Joel K. Abraham
California State University – Fullerton
Areas of Research:
Student conceptions, graph construction, experimentation in biology, student affect, plant ecology
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I love this work specifically because of its impact on students’ lives. I value the opportunity to learn more about how to be a better instructor and support systemic change in our institutions to better serve all who wish to be part of science.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Being part of LSE has taught me much about how we can change our perspectives and policies to transform academia into a more inclusive and equitable space.
Stacy Alvares
Bellevue College
Areas of Research:
Molecular Biology, Genetics and Cell Biology
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I love helping to guide students in discovery of both scientific content, research, and how they learn best.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I love being part of a collaborative network that is open to troubleshooting issues that arise through teaching and learning.
Email: tandrews@uga.edu
Lab Website:
https://andrewstessa.wixsite.com /andrewslab
Twitter:@tessa_andrews2
Tessa Andrews
University of Georgia
Areas of Research:
Instructional change, teacher knowledge, systemic change, evidence-based teaching, evolution education
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I love the intersection of ideas and people, and how this can be leveraged to enact change. There’s not much that I enjoy more than a rigorous debate or discussion about complex ideas, data, or literature. But, at the end of the day, people are my favorite part of science, and the only way to really move needle. Collaborations, mentoring, and many other interactions are to what makes me love my job.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
The LSE community exemplifies a critical and constructive scientific community, and also a place where people invest in each other’s success. My publications are better because of the investment of the LSE community and I hope to contribute in the same way to the work of other scholars.
Email: daron.barnard@worcester.edu
Lab Website:
https://www.worcester.edu/Faculty-Profiles/Biology/Daron-Barnard/
Daron Barnard
Worcester State University
Areas of Research:
RNA processing, early development in xenopus, teaching and learning in biology
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
Providing research experiences for undergraduate students has always been one of my priorities. I find helping students realize their capabilities and gain critical thinking skills through research to be the most rewarding part of teaching and hope to bring high quality research experiences to the widest possible audience.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I have found the LSE community to be supportive and welcoming, with the the goals of improving biology education through publishing high quality articles and helping develop faculty researchers in this area. The community has extensive expertise which it is always willing to share.
Mark Barsoum
Davidson College
Areas of Research:
Inclusive pedagogy and programming; physiology and cellular neuroscience
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value justice and equity in science and education, and in life and our world generally. I am fascinated by truth, complexity, and counterintuitive things, and I hope to inspire students to pursue and appreciate those things too. I enjoy helping students discover their path and strengthen their belief that they can follow it. I love my family, my friends, my dog, and soccer.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
The journal’s long history and emphasis on evidence and rigor set the standard for biology education research. The strength and quality of the research and researchers are top-notch. I learn so much from reading and listening to the work of this community. I appreciate the integrity, values, and culture of the journal, especially its clear commitment recently to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. I’m honored to be a member of its Editorial Board.
Cynthia Bauerle
James Madison University
Areas of Research:
Science education, assessment, leadership development
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am the fortunate daughter of a first generation scientist, for whom education was a way out of poverty, and for whom a couple of well placed scientific mentors were portals to a life of academics and discovery. His story informs my conviction that good education is a right, that it should be accessible to all, and that we science educators bear the responsibility to learn as much as we can about how to practice our craft with intention, excellence and wonder.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value the opportunity to stay connected with a community that is
at the leading edge of understanding how science can be made accessible to all students; I learn something useful with every article I read, every seminar I attend.
Molly Bolger
University of Georgia
Areas of Research:
Biology education (scientific practices, teaching assistant professional development, mechanistic reasoning)
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am passionate about empowering students to become independent thinkers. I am consistently curious about the process of learning and the social interactions that occur in classrooms. I am proud mother of 3 who values time with family.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I appreciate the openness and collaborative spirit of the LSE community. I am grateful that members of the community genuinely seek to help each other grow as researchers and educators.
Jana Bouwma-Gearhart
Oregon State University
Areas of Research:
Postsecondary STEM education, faculty and organizational change, largely at research universities
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
Passionate about: doctoral education protecting the environment funky house plants distance running.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I so appreciate LSE’s commitment to disseminating high-quality, and digestible, education research, with well-thought-out implications for practice. One way it achieves this is via a community ethos, shared by editors and reviewers, to providing article reviews that are exceptionally helpful to the authors. I am especially appreciative when my doctoral students receive LSE feedback, always critical towards the higher purpose of helping authors produce, for its community, some of the best work in science education. The LSE community is outstanding in its support of academics and educators!
