, spanning childhood through adulthood. Her prior work at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Center for Talented Youth focused on characterizing cognitive profiles of academically talented youth, to develop alternative methods of identifying and aiding talented students from underresourced populations. Her research has also explored the effectiveness of spatial skill training on performance in math and science classes, as well as overall retention rates in STEM-related fields for students entering the JHU engineering program. She holds a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from JHU and continued as a postdoctoral fellow jointly in the Center for Talented Youth and the School of Education.

Heather Thiry is a researcher at the Ethnogaphy and Evaluation Research Center of the University of Colorado Boulder. She conducts research and evaluation studies on underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM disciplines, the professional socialization of graduate students, and pedagogical reform initiatives in STEM education. Her research interests include the social and cultural factors that enhance or hinder educational reform, scientific career paths and career decision making, and the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the sciences. She has published on the professional development of education-engaged scientists and the

overrepresentation of women scientists in teaching and outreach. Her current work focuses on learning progressions, exploring when students are most receptive to learning certain skills along the path from novice to experienced researcher. She has taught educational foundations and policy courses for preservice teachers, directed a service-learning program at a community college in California, and served as a counselor in an urban elementary school. She has run programs at the K-12 and community college levels to provide case management and social services for low-income and first generation students. She received her Ph.D. in educational foundations, policy, and practice from the University of Colorado Boulder.