Nicole Bronson
Ph.D. in Public Health-University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Nicole is a doctoral candidate in the School of Public Health in the Department of Health Services at UCLA. She earned an M.B.A. and bachelor's degree in Finance at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where she participated in the McNair Scholars Research Program and study abroad short courses in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Nicole's dissertation will focus on "How Provider-Level Factors Affect Homeless Women in LA County Use of Healthcare Services and Level of Satisfaction". Her future goals are to conduct research on innovative solutions to eliminate healthcare disparities and to teach courses in the field of public health at the university level.
Nicole also served as a mathematics lecturer in Developmental Education at UW-Whitewater. She is a member of the Students of Color for Public Health (SCPH) in the School of Public Health at UCLA and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Black Student Union.
Kimberly Adilia Helmer
Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching-University of Arizona
Kimberly Adilia Helmer is a doctoral candidate in the interdisciplinary program of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) at the University of Arizona. She holds a master's degree in TESOL from the Monterey Institute of International Studies where she also studied language program administration. Kim's dissertation, "Year One at 'City High School': An Ethnographic Study of Spanish Heritage-Language Instruction in an Innovative Charter School," investigates Mexican-origin students' resistance to studying their ancestral language. Student and teacher ethnic identity and "sounding white" while speaking Spanish played a contributing role in fueling this resistance. Kim's teaching interests include applied linguistics, anthropology in education, and teacher education.
Mentors - Tom Salsbury and Joy Egbert,
Teaching and Learning
Lora Helvie-Mason
Ph.D. in Adult, Higher and Community Education-Ball State University
Lora is a doctoral student in Adult, Higher and Community Education at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Lora has an avid interest in comparative education and international educational studies. Lora's research centers on understanding the culture of higher education. Her dissertation examines the socialization of female faculty members into higher education through a comparative analysis of the United States and China. In recent years, Lora has been active as both a scholar and educator in higher education. She has taught Public Speaking and Women's Studies at Ball State University and Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. Upon completion of her Ph.D., she hopes to continue in academia as a faculty member teaching in education and assisting in international/study abroad programs for students.
Mentor - Phyllis Erdman,
Higher Education
TaJuanna Hudson
Ed.D candidate in Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy, Pepperdine University
TaJuanna's research has focused on leadership in urban schools and districts with diverse populations, as well as the dynamics of stakeholder interactions and systems policies affecting those sites. Her dissertation is titled: "Analyzing and Eliminating Barriers to Parent Involvement at Urban Schools: Promoting Broad-Based Skillful Interaction. She examines the qualities of successful school leaders in schools where student achievement, traditionally, has been low. As an educator in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 22 years, TaJuanna has made it a constant quest to maintain a climate and culture conducive to success for all stakeholders. In implementing her new learning, she has been able to guide her site in conducting cultural inquiry to diminish organizational defenses. She recognizes the value of an active parent body in contributing to a school's success.
Mentors - Len Foster,
Educational Leadership
Sarah Lang
Ph.D. in Science Education-University of Texas, Austin
Sarah has a BA in History from Bryn Mawr College, a BS in Zoology; and an MA in Science Education, both of which are from The University of Texas at Austin. Sarah's dissertation is a mixed-methods study of undergraduates' experiences in the biology major. She is interested in understanding students' decisions to persist in or leave the biology major. Particular attention is given to the role that performance plays in these decisions. Upon completion of her degree, Sarah plans to teach biology at the college level and continue research into retention in undergraduate science. Other research interests include understanding the sources, as well as plasticity, of students' alternative conceptions of biological phenomena, and the role of media in the formation of biology knowledge.
Mentors - John Paznokas and Mary Sanchez-Lanier,
Molecular Biosciences, Science Education
Crystal Machado
Ed.D. in Educational Leadership - Arkansas State University, Jonesboro
Crystal completed much of her graduate work in Karachi, Pakistan, where she graduated in 1997 with a M.Ed. in School Administration from Karachi University, and a M.Ed. in Primary Education from Australian Catholic University. Crystal's professional experience is varied. It includes teaching K-12 and some undergraduate and graduate level courses. She has also worked as an academic coordinator, a high school administrator and teacher trainer. She relocated to the U.S. in 2003 to work on a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership at Arkansas State University. Crystal plans to complete her dissertation, "The Influence of Standards Implementation in School Leadership Preparation Programs on Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and the Change Process," in the spring of 2007. Her dissertation will use the ISLLC/ ELCC standards as a lens to examine the standards-alignment process in school leadership preparation. It will describe the strategies that were used to initiate, manage and sustain standards-program alignment; identify the factors that fostered or constrained the process; and examine the impact that the standards have had on the way faculty teach and programs operate.
