Speakers
Dr. Erick Jones currently is a Jefferson Science Fellow (JSF) in the Office of the Chief Economist at the U.S. State Department. An Endowed Engineering Professor, William J. Fulbright Scholar for the United States, and an Alfred P. Sloan Minority Ph.D. Scholar, Jones has authored over 200 publications and secured and managed 70 research grants totaling more than $10 million. His current research on pandemic supply chains was a main consideration for working at the State Department, as the Office of the Chief Economist studies how the U.S. can better understand the economics of supply chains and how their disruptions impact global commerce, operations and quality of life. He is a fellow of the Institution of Industrial and Systems Engineering, African Science Institute, Sigma Xi and the International Supply Chain Education Alliance. He has authored four textbooks and three industry handbooks, most notably a book on Supply-Chain Engineering.
Daniel Denecke, Ph.D., is the Lead Program Director for the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) and Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) programs in the Division of Graduate Education at NSF. Prior to joining NSF, Dr. Denecke served at the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) for 15 years in various roles, including Vice President of Best Practices and Strategic Initiatives. At CGS, he led multi-year, multi-university evidence-based best practice studies on topics ranging from Ph.D. completion and attrition, research ethics, international STEM graduate collaborations, and enhanced professional development for STEM careers. He has received 10 years of continuous grant funding from NSF and served as PI on approximately $8 million in grants from federal, private foundations (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation), and industry (TIAA, Pfizer) sources. Dr. Denecke is the lead author of nine books on research results reported on by a range of media outlets, including Nature, Science Magazine, Science Careers, the Atlantic, US News and World Report, the Chicago Tribune, CBS radio, and the Washington Post.
Dr. Gisèle Muller-Parker holds degrees from SUNY at Stony Brook, the University of Delaware, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Gisèle joined NSF in the Division of Graduate Education as Program Director for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) in October 2008. She served as lead Program Director of GRFP from 2010 until 2018. In 2018, she joined the Office of the Director in the Office of Integrative Activities at NSF as a Staff Associate with responsibilities in merit review, including Committees of Visitors and the Merit Review Report. She also served as the program officer for the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub before retiring from NSF in May 2019. Her current scholarly interests include the study of the history of the GRFP with respect to changes in its policies and goals over its 69-year existence. She is a Research Fellow in the Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy, Delaware State University.
Dr. Vinod K. Lohani is a Program Director in the Division of Graduate Education at the National Science Foundation and is assigned to the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT), Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE), and CAREER programs. He received his undergraduate engineering degree in India, M.S. at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and Ph.D. in civil engineering from VT. He is the founding director of an interdisciplinary lab called Learning Enhanced Watershed Assessment System (LEWAS) at VT. This lab is a unique real-time high-frequency water and weather monitoring research and education lab on the VT campus. He has participated in 30 (~$8.5M) interdisciplinary research and curriculum development projects supported by the National Science Foundation and has authored/co-authored about 100 peer-reviewed publications. Virginia Tech nominated him for the 2019 Outstanding Faculty Award of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. He has advised 9 Ph.D., 12 MS, and 40+ undergraduate research students.
Dr. Casey W. Miller is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Affairs in the College of Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is an experimental physicist focusing on nanoscale magnetic materials and related devices and diversity, equity, and inclusion in graduate education. He currently serves as the director of the Inclusive Practices Hub of the NSF-INCLUDES Alliance: Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) and co-PI of the California Consortium for Inclusive Doctoral Education (C-CIDE), each of which has been supported by the NSF. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003, did post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Diego, and is the recipient of the NSF-CAREER and AFOSR-Young Investigator Awards.
Dr. Kavitha Chandra is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs in the Francis College of Engineering. In this role, she has designed and implemented programs for broadening the participation of women and underrepresented students in engineering research and education with industry and community partnerships. As a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kavitha directs a research program in the Center for Advanced Computation and Telecommunications with interests in computational acoustics, network performance, traffic modeling, and engineering education. Prior to joining the UMASS Lowell faculty, she was a member of technical staff in the Teletraffic and System Performance Department of AT&T Bell Laboratories and a senior member of the technical staff in the Performance Analysis Department of AT&T Labs. Dr. Chandra is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, has directed an NSF GK-12 program, and has served as chief scientist and technical consultant, partnering with industry on projects with the US Air Force. She is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the Acoustical Society of America and Sigma XI scientific research society.
Dr. Julia Kent, Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) is Vice President, Best Practices and Strategic Initiatives at the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). Since 2008, her portfolio at CGS has included programs on a broad range of topics in graduate education, including Ph.D. career pathways; diversity and inclusion; graduate admissions processes; international collaborations; research ethics and integrity; and the preparation of future faculty. Currently, Julia serves as co-Principal Investigator for an initiative supported by the Alfred P. Sloan and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations, Supporting Graduate Student Mental Health and Wellbeing, which seeks to create an evidence-based to inform future policy and action in this area. Julia also serves as co-Principal Investigator for a multi-phase project supported by NSF and the Mellon Foundation, Understanding Ph.D. Career Pathways for Program Improvement (NSF #1661272), which has brought together a coalition of 75 universities working to collect and analyze data on Ph.D. careers and to use the resulting information to improve graduate student experiences and outcomes. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Charisse Carney-Nunes, Deputy Division Director, Division of Graduate Education, NSF. Currently, at the National Science Foundation (NSF), I lead change through setting a strategic vision, building capacity, improving programs, and cultivating productive relationships with people of all levels. This work has been recognized with appointments to several high-profile initiatives and agency-wide change management projects as well as to the NSF Leadership Development Program. Throughout my 20+ year career, as a senior staff advisor, education advocate, lawyer, and writer, I have focused on building national and local communities and making an impact within education, STEM, and the federal government. I deliver results and motivate people to become agents of change in their own lives. In addition to my work at NSF, I am the National President of the Alumni Association of Lincoln University, PA, our nation’s first HBCU. I lead and inspire alumni to invest their time and talents to advance the incredible mission of Lincoln in the 21st century and beyond. I also deliver keynote speeches on social/cultural issues, education, and Black history at national and local conferences. Finally, I write award-winning children’s books to advocate for civic engagement and empowerment. These activities further my passion for educating people to make a difference.