Email: cynthia.brame@vanderbilt.edu
Cynthia Brame
Vanderbilt University
Areas of Research:
Approaches to promoting equity and inclusion, impacts of undergraduate learning assistants
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
Generosity, curiosity, and thoughtfulness
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I love being part of a community that is curious about how to help our students and each other contribute our growing knowledge base.
Sara Brownell
Arizona State University
Areas of Research:
Inclusive active learning, independent research experiences, course-based undergraduate research experiences, evolution education
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and am highly committed to making academic science spaces more inclusive for LGBTQ+ folks.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value the efforts made by the journal to elevate the quality of biology education research, yet to do so in a way that is still mostly accessible to the average biologist to broaden the impact of the work.
Email: derek.braun@gallaudet.edu
Derek Braun
Gallaudet University
Areas of Research:
Genetics
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
As a deaf person, I value multilingualism and tolerance of different viewpoints and backgrounds. I believe that putting people of diverse backgrounds together usually leads to diverse perspectives on solving any given problem. Ultimately, we will not only find a better solution, but we will have all worked together to form a more inclusive and happier community.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Even though we are all scientists in different disciplines, our common bond (other than the scientific method itself) is that most of us are also educators. We all share in the joys and challenges of building the next generation of successful scientists.”
Email: ccoffman@iastate.edu
Clark Coffman
Iowa State University – Ames, IA
Areas of Research:
Student motivation, student success, science education, equity, diversity, inclusion
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I enjoy working to create teaching and learning environments where people can achieve the outcomes they need. Lately, I’ve gotten very involved in equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I work closely with others on the editorial board on the Anatomy of an education study annotation project. As an editor and reviewer, it is fun to see what ideas people are thinking about and where the fields are heading.
Email: lisa.corwin@Colorado.edu
Lab Website:
https://www.colorado.edu/lab/corwin-reach/
Twitter:@lcorwin202
Lisa Corwin
University of Colorado, Boulder
Areas of Research:
Community and civically engaged undergraduate research experiences, coping with failure in STEM contexts, community college biology education research
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I strongly value science research that is done with the needs, interests, and priorities of “non-scientific” communities in mind, especially historically marginalized or oppressed communities. I am also deeply fascinated by the how scientists cope with challenge and failure during research and feel that adaptive coping should be a skill we aim to develop as research scientists. Inspiring resilience in future researchers should be a priority of undergraduate education if we are to tackle and solve the world’s increasingly complex problems.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value the LSE community because it has allowed me to broaden my perspective on biology teaching and learning in order to better serve my students and society. LSE is a place for evidence-based discourse, new ideas, fresh perspectives, and most importantly, positive change.
Sehoya Cotner
University of Minnesota
Areas of Research:
STEM equity, course-based research experiences, test anxiety, sense of belonging, active learning, mixed methods
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I have just moved to Norway and they have this saying, “”ut på tur, aldri sur,”” which basically means “”out hiking, always happy,”” and that is me in a nutshell. I love to be outside. Professionally, I love working with students in myriad capacities, and engaging students as partners in curriculum development, assessment, and dissemination. I value STEM for everyone, and am interested in any investigation that seeks to identify the causes of, and eliminate, barriers to participation in STEM. And I love interesting collaborations!
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I have been publishing, off and on, in LSE for about 12 years and have typically found the input from the community to be very constructive, making me a better investigator in the process. I look forward to seeing LSE from a new lens.
Brian Couch
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Areas of Research:
Programmatic assessment, formative assessment, science practices, institutional change
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value higher education and the opportunities it affords for personal and societal advancement. I value our collective efforts to make higher education supportive, effective, and broadly accessible.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I appreciate the wide variety of different approaches that our community takes to address questions relevant to biology education.
Sarah Eddy
Florida International University
Areas of Research:
Equity & inclusion, motivation, gender
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value increasing inclusion in biology education and building deep relationships with students and colleagues as we engage in collaborations to work towards this goal.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Like many others here, I joined this community because I wanted to learn how to provide the best learning environments I could for my students. I really value the unique focus this community has on such prosocial goals.
Daniela Fiedler
University of Copenhagen
Areas of Research:
biology and evolution education, students conceptions, assessment, professional development, digital learning environments
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am the first-generation scientist in my family and particularly enjoy teaching the next generation of biology teachers. In that, I strive for students that appreciate (biology) education research as a valuable resource for planning, designing, and improving their biology lessons and teaching strategies.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I appreciate the openness and curiosity of the LSE community. It supports teachers and researchers by providing an excellent forum for sharing evidence-based practices and constantly seeking to enhance biology education for all students.