Mentor - Len Foster,
Educational Leadership
Hershell Norwood
Ph.D. in Fine Arts, Theatre History/Criticism and Acting/Directing-Texas Tech University
Having completed his M.F.A. at Brandeis University, Hershell has acted professionally in PBS programs, ad campaigns in several television commercials, and in an MGM film. He has also worked in summer stock companies in the New England area including Cape Cod, New Hampshire and Maine. In addition to working as a professional actor, he has spent a number of years teaching English, dramatic literature, acting, directing, and playwriting to secondary high school, community college, and university students.
Hershell has written several full-length plays. These include The Tragedy of Leah and Go Dance through the Veil. He has also written a historically based play about jazz singer and legend, Billie Holiday. The play is entitled: "Lady Day, Live at Mama's Jam."
Hershell's interest in both the art of theatre and in theatre research led him to pursue the rare Ph.D. in Fine Arts offered at Texas Tech University. His work focuses on how Western-American and African-American theatrical and cultural history intertwine. His dissertation topic is, "The Development of a Cultural Aesthetic Theory for African American Theatre."
Mentor - Terry Converse,
Theatre Arts
William Orchard
Ph.D. candidate in English-University of Chicago
Bill earned his BA in English from Santa Clara University, and an MA in English at the University of Chicago. His dissertation, "The Illustrated Mexican: Politics, Popular Art, and the Making of U.S. Latinidad," examines the visual culture that emerges in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and its afterlife in the cultural vernacular of Chicanos. Although Bill's research focuses primarily on Latino literature and popular culture, he is also interested in gender studies, American studies, visual culture, and twentieth-century Latin American literature.
Mentor - T.V. Reed,
American Studies
T. Nichole Phillips
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Management-University of Central Florida
Nichole is a recipient of the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship. She received an undergraduate degree in Business Management and a MBA from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL. Nichole specializes in the areas of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources. Her current research interests include diversity in organizations, eHR practices and policies, and violations of organizational privacy. Her dissertation evaluates the consequences of acculturation pressure experienced by minority employees in US organizations. Nichole's teaching areas are organizational behavior, human resources management, and organizational diversity.
Mentor - Michael Tate,
Department of Management
Dana Sanchez
PhD in Natural Resources-University of Idaho
Dana is a PhD candidate in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources at the University of Idaho. She earned a bachelor's degree in Wildlife Biology and a minor in Communication Studies from the University of Montana. She worked as a field and research technician on wildlife projects in Indiana and Minnesota before moving to Tucson to complete her master's degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science at the University of Arizona.
Dana's dissertation addresses the survival, movements, and local spatial relatedness among pygmy rabbits, as well as survey indicators for the species. Upon completion of her degree, Dana plans to continue building and sharing knowledge of wildlife through her research, teaching, mentoring, and professional activities.
In addition to her wildlife studies, Dana enjoys teaching and mentoring students as a teaching assistant at the University of Idaho and before that at the University of Arizona. Dana is a founding member of a Human Diversity Working Group within The Wildlife Society, a professional organization for wildlife biologists. This group's goal is to expose a broad audience of school age and young adult learners to the opportunities available in natural science fields.
Mentor - Steve Burkett,
Graduate School
Y. Victor Sun
Ph.D. in Educational Leadership - Washington State University
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Victor grew up in the Mongolian grassland. He went through the Chinese educational system and for five years taught as an Assistant Professor at Inner Mongolia Normal University. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1993. He earned a Masters degree from Heritage University in the area of global education, and has been a tenured faculty at Columbia Basin College for twelve years. He holds a State of Washington Community and Technical Colleges Vocational and Technical Education certificate, and a State of Washington Professional Education Certificate K-4-12 History and K-12 ESL/English. Victor was the recipient of the 2005, 2001 and 1995 Outstanding Faculty Award from Columbia Basin College, and the 1996 Teaching and Leadership Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development at the University of Texas in Austin. He also received the 2005 George Brain Administrative Leadership Award, and the Dorothy Cook Scholarship from Washington State University.
Victor's research interest is in international and global education in which he has been professionally and personally involved for over 18 years. His dissertation focuses on Sino-U.S. educational exchanges and partnerships.
Mentor - Forrest Parkay,
Teaching and Learning