Equity Through Education Research team

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Principal Investigator

Claire Wladis, Ph.D.

Claire Wladis, Ph.D., is the Director of the City University of New York (CUNY) [Equity Through Education Research Group. Professor of Mathematics at BMCC/CUNY and of Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. Their research focuses on a wide range of subfields in mathematics education and higher education, with a unifying focus on understanding how educational institutions can better center and adapt to the diverse needs of the students who attend them. This includes research on how students think about core algebra concepts, how we can accurately measure this thinking, and how we can use this information to improve instruction; how our particular conceptualization and implementation of developmental and “college-level” mathematics courses may improve or worsen access to college and STEM degrees; how the availability of online courses may help or hinder degree progress for different groups; how time and energy as resources for college may impact academic and non-academic outcomes in college; how students from groups that have been traditionally marginalized in higher education successfully navigate existing higher education structures; and how institutional culture, policies, and practices may enable or disable different groups (particularly those who have been traditionally marginalized in higher education) from obtaining a college or STEM degree.  

They currently lead several NSF-funded projects:

Katherine M. Conway, Ph.D.

Dr. Conway has a Ph.D. in Higher Education, Administration, Leadership and Technology from New York University. She is a professor of Business Management at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Her research focuses on community college student access and persistence, with an emphasis on immigrant, minority and first-generation students.

Contact: kconway@bmcc.cuny.edu

Kathleen Offenholley, Ph.D.

Dr. Offenholley has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teacher’s College. She is a professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Her research focuses on game-based mathematics learning, most recently focusing on algebra at community colleges. She is also a founding member of the CUNY Games Network, a center for game-based learning. She is currently the PI on a $875,794 NSF grant to create and evaluate a game- and simulation-based algebra and trigonometry curriculum and on a $1.5 million NSF grant to develop and validate a pool of questions to assess student understanding and misconceptions of fundamental algebra concepts.

Contact: koffenholley@bmcc.cuny.edu

Jason F. Samuels, Ph.D.

Dr. Samuels has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teacher’s College. He is a professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. His research interests focus on single variable calculus education, with a particular interest in developing and testing innovative curricula. He is currently co-PI on a $267,237 NSF grant to develop an evaluate a new hands-on collaborative curriculum for multi-variable calculus that integrates 3D surfaces into student-led discovery-based projects.

Contact: jsamuels@bmcc.cuny.edu

Anthony Picciano, Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center

Dr. Picciano has a Ph.D. in Education Administration from Fordham University. He is a Professor in the PhD Program in Urban Education at City University of New York Graduate Center. His research interests include education policy, higher education, leadership, technology, online education, and research methods. Dr. Picciano has authored fifteen books and numerous articles. Dr. Picciano has been on the Board of Directors of the Sloan Consortium since 2001 and has been an associate editor of JALN since 2002 and has edited ten special editions. In 2010, Dr. Picciano received the Sloan Consortium’s National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Online Education by an Individual. He has been a PI for research funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Dewitt-Wallace Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education. He is currently on a research project for the United States Department of Education Institute of Educational Sciences What Works Clearinghouse Project; this team of eleven researchers is conducting a meta-analysis on best practices of what works in instructional technology in higher education. Visit his website at: anthonypicciano.com.

Contact: anthony.picciano@hunter.cuny.edu

Jay Verkuilen, Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center

Dr. Verkuilen has a Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the Graduate Center of City University of New York. His research focuses on generalized linear mixed models, item response theory, graphical methods in statistics, and on applications of statistics and psychometrics, particularly in education and mental health. He is currently an associate editor of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. He is currently a co-PI on a $1.5 million NSF grant to develop and validate a pool of questions to assess student understanding and misconceptions of fundamental algebra concepts.

Contact: jverkuilen@gc.cuny.edu

Kristin Amman, Ph.D.

Dr. Kristen Amman has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Rutgers University. She is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She studies student perceptions of their learning experiences across the undergraduate mathematics curriculum, with a focus on math courses in the first two years of college. Her current work investigates how student perceptions of familiarity influence their learning of content they have seen before (relearning) in contexts such as College Algebra, Calculus courses, or mathematics content courses for future teachers.

Nils Myszkowski, Ph.D.

Nils Myszkowski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Pace University, NYC. He received his Ph.D. from Université Paris Descartes, and his central research interest is the application and improvement of psychometric methods to measure and understand intellectual/emotional/creative/aesthetic abilities. He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, is the creator and maintainer of 3 libraries for the statistical programming language R, and published Item Response Theory for Creativity Measurement (Cambridge University Press). In 2020, he received the Berlyne Award for Outstanding Contributions by an Early Career Scholar from the American Psychological Association (Division 10).

