RESEARCH TEAM

Philip J. Pettis received his MSW and B.A. in Psychology from Wichita State University. He additionally has an M.A. in Sociology from Vanderbilt. His Master’s thesis qualitatively explored the role of gay male culture and gay male peers in gay men’s body image formation using an intersectional informed approach to thematic analysis.

His research interests include taking an intersectionality approach to exploring topics within the domain of medical sociology and genetics, gender and sexuality, sexual health, sociology of the body, social networks, and social inequality. He is currently involved in multiple qualitative studies examining the centrality of diverse bodies to a myriad of social and health experiences and quantitative studies examining issues related to broad LGBT health.

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Tianwen Li is currently working toward the Master of Education in English Language Learners at Vanderbilt University. She received her B.A. in English language and literature from the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2018. Her research interests include second language acquisition, reading development, and the educational experience of immigrant youth.

She joined the EDEFI team during the fall of 2019 and currently is involved in projects that study the experiences of STEM faculty of minoritized identities.

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Yuan is a M.Ed. student in Quantitative Methods program from the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University and is currently working as a quantitative research assistant in EDEFI. Yuan received her B.S. in Psychology from Beijing Normal University in China. Her research interests focus on culture and diversity, psychological adjustment, prejudice and discrimination, and advanced quantitative methods.  

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Alejandro is an undergraduate student majoring in African American and Diaspora Studies and Medicine, Health, and Society, with a concentration in Intersectional Inequality and Health Justice at Vanderbilt University. Alejandro hopes to go on to law or graduate school to pursue public policy and grassroots organizing. His research interests include reframing the American public education system, intersectionality and social justice, and social movements the resulted from prolonged oppression. 

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Brian A. Burt, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also serves as Research Scientist in the Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (WeiLAB). With support from the National Science Foundation (Early CAREER Award) and National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, he studies graduate student learning and achievement. In particular, he seeks to provide new understandings of the complexity of science participation with the aim being to better understand the experiences that promote or turn students away from science pathways.

Brian has published in leading educational journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, School Science and Mathematics, and Journal of Negro Education, to name a select few. In 2019, he was named an Emerging Scholar by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Brian earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Michigan, a Master’s in Educational Policy and Leadership from the University of Maryland-College Park, and a Bachelor’s in secondary English from Indiana University-Bloomington. 

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Colleen Fiser is a Project Management and Business Services Consultant who provides administration, management, and oversight for projects and departmental operations with an emphasis on planning, process, and systems. She’s a big believer in PLANNING for success – collaborating with department leaders and project sponsors and stakeholders to capture the strategic picture, build the steps to get there, and work closely with team to execute on the vision. Colleen’s natural strengths consist of execution, harmony, and maximization – which speak to her ideals of structure, routine, ownership, collaboration, and leveraging one another’s strengths to build something extraordinary.

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Ezekiel Dixon-Román is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s director of SP2’s Master of Science in Social Policy program and chair of the Data Analytics for Social Policy graduate certificate. His interdisciplinary scholarship is focused on the cultural studies of quantification and critical theories of difference. In particular, his research program seeks to make cultural and critical theoretical interventions toward rethinking and reconceptualizing the technologies and practices of quantification as mediums and agencies of systems of sociopolitical relations whereby race and other assemblages of difference are byproducts.

He is particularly interested in how power and difference are reproduced, especially in bodily capacities, and the ways in which sociotechnical systems of quantification are working on, with, and in the body to produce racialized demarcations of which bodily capacities to regenerate and which to debilitate. He is also deeply interested in theoretical and methodological interventions toward developing alternative modes of inquiry and practices of quantification that might enable the potentialities of reconstituting sociopolitical relations and the movement and flow of social life.

He is the author of Inheriting Possibility: Social Reproduction & Quantification in Education (2017, University of Minnesota Press), which received the 2018 Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association. He also co-guest edited “Alternative Ontologies of Number: Rethinking the Quantitative in Computational Culture” (2016, Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies) and “The computational turn in education research: Critical and creative perspectives on the digital data deluge” (2017, Research in Education).

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Dr. Frances Williams is the Associate Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs and a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Tennessee State University.  Her research focus is in the areas of advanced materials and devices, biosensors, and nano- and micro-electromechanical systems processing and devices. She has received grants totaling over $14 million as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator. In 2010 she received a U.S. patent for developing a micromachined sensor for monitoring electrochemical deposition.

Dr. Williams has received various awards including the 2013 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award, the highest faculty award given out by the state. In 2012, she was named an “Emerging Scholar” by Diverse Issues in Higher Education  magazine.  She is a member of five professional and honorary societies. She volunteers in various community programs that promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education for students from elementary to college age. Dr. Williams holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from North Carolina Agricultural Technical State University, and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Monica F. Cox, Ph.D., is a Professor and Inaugural Chair of the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She is also the Director of the International Institute of Engineering Education Assessment (i2e2a) and the CEO of STEMinent LLC, a company that houses educational assessment, Prepared to Be a Pioneer® professional development, and Quirky Time® media offerings. In 2011, she became the first African American female to earn tenure in the College of Engineering at Purdue University.

Her research focuses on the use of mixed methodologies to explore significant research questions in undergraduate, graduate, and professional engineering education; to explore issues of intersectionality among women, particularly Women of Color in engineering; and to develop, disseminate, and commercialize reliable and valid assessment tools for use in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Dr. Cox has led and collaborated on multidisciplinary projects totaling approximately $15 million, and she has authored over 130 publications.

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Ocheze Joseph has served as an elementary school based administrator for the past 12 years, serving diverse populations such as high poverty, high English language learners, and gifted and talented. Prior to administration, Ocheze taught students in grades K-6, was a  mentor teacher, Title I teacher, Reading Specialist, and Staff Development teacher.

She holds an Ed.D. from the University of Maryland as well as an M.S.Ed from Johns Hopkins University. Currently, Ocheze teaches courses to students in both the undergraduate and graduate reading programs. Dr. Joseph is passionate about issues of equity in education and ensuring that our most vulnerable students receive high quality instruction.  Her research interests include language acquisition, early childhood education, struggling readers, family involvement and school improvement planning.

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Oluchi Nwosu-Randolph is a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology department at Vanderbilt University. Her interests pertain to ways that race, ethnicity, and identity development shape individuals’ perceptions of challenges and opportunities. Her dissertation examined the utility of DuBois’ double-consciousness, black feminism, and critical race theory for understanding how families and schools shape identity development processes for young refugees resettling in the US. As a member of the Beyond the PhD Research Team, she studies how postdoctoral experiences in STEM fields influence the decisions that women and underrepresented minorities make to leave or remain in academia.

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