Principal investigators
Dr. Sherri L. Turner, Ph.D. (turne047@umn.edu), is a professor in the counselor education program at the University of Minnesota. She has 16 years of experience conducting research on career development and STEM career development of Native American and other underrepresented adolescents and young adults. With over 100 publications and professional presentations that focus on these lines of inquiry, she has connected this body of work to the work of other experts in the career, counseling, counseling psychology, and educational psychology fields (e.g., Alliman-Brissett & Turner, 2010; Turner, Hammond, & Lapan, 2017; Turner, Smith et al., 2015; Turner, Trotter et al., 2006). She has been awarded approximately $1 million to support her research.
This research is part of the ongoing collaborative endeavors between Dr. Turner, Dr. Jacobs, and Dr. Mason-Chagil. An example of a current collaborative project is “The effects of campus climate and support on the emerging science, technology, engineering, and math interests of Native American college students” (Turner, Jacobs, Mason-Chagil, Lee, Smith, & Jackson, in preparation).
Gale Mason-Chagil, Ph.D. (galemilo@umn.edu), runs Cultural Inquiry Consulting, LLC and has 16 years’ experience conducting culturally competent educational and career development research with Native American communities. She specializes in social change and social justice research and in consultation for projects administered by schools, community-based organizations, and foundations. She has spearheaded the Bush Foundation High School Completion Program (2004-2011), which measured the effects of a variety of educational interventions at multiple sites serving Native American, and other underrepresented minority students in order to assist them in completing high school and transitioning into college. As a PI on that project, she developed the project design and implementation methodology, as well as engaged participants and community stakeholders.
Dr. Sue C. Jacobs, Ph.D. (sue.c.jacobs@okstate.edu) is the Oklahoma State University (OSU) PI on this Collaborative project. She holds the Myron Ledbetter and Bob Lemon Counseling Psychology Diversity Professorship and is Professor in the School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psychology, College of Education and Human Sciences at OSU. Her research and scholarship is broad and includes qualitative and quantitative research on multiple topics that include work on increasing diversity in land-grant universities, increasing social justice, and preparing future faculty. She currently collaborates with other faculty and students on research projects, including NSF-funded research informed by this project, related to minority in STEM. She has years of experience in mentoring and working with American Indian and other under-represented, often first generation, students and faculty. She has directed and/or managed many projects including founding and directing a successful Preparing Future Faculty Program at OSU for 14 years. She has over 70 publications and over 300 professional presentations. She regularly presents to state and local professional audiences and to campus and community groups.
Research personnel
Carolyn Berger, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and the coordinator of Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology (CSPP) at the University of Minnesota. Besides teaching the career counseling and development course in the graduate program in CSPP, she also provides leadership on diversity issues, especially around multiculturalism and cultural humility. Her research interests include postsecondary and career readiness, best practices for designing and evaluating research-based counseling interventions, and university and school collaborations and partnerships. Her published research includes measuring classroom climate, the evaluation of a college and career readiness intervention, and assessing career adaptability. Besides supporting CSPP, she works for a private practice in the Twin Cities. For this project, Dr. Berger is providing leadership on qualitative data analysis strategies and methods, and on addressing the real-world challenges of underrepresented students.
Nicole Colston, Ph.D. is an assistant research professor at Oklahoma State University. As an interdisciplinary network scholar, her engineering education research work focuses on early-age career awareness, STEM identity development, and the institutional contexts for diversity in higher education. Her work on this project informs her current NSF-funded research about Native American entry and Oklahoma. For this project, Dr. Colston contributes expertise in engineering education and research. Dr. Colston designed culturally responsive activities for outreach at AISES events, and she can be seen summarizing the project findings in 2019 STEM for All video entitled, Towards Increasing Native American Engineering Faculty.
Sarah Johnson, Ph.D. is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Community Health Science, Counseling and Counseling Psychology at Oklahoma State University and Director of the Al Carlozzi Center for Counseling at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Her research interests include vocational development in diverse populations, work-life interface, Black masculinity, and diverse fatherhood practices. Her clinical work has primarily been in university counseling center settings, wherein she works with diverse populations of students, faculty, and staff.
Project consultants
Dr. Mark Bellcourt (bellc001@umn.edu) is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, a former member of AISES Board of Directors, a Coordinator for the President’s Emerging Scholars (PES) program at the University of Minnesota, and Senior Academic Adviser in the College of Education and Human Development. He teaches a course on “Native American Ways of Knowing the Environment”. Dr. Bellcourt serves as a scientific and cultural consultant on all aspects of the research design, data interpretation, and dissemination. He also consults on appointments to and collaborations with advisory committee members.