Email: kfrantz@gsu.edu
Kyle Frantz
Georgia State University
Areas of Research:
Undergraduate research experiences, self-efficacy, predictive analytics, behavioral neuroscience
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
The university setting is where I belong- it’s so vibrant with knowledge and enthusiasm, it fills me with curiosity, energy, and pride. I strive to help make the university welcoming to people of all backgrounds, encouraging all of us to learn and grow, set goals and achieve them. It is my passion to enable others to discover their academic interests and learn about themselves in the process.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Rigorous research that helps to establish best practices in STEM education is critical for student success, for diversity and inclusion, and for the future of discovery and technological advance around the world. LSE provides an outstanding forum for exchange of ideas in this arena. I am pleased to be a published author in the journal and a new member of the editorial board.
Grant Gardner
Middle Tennessee State University
Areas of Research:
Evidence-based instructional practices, professional development, graduate student development
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value the three F’s. Family, Friendship, and Frisbee. Community is important to me at all levels.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
This is a welcoming scholarly community with a developmental-minded focus to scholarship. The goal is to push thinking in the field while not suppressing new ideas or innovative thinking. There is a focus on developing the next generation of scholars through a lens of diversity and equity.
Stephanie Gardner
Purdue University
Areas of Research:
Undergraduate student competence with science practices (qualitative research, assessment design)
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I love learning new things. I also strive to be a better me every day by reminding myself that I can never fully understand another person’s experiences which shape who they are and how they interact with the world. This applies to interactions with people who I know well, acquaintances, and people who are new to me. Reminding myself of this helps me to try to limit my assumptions, be patient, keep an open mind, and help others.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
We have such a diverse community of scholars and educators who push me to think in new ways all the time. I feel so lucky to be a part of this community to work together to support our students based on our research, teaching, and innovations.
Email: logan_gin@brown.edu
Lab Website: https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/people/logan-gin-phd
Twitter: @LoganGin
Logan Gin
Brown University
Areas of Research:
Equitable and inclusive pedagogy; disability in STEM; undergraduate research experiences and CUREs
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value inclusion through creating spaces that are designed with the intention that everyone can truly thrive and succeed in reaching their goals.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
To me, LSE represents thoughtful, collaborative, and welcoming community of engaged scholars who care deeply about improving higher education. LSE has provided me the opportunity to broaden my own perspectives on teaching and learning which have shaped me as a researcher, practitioner, and life-long learner.
Julia Gouvea
Tufts University
Areas of Research:
Scientific practices, modeling, epistemologies of science, resources-based models of cognition
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
Humans are so creative and passionate and interesting! Yet many learning contexts don’t do enough to recognize or grow those capacities. In science instruction in particular, what counts as success is often narrowly defined, contributing to inequitable opportunities and outcomes. I want things to be better! I believe it can be better, and I sometimes get cranky and impatient about the challenge and pace of transformational change.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value how much the LSE community is committed to making real change and to making resources and ideas about how to do that accessible and open to a wide audience.
Colin Harrison
Georgia Tech
Areas of Research:
Bio Lab Education, Instructor Language, DEI, Science Identity
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I really value, everyone having an equitable opportunity to further their education. Our students come from all different levels and backgrounds and we should be providing all the possible tools and support to help them reach their goals. Having a student forward approach to research and education enhances the experience for all.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I appreciate the communities ability to try and be proactive in trying to promote biology education research from all different levels of higher education, to broaden who is able to do research and what populations of students that research would affect.
Paul R. Hernandez
Texas A&M University
Areas of Research:
Mentoring Relationships, Mastery Experiences, Motivation, Academic and Career Attainment, Experiences of Students from Historically Underrepresented Groups
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am personally and professionally interested in exploring and elevating the conversation on how we help students to set personally relevant and meaning academic / career goals, as well as how we help them to regulate their motivation to pursue and attain their goals. I value collaboration and interdisciplinary research.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value collegial, inclusive, and developmental spirit of the LSE community. Further, I value this journal’s commitment to deepening our understanding of how to improve the teaching and learning Biology and Science Education.
