In celebration of the ADVANCE Adaptation grant progress, today we feature the research of our two graduate students and their advisors.
Ph.D. Candidate Betsy Lehman — Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Lehman is being advised by Beth Veinott (CLS/CS/HCC) and Sonia Goltz (COB). Lehman has a B.S. and M.S. from Northern Michigan University in psychological science. Her dissertation is “When Will We Question Our Frame? That Is the Question: Studying the Sensemaking Process in Ambiguous Scenarios,” involving people’s frames or theories to explain obscured situations. Her research explores whether people question their frames naturally and tests the efficacy of different strategies to prompt questioning in a variety of contexts.
Ph.D. Student Karen Colbert — Computational Science and Engineering
Colbert, A Ph.D. student, is working under Mark Rouleau (SS). She has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Data Science from Michigan Tech. She is also a faculty member at the neighboring Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College and a member of the tribal college faculty advisory board for the American Indian College Fund. Her research dissertation is titled “Visualizing Equity: A Data Storytelling Approach to Evaluate Impact of Faculty Gender Bias Intervention.” The research explores the use of computational visualization as a data storytelling approach to evaluate the impact of faculty gender bias intervention programs in STEM fields at higher education institutions. The study aims to contribute to the development of evidence-based recommendations for designing and evaluating effective equity interventions.
Colbert was the 2021 Diversity Scholar. She has received a Doctoral Finishing Fellowship, a KCP Future Faculty/GEM Associate Fellowship, and was a nominee for CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation.
Both of these research projects provide insights into how individuals engage with concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion and sense of belonging and the impacts on campus climate as perceived by all individuals in the community. Colbert and Lehman have both been instrumental in assisting the ADVANCE evaluation team with formative assessment results from the Advocates and Allies (A&A) workshops and the Advanced Career Management (ACM) program. A special thank-you to the guidance from their research advisors as well.
For more information about ADVANCE, please visit our website.