Jim Smay, Ph.D., is a member of the Cherokee nation and Associate Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, OSU, Tulsa, OK. Besides being well published in professional academic journals, he is an AISES advisor, and a member of the Oklahoma AISES Professional Chapter. He provides leadership and outreach to the Native American community via annual Cherokee Nation Science and Engineering Fairs, and Summer Robotics School for Cherokee middle school students.
University of Minnesota student researchers
The undergraduate research scholars on this project are involved in recruiting, focus groups and interviews, data analysis and writing. Each has chosen an area of interest from this research project to study, and each will be presenting at the University of Minnesota university-wide Undergraduate Research Symposium as well as in other venues.
Morgan Schmitt-Morris
Major: Psychology (with a public health and neuroscience minor)
Morgan is exploring perceptions of barriers and parental supports that are associated with Native American engineering students’ intentions to persist in their engineering studies.
Yuqing Wang
Major: Mathematics (with astrophysics minor)
Yuqing is exploring why Native American engineering graduate students choose industry rather than choosing to become an engineering faculty.
Emily Koithan
Major: Mathematics and computer science (with a minor in linguistics)
Emily is examining the factors and motivations behind Native Americans’ entry into undergraduate engineering programs
Katherine Sylvia is a graduate student pursuing her M.A. in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology with a focus on higher education career counseling and student development. As a future career counselor, Katherine will be contributing to this project through her exploration of barriers and supports that influence the career paths of Native American engineering students.
Manos Hatzimalonas is a graduate student on the Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology MA at the University of Minnesota. He is a licensed psychologist in Greece, founder of the non-profit Philotimo Foundation exploring character education and civic engagement, and curator of TEDxRhodes and TEDxYouth@Rhodes.
Madison Thornton is a master’s student in the Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology program at the University of Minnesota. She has a background in research on intergroup prejudice and bias as well as experience in multicultural teaching. Her contributions to this project will be to explore the educational processes of Native American engineering students while they are in college.
Rileigh Coyle is a graduate student pursuing her M.A. in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology, with a focus on higher education student mental health. Her contributions to this project will be to explore the advocacy role of counselors as they seek to empower Native American engineering students.
Kayla Kemp is a first-year graduate student through the University of Minnesota’s Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology program. Her contributions to this project will be the exploration of barriers to pursuing a degree in a higher education setting for Native American engineering students.
Angela Sim is a graduate student pursuing her M.A. in Counselor Education at the University of Minnesota. She has research experience in understanding academic and emotional barriers and supports of college students from marginalized communities and hopes to continue this research in a doctoral program. Angela will be contributing to this project through supporting in the manuscript writing process and literature review.
Oklahoma State University graduate research associates, Center for STEM Teaching and Learning
Left to right: Arynne Horton, school psychology doctoral student; Elizabeth Banks, school psychology doctoral student; Ana Hwang, curriculum studies doctoral student
Kelsey Lee
Kelsey is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and obtained her B.A. in psychology in 2018 from Oklahoma State University. She is currently pursuing her M.S. in Mental Health Counseling at OSU. Her interest in this project stems from her Native American background and seeking a better understanding of what factors influence a Native American student to choose an academic path of higher education in engineering.
Stephanie Zackery, B.A. is a research assistant for the EAGER project and has been working with the project since Fall 2019. She is a second-year student in mental health counseling at Oklahoma State University. Stephanie is also currently completing a thesis about racial and ethnic minorities in STEM.
Chisom Amy Anunobi, B.Sci. is a Nigerian Master’s student in Mental Health Counseling at Oklahoma State University (OSU). Prior to discovering her passion for counseling, she received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Management at OSU. While getting her undergraduate degree, in collaboration with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), she worked as a STEM mentor to ethnic minority kids for 3 years. She is interested in researching factors that contribute to ethnic minorities’ involvement in STEM.
Kirstin Sylvester. M.S., NCC is a doctoral student in Oklahoma State University’s Counseling Psychology program. She received her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Mercer University and the University of Kentucky, respectively. She is a nationally certified counselor, and her research interests include resilience, stress and coping, and underrepresented women in STEM fields.
The research reported herein was funded by grant number 1743329 and 1743752 from the National Science Foundation to the University of Minnesota and Oklahoma State University. The opinions are those of the authors and do not represent the policies of the National Science Foundation.