Matthew Hora
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Areas of Research:
Work-based learning, nature of skills and skill acquisition, cultural aspects of teaching and learning, institutional change
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
My career goals were never oriented to academic research, but instead started out in the fields of sustainable agriculture and environmental education. Through these experiences and my being raised as a 4-H kid in a Buddhist-Evangelical household, I developed a commitment to service that in many ways is antithetical to the culture within research universities. Thus, a focus on translational or applied research that benefits the many and not the few has long guided my research, teaching, and outreach activities.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
The LSE community has long been an important source of high-quality and thoughtful research for interdisciplinary scholars, and it’s wonderful to be able to contribute my expertise from the social sciences to issues affecting STEM education. This community of scholars also has a rare intellectual openness to unique or novel theory, methods, and ideas for tackling the challenging problems of instructional and institutional change.
James Hewlett
Finger Lakes Community College
Areas of Research:
The impacts of undergraduate research on student persistence in a STEM educational pathway, macro and micro indicators of stress in coral reef ecosystems. Submerged fermentation of mushroom mycelium for the production of exopolysaccharides
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
Next to the valuable relationships that I have with my family and colleagues,
I have always had a passion for education, science, and the environment.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value the collaborative nature of this community and the welcoming
nature that provides opportunities to learn and to share ideas about education.
Jennifer Knight
University of Colorado Boulder
Areas of Research:
Problem solving, metacognition, faculty development
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
Teaching is the way I connect with people, especially young people. I learn so much from them in trying to figure out how to help them learn.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Honest critiques of research, camaraderie, opportunities to provide feedback to others, and a connection to all the great work being done in our discipline.
Paula Lemons
University of Georgia
Areas of Research:
Problem solving, instruction, assessment, faculty professional development, institutional change, biochemistry education
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value connecting with students and encouraging their development. I value mentoring researchers at all stages of their career. I value humanity and believe in the dignity of every person. I value science and the systematic pursuit of knowledge. I value critical examination of systems, recognizing systemic flaws as well as the effective ways systems function, and working to make them equitable and just for all participants.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value being part of the LSE community because it aligns with my personal values. Most notably, LSE promotes a developmental approach to research, using the journal to promote continuously improving scholarship and scholars.
Email: smlo@ucsd.edu
Lab Website: https://biology.ucsd.edu/research/faculty/smlo
Twitter: @stanleylo302
Stanley Lo
University of California San Diego
Areas of Research:
Faculty conceptions, student identities
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I grew up with extended families including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Even though we now live in many different countries, we continue to have regular video calls. Before the pandemic, we had at least one annual gathering and celebrated anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, and weddings together!
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
To me, the LSE community has always had a focus on capacity building in the field, including new authors, reviewers, and editors. I am honored to be part of this community, continue to contribute in these different aspects, and learn from colleagues in different stages of their careers.
Email: loertscher@seattleu.ed
Jenny Loertscher
Seattle University
Areas of Research:
Undergraduate biochemistry teaching, learning, and education research
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I believe that learning should be a joyful process based on rich relationships and the recognition of students and teachers as whole people.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value the focus within the LSE community on improving as teachers and researchers and supporting each other to learn and grow.
Tammy Long
Michigan State University
Areas of Research:
Biology Education, Modeling, Plant Biology
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
What do I value? Curiosity, creativity, kindness, humility, plants, and dogs. Not necessarily in that order.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
For me, LSE represents the work of diverse and creative individuals in a field that is young and rapidly evolving. The pace of discovery and innovation makes it an especially exciting time to be a biology educator! I appreciate – and aim to uphold – our community’s approach to creating a nurturing environment where ideas and approaches are challenged for the purpose of elevating the quality of our work and not merely elevating our egos.
Emily Miller
Association of American Universities
Areas of Research:
Institutional change, higher education administration and policy
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
A great joy is spending time with my family outdoors. I have two sons, Charlie and Henry, with my husband, JT.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
The LSE community is a dedicated group of professionals. I learn a tremendous amount from the board.
Terrell Morton
University of Illinois Chicago
Areas of Research:
Race, critical theories of race and racialization, identity development, STEM retention and matriculation
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I identify as a Scholar-Activist! My work strives to transform the positioning and understanding of Blackness in mainstream education, specifically STEM. I seek justice and joy for Black women, Black students, and other minoritized individuals given the social-cultural-political-historical positioning of their identities.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value being able to work collaboratively in a space that supports expansions of the knowledge production process, with a particular focus on equity and justice.