Alyse C. Hachey, Ph.D.

Alyse C. Hachey, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Teacher Education Department, Director of the Division of BELSS [Bilingual Education, Early Childhood Education, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies], and Lead Early Childhood Faculty in the College of Education at The University of Texas at El Paso. She is Co-PI on over $8M in external funding, including NSF grants related to equity and access in post-secondary education and DOE grants related to teacher preparation at HSIs. Her teaching and research interests focus on early childhood STEM cognition and curriculum development and post-secondary STEM learning and retention, particularly for populations often designated at high-risk of dropout.

Alison Mirin

Alison Mirin is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Mathematics Education at the University of Arizona. She earned her PhD in Mathematics Education from Arizona State University and holds an MA in Mathematics. Prior to her doctoral studies, she taught high school mathematics. Her research focuses on how students make inferences and conceptualize mathematical inscriptions in different contexts. Additionally, she advocates for increased accessibility within mathematics and mathematics education.

Dale Dawes, Ph.D.

Dr. Dawes has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teachers College. He is an assistant professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. His research focuses on adult learning theory as well as using the real-time analytics and rigorous enhancement platforms (OPREP) to transform instructors’ pedagogical approaches into one tailored to the needs of each class and student.

Contact: ddawes@bmcc.cuny.edu

Michael George, Ed.D.

Dr. George has an Ed.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teachers College. He is a professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. His research interests include quantitative literacy and faculty development.

Contact: mgeorge@bmcc.cuny.edu

Elisabeth Jaffe, Ed.D.

Dr. Jaffe has an Ed.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teachers College. She is an assistant professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. She has extensive experience teaching high school mathematics, and her research interests include exploring the effect of growth mindset on student academic success and retention.

Contact: ejaffe@bmcc.cuny.edu

Jae Ki Lee, Ed.D.

Dr. Lee has an Ed.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teachers College. He is an associate professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. His research interests include pedagogical approaches to teaching algebra, conceptual approaches to learning Mathematics, Inquiry Based Learning and Flipped Classrooms.

Contact: jaelee@bmcc.cuny.edu

Susan Licwinko, Ed.D.

Dr. Licwinko has an Ed.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teachers College. She is an assistant professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Her research interests include reasoning and conceptual understanding in developmental mathematics.

Contact: slicwinko@bmcc.cuny.edu

Alla Morgulis, Ph.D.

Dr. Morgulis has a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Prikarpatsky University, Ukraine. She is an associate professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Her research interests focus on the recruitment and retention of community college math and STEM majors. She is currently a co-PI on a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to increase number of students doing STEM research at community colleges.

Contact: amorgulis@bmcc.cuny.edu

Audrey Nasar, Ph.D.

Dr. Nasar has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teachers College. She is an assistant professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Her research interests include algorithmic and conceptual thinking in high school and college mathematics, discrete mathematics and mathematics for art and design.

Contact: anasar@bmcc.cuny.edu

Eileen Murray

Dr. Eileen Murray’s educational journey began in a Georgia high school classroom, where she ignited young minds as a dedicated mathematics teacher. Her pursuit of knowledge led her to earn a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education, marking the start of her remarkable path. Along the way, she has served as a middle school math coach, imparted wisdom to aspiring educators in undergraduate mathematics and secondary STEM methods, and delved into impactful educational research across various realms closely tied to teacher preparation and professional development. Dr. Murray’s passion is supporting STEM educators throughout their careers through ongoing coaching and mentoring.

Geillan Aly, Ph.D.

Dr. Geillan Aly is a math educator who centers the socioemotional factors that contribute to success in mathematics. The roots of this work stem from when she taught mathematics in a community college in Arizona. Underlying Dr. Aly’s work is a dedication to equity and social justice; she holds the fundamental assumption that learning math is both an emotional and cognitive endeavor. As a result, she also conducts workshops to help students overcome math trauma through her work, Compassionate Math. She received her PhD in Teaching and Teacher Education and Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Arizona. She enjoys traveling and seeing live music and is an avid chef, wife, and mother to a beautiful boy.

Helen Burn, Ph.D., Highline Community College

Dr. Burn has a Ph.D. in Higher Education from University of Michigan. She is an Instructor in the department of mathematics at Highline Community College and director of the Curriculum Research Group. Her research focuses on developing and deploying online mathematics modules to help students with mathematics in introductory geoscience courses (The Math You Need, When You Need It). She is co-chair of the Washington State Math Pathways to Completion Taskforce. In 2014, she received the Washington State Two-Year College Mathematics Education Reform Award. She is currently the PI on an NSF grant of $320,742 as part of the TLC3 research program to transform institutional approaches to help community college students progress to and through Calculus II.

