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Meet our team

External Team Members

Dr. Rose Shaw serves as the External Evaluator for the �ձ�һ��Ƭ-MOLE project. Dr. Shaw has a great deal of experience that is relevant to evaluating this Program. She has been a third party independent external evaluator of over 80 projects in 19 states and many of the projects have included work force development components. About two-thirds of the projects were funded by the National Science Foundation (MSP, STEM-C, EPSCoR RII T1 and T2, S-STEM, HBCU, DRK12, GK12, ITEST, ADVANCE, LSAMP, IGERT) and the others were supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (INBRE and RCMI), United States Department of Agriculture (REEU, NNF), and the Department of Education (Reading Excellence Act, Reading First and various Block grant projects). She also does statistical consulting; the latest project was an Institute of Education Science (IES) research study using a randomized control design to study dietary intake in infants and toddlers with visual impairment.

 

Ms. Sheila Lumod serves as the Lead Teacher for the �ձ�һ��Ƭ-MOLE Program. She has a degree in Secondary Science Education. She is certified to teach Biology and General Science after passing PRAXIS for Biology and PRAXIS for Teaching Pedagogy. She has been teaching life science (middle school) for 10 years and biology (HS) for 16 years. She taught Advanced Placement Biology for 6 years and is a NIET certified science mentor, currently pursuing an ancillary certification as a LA State Mentor. She is also the 2019 recipient of the Inspire NOLA High School Teacher of the Year award.

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External Advisory Committee

1. Dr. Carla Romney, a previous NIH SEPA recipient and one of the PI’s for the CityLab program is currently the Director of Research for CityLab. Dr. Romney joined the CityLab team in 2000 to combine her passions for science, education, and business. After graduating from Tufts University with degrees in electrical engineering and Spanish, she began a long graduate school path that included studies at Dartmouth College (Masters in Biomedical Engineering) and University of Rochester (Masters of Business Administration). She earned her D.Sc. from Harvard University in 2000 while studying Cancer Biology. She is now running Symmetry Learning, a company that develops and markets an innovative inquiry-based science education program for grades K-8.
2. Dr. Renée Akbar is an Associate Professor in Educational Leadership at �ձ�һ��Ƭ, where she recently completed her tenure as Chair of the Division of Education and Counseling. While in this position, she co-developed the Education Doctorate degree program in Educational Leadership, the first terminal degree program in the College of Arts and Sciences. At Xavier, Dr. Akbar was the inaugural winner of the Norman C. Francis Excellence in Teaching Award. Before coming to Xavier, Dr. Akbar served as a program coordinator for SERVE, one of ten federally-funded educational laboratories, in which she helped to improve elementary mathematics and science pedagogical content knowledge of teachers and administrators.
3. Dr. Michelle Hewlett Sanchez is a Senior Professor of Practice and the Director of the Center for K-12 STEM Education in the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering. Her goal as the Director of the Center for K-12 STEM Education is to match the resources at Tulane with partnerships in the community promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education for grades K–12. Through all of their programming, the Center reaches 4000 K-12 students annually with over 1200 on Tulane's campus.

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development (CAT+FD) ( will assist with the development of pedagogical workshops and mentoring training programs. The Center’s staff has expertise in multiple types of pedagogy, online teaching and learning and faculty support and training. Workshop facilitators have developed and implemented both mentor and mentee training programs and are National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) Certified Facilitators. Tiera Coston who is a member of CAT+FD will be designing mentoring training workshops for the �ձ�һ��Ƭ undergraduate students who will participate in the �ձ�һ��Ƭ-MOLE program. Consequently, supporting teachers, prospective teachers and students in the areas of pedagogy, curricular development and enhancement, mentoring and acquisition of STEM-related knowledge is also in Dr. Coston’s area of expertise. 

Student Leads

Past Student Leads

Margareth Mbea

Rachel Wallace

Nelson Brown