2023 Collaborative Network for Computing and Engineering Diversity (CoNECD)

1. Dr. Catherine E. Brawner http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8172-7599 Research Triangle Educational Consultants [biography]

   Catherine E. Brawner is President of Research Triangle Educational Consultants. She received her Ph.D.in Educational Research and Policy Analysis from NC State University in 1996. She also has an MBA from Indiana University (Bloomington) and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University. She specializes in evaluation and research in engineering education, computer science education, and technology education. Dr. Brawner is a founding member and former treasurer of Research Triangle Park Evaluators, an American Evaluation Association affiliate organization and is a member of the American Educational Research Association and American Evaluation Association, in addition to ASEE. Dr. Brawner is the principal formative evaluator for the AGEP-NC project. She has also served as an Extension Services Consultant for the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) and, in that role, advised computer science and engineering departments on diversifying their undergraduate student population. She remains an active researcher, including studying academic policies, gender and ethnicity issues, transfers, and matriculation models with MIDFIELD as well as student veterans in engineering. Her evaluation work includes evaluating teamwork models, broadening participation initiatives, and AGEP, S-STEM and LSAMP programs.

2. Ms. Andrea Stancescu NC State University [biography]

   Hello,
   My name is Andrea Stancescu and I am a junior in the undergraduate applied mathematics and statistics program at NC State. I have been working with Dr. Brawner since August of 2021 on collecting and analyzing the survey results from the AGEP-NC project.
   I am looking forwards to working with everyone!

3. Dr. Maureen Grasso NC State University [biography]

   Maureen Grasso former Dean of the Graduate School at North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia has over 16 years as a dean in graduate education. She worked with faculty and students to improve and enhance mentoring. Grasso was an active participant in the Council of Graduate School’s ”PhD completion project”, The Commission on “Pathways Through Graduate School and into Careers” and the Advancement Advisory Committee. She was a founding member of the CGS Advisory Committee on Advocacy and Public Policy.
   Grasso served as President and Past President of CSGS and in 2009, She received the CSGS Award for Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education in the Southern Region. She served on the National Academy of Sciences committee on “Revitalizing Gradute Stem Education for the 21st Century.” Grasso currently serves as a Co-PI on the NC AGEP grant An Institutional Transformative Model to Increase Minority STEM Doctoral Student and Faculty Sucess.

4. Dr. Yvette Maria Huet UNC Charlotte [biography]

   Yvette Huet is Director of the ADVANCE Faculty Affairs and Diversity Office and a Professor of Applied Physiology, Health and Clinical Sciences at UNC Charlotte. She has worked with and created a variety of workshops for faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and current and future leaders and provided professional development consultation to faculty. She has provided training at UNC Charlotte and other programs and institutions across the country, many with current or previous ADVANCE grants, that addresses best practices in recruitment, inherent bias, communication, mentoring and reappointment, promotion and tenure in the academia.

   She graduated with bachelor’s degrees in Microbiology and Human Biology from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. with Honors in Physiology from the University of Kansas, Medical Center. She went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at Monsanto Company in Chesterfield, MO and then to UNC Charlotte. She was tenured and went on to be a Full Professor in the Biology Department at UNC Charlotte, she has been Director of the Interdisciplinary PhD program in Biology as well as the Health Services Research Doctoral program. She was the Faculty Development Coordinator in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Interim Chair of Kinesiology. She continues as a Professor of Applied Physiology, Health and Clinical Sciences (previously Kinesiology) and has been Director of the ADVANCE Faculty Affairs and Diversity Office for over 10 years. Her research is in the areas of Endocrinology, Reproductive Biology and Sexually Dimorphic Disease as well as on Mid-Career Mentoring.

5. Dr. Rebecca Brent http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-5390-1625 Education Designs, Inc [biography]

   Rebecca Brent is President of Education Designs, Inc., a consulting firm located in Chapel Hill, N.C. She is a certified program evaluator and a faculty development consultant and researcher specializing in STEM fields. Brent received her B.A. from Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., her M.Ed. from MS State University, and her Ed.D from Auburn University. In 2014 she was named a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.

6. Dr. Lisa Merriweather University of North Carolina at Charlotte [biography]

   Lisa R. Merriweather is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her PhD in Adult Education with a graduate certificate in Qualitative Inquiry from the University of Georgia in 2004. Her research focuses on issues of equity and social justice within adult education, informal education, and doctoral education. She explores the critical philosophy and sociology of race and antiblack racism and employs Africana Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, and qualitative and historical methodology to investigate topics found at the nexus of race and adult education.

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