Ross Nehm
Stony Brook University (SUNY)
Areas of Research:
Learning, assessment, psychometrics, research design, cognition
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
As a first-generation college student from an under-resourced community, I have experienced the power of education to transform lives and livelihoods. The biology education research community has a responsibility to generate and disseminate high-quality findings and practices to ensure that all students have access to engaging and meaningful learning experiences.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
The LSE community is unique in that it focuses heavily on practical applications and educational reform (not just basic research). As a researcher who engages in basic research, I continue to learn from my colleagues and find the LSE community to be an exciting context for bridging the basic-applied research divide.
Erika Offerdahl
Washington State University
Areas of Research:
Assessment, visual literacy, team-based learning, organizational change, argumentation
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
As a first-generation student, I have often found it difficult to navigate academia. There seemed to be a “”right”” path that was invisible to me. I am committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in science by affirming the myriad pathways available to our students.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value deepening my understanding of inclusive pedagogies and reflecting on my own practice through my service to the LSE community. I appreciate the data-driven approaches and discussions that emerge from the work of colleagues in the LSE community.
Email: prevost@usf.edu
Luanna Prevost
University of South Florida
Areas of Research:
Assessment, ecology education, faculty professional development, faculty teaching interactions
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value education as a means of empowerment and view biology education as an important vehicle for addressing some of the complex global challenges we face today.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Together, the members of the LSE community provide multifaceted approaches to understanding and improving the systems that influence how biology, and science in general, is taught and learned.
Rebecca Price
University of Washington Bothell
Areas of Research:
Evolution education, professional development, postdoctoral advocacy, diversity, equity, and inclusion
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I love to learn. Every decade or so, I dive into a new area of research. As a kid, I spent so much time in natural history museums going to exhibits to learn about evolution. That led me to a conduct research in paleobiology during my PhD, and I cherished the time spent looking through drawers of fossil and modern shells in museum collections. Then I dove into evolution education, now into professional development, and continuing with more work around diversity, equity, and inclusion in science. Part of what drives me to study these overlapping but distinct areas of scholarship is the opportunity to learn deeply from different experts and their complementary methods of discovery.
William Romine
Wright State University
Areas of Research:
Measurement, citizen sensing, health education
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value the process of helping students craft their own truth through data.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Working with a diverse and motivated group of scholars.
Tati Russo-Tait
University of Georgia
Areas of Research:
Racial/ethnic and gender inequality in K-16 STEM, faculty conceptions and practices, equitable pedagogies
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value people. I value my family, friends, and academic community who make up my “village” and have supported and encouraged me in various ways, allowing me to persist despite many obstacles. I strive for and deeply value justice-centered and humanizing approaches to science education reform that disrupt systemic injustices and ensure that barriers are removed–– so that all students experience equitable learning opportunities and outcomes, regardless of background.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
A dear mentor shared articles from LSE over a decade ago when I was a graduate student in biology–– and I was introduced to a type of research I did not know existed. This allowed me to consider another career, one where I could still leverage my passion for biology and pursue scholarship that is more meaningful to me. To be part of the LSE community means I have come full circle. I look forward to continue learning from brilliant, thoughtful scholars in the field, and to provide my own contributions to this supportive and inclusive community.
Email: schinskejeff@fhda.edu
Lab Website:
https://foothillcollege.instructure.com/courses/3682
Twitter:@jeffbioed
Jeff Schinske
Foothill College
Areas of Research:
Inclusive STEM curricula, instructor talk, science identity
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I’m a father of two awesome boys, a musician (B.A. Saxophone Performance), and a fan of basketball and baseball. I regard the community college students I serve as the most hardworking, brilliant, creative individuals on the planet. They are my role models and the inspiration for my teaching and research.
What do you value
being part of the LSE community?
I love that LSE is a diverse and supportive community focused on empowering and centering the voices of learners.
Email: aschucha@umn.edu
Anita Schuchardt
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Areas of Research:
Mathematics in biology, TA training, statistics in biology experimental design and analysis
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value my research and teaching because I want to make biology education accessible to all students, especially the nontraditional thinkers who may struggle with memorization but who are creative and interested in learning for the sake of learning. Spending time with family and outdoors in nature are my restorative activities. Kayaking with my grown sons is my favorite activity.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value the opportunity to help colleagues produce a manuscript that communicates their work in the best possible way.
Elisabeth Schussler
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Areas of Research:
Introductory biology student anxiety and instuctor practices, graduate student experiences
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value curiosity, humor, kindness, tenaciousness. In my free time I like puttering around in my landscaping, doing yoga, trying new foods, petting my cats, and reading books.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
The focus on developmental feedback and helping authors improve their work. Working in this community has improved my own research practice and helped me better guide my own students through the research and publishing process. Plus, I love seeing all the new ideas other researchers are producing.
Email: sharp46tusk@yahoo.com
Starlette (Star) Sharp
Penn State University
Areas of Research:
Access, retention, cancer biology, biology education
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am passionate about the role Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play in STEM workforce diversity and the importance of intentionally building inclusive and representative environments in STEM. There is absolutely room for all of us in science.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Excellent science is great, but good people are paramount. I seek to surround myself with smart and thoughtful scientist that are ALSO good people. You cannot have the best science when you don’t have a kind and inclusive community of practice. To that end I have met some of the most kind and brilliant people right here in the LSE community.
Erin Shortlidge
Portland State University
Areas of Research:
Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), belonging, graduate teaching assistant professional development, interdisciplinary science for undergraduates, evidence-based teaching, community college transfer students, persistence
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I value authenticity and how one’s personal experiences lend to their unique perspectives.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I love learning from others who have differing perspectives but a shared passion for improving the quality, value, and accessibility of STEM higher education.
Kimberly Tanner
San Francisco State University
Areas of Research:
Biology and science education, measurement development, student conceptions, equity and inclusion
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I’m a first-generation college-going student. I value equity, fairness, social justice, and diversity. I’m a neuroscientist who conceptualizes the world in terms of memory, neurons, synapses, and brain plasticity. I’m a proud Mom and spouse to my college sweetheart. I served ice cream to Johnny Cash at my first job. What flavor do you predict he ordered?
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
As a member of the LSE founding Editorial Board, I have valued learning and growing with the journal since its inception. I especially appreciate the LSE community’s shared core value of being purposefully encouraging and taking a supportive and developmental stance towards all submissions. I value the LSE community commitment to strive for inclusion of divergent perspectives from a range of contexts, individuals, institutions, and related disciplines.
Email: svemu@waubonsee.edu
Sheela Vemu
Waubonsee Community College, IL
Areas of Research:
Two Year college perspective: Metacognition, Study Skills and CUREs
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I enjoy working with all students, especially freshman/sophomores from diverse backgrounds in biology education research projects in the aspects of effective study strategies and metacognition. I am passionate about CURE’s and implementing case studies with the lens of a quantitative data literacy to foster inclusion in a community college classroom
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I found the LSE community to be supportive, kind and welcoming in publishing high quality research articles in biology education research. The community has been inclusive in bringing forward evidence-based articles and innovative ideas of change for the two-year community college ecosystem.
Abdi Warfa
University of Minnesota
Areas of Research:
Biology education research, DBER, studies of classroom dynamics, discourse analysis
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am passionate about understanding how students learn science, crossing boundaries across disciplines, and teaching. When not thinking about the science of learning science, I enjoy spending time with my family, reading spy-themed books for pleasure and of course watching movies.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
What I value the most about the LSE community is the opportunity to learn about cutting edge research about biology education and the best ways to teach biology. I find the intersect of both research and practice and the opportunity to influence the future of biology education through publication in LSE quite thrilling.
Carl Wieman
Stanford University
Areas of Research:
Science teaching and learning, expertise, teaching and assessment of expertise, institutional change, equity in introductory science courses
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I feel every person should have the opportunity to learn science in order to make better decisions in their life where relevant, and that academic success is largely a matter of opportunity.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
Being part of a group dedicated to helping all students learn.
Email: kjwilson@marian.edu
Kristy Wilson
Marian University
Areas of Research:
Scientific process, modeling, faculty development
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am always curious. I am constantly thinking up new questions after listening to the news or reading a paper. I love the freedom of being in academia where I can explore my curiosity and try new solutions.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
I value that LSE is a positive a creative force that serves multiple audiences. Instructors just looking to improve their teaching can use LSE’s Evidence-Based Teaching Guides or excellent articles. New education researchers can use the anatomy of an education study and submit articles with positive critiques that make each study published better.
Email: awolfson@wellesley.edu
Adele Wolfson
Wellesley College
Areas of Research:
Biochemistry education, intersection between science and liberal arts
What is something important to know about who you are personally and what you value?
I am committed to increasing access to science education and careers for all students, particularly those who have been excluded from these fields.
What do you value about being part of the LSE community?
The culture of LSE seems to be how best to support one another and those who submit to the journal, rather than finding reasons to reject and exclude.