Contact: hburn@highline.edu

Irene Duranczyk, Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Dr. Duranczyk has an Ed.D. in Developmental Education: Higher Education from Grambling State University. She is an Associate Professor of mathematics at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the institutional as well as cognitive and affective barriers students face when taking mathematics at the college level. She also has active research in Integrated Multicultural Instructional Design (IMID) in postsecondary settings and Multicultural Equity Pedagogy for postsecondary online education. She is currently a co-PI on a three-year, $2.3 million NSF grant to study algebra instruction at community colleges.

Contact: duran026@umn.edu

Alyse C. Hachey, Ph.D., University of Texas at El Paso

Dr. Hachey has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Columbia University. She is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Texas at El Paso and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests focus on early childhood cognition and curriculum development and community college online learning and retention. She is currently a co-PI on an NSF grant of $719,108.00 to investigate which students are at highest risk of dropout or failure in online STEM courses.

Contact: hachey@utep.edu

Martha Makowski, Ph.D., University of Alabama

Dr. Makowski has a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at University of Alabama. Her research focuses on developmental mathematics education and STEM education access. She was awarded the Hardie Dissertation Award in April 2014, and subsequently the Scott Dissertation Completion Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016-2017 through a campus-wide competition.

Contact: mbmakowski@ua.edu

Vilma Mesa, Ph.D., University of Michigan

Dr. Mesa has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the University of Georgia. She is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research focuses on the role that resources play in developing teaching expertise in undergraduate mathematics, specifically at community colleges and in inquiry-based learning classrooms. She served as Associate Editor for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education from 2000-2004 and is currently serving as associate editor for Educational Studies in Mathematics and on the editorial board for the International Journal for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. She previously received an NSF CAREER award and was one of the PIs on the national NSF-funded and MAA-supported study of college calculus, Characteristics of Successful Programs in College Calculus. She is currently the PI on an NSF grant of $474,239 to investigate institutional approaches to identifying and remedying barriers that impede student progress to and through Calculus II in community colleges, and on another $178,215 NSF grant researching the impact of using open educational resources in college mathematics classes. She is also a Co-PI on an NSF grant of $2.3 million which focuses on the conditions under which instruction in community college algebra courses can be associated with student learning gains and course performance.

Contact: vmesa@umich.edu

Christopher Rhoads, Ph.D., University of Connecticut

Dr. Rhoads has a Ph.D. in Statistics from Northwestern University. He is an Associate Professor of Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment at the University of Connecticut. His research interests focus on methods for improving causal inference in educational research, particularly in the areas of experimental design and the analysis of multi-level data structures. For the past 7 years, he has been an instructor in the IES-sponsored Summer Institute in Cluster Randomized Trials. He is currently a co-PI on a $599,879 IES grant that explores which factors affect comprehension during online reading in science, a co-PI on a $782,749 NSF grant that develops and assesses the effectiveness of a software to teach mathematical problem solving, co-PI on a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant to evaluate a model program for coordinating social services for families, co-PI on a $5 million IES grant to assess the effectiveness of gifted education programs in several states, and a co-investigator on a $2.4 million U.S. Department of Education Grant to help increase advanced-level learning in classrooms, particularly for underserved populations.

Contact: christopher.rhoads@uconn.edu

Ann Sitomer, Ph.D., Portland State University

Dr. Sitomer has a Ph.D. in mathematics education from Portland State University. She is a visiting Assistant Professor of mathematics education at Portland State University. At PSU, Ann works with Graduate Teaching Assistants to improve learners’ experience and success in large-enrollment introductory mathematics courses. Her research includes studying the proportional reasoning of community college students and developing professional development for community college mathematics faculty. She is currently the PI for a $45,924 Spencer Foundation grant to develop a model of professional learning for community college mathematics faculty and a co-PI on a $305,110 NSF grant to implement a pilot national program initiative to engage two-year college mathematics faculty in SoTL research.

Contact: asitomer@pdx.edu

April Strom, Ph.D., Chandler-Gilbert Community College

Dr. Strom has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Arizona State University. She is a faculty of the mathematics division at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Dr. Strom was the founding chair of the national research committee supported by the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges. She served as the PI for a $9 million NSF grant, called the Arizona Mathematics Partnership, that focuses on on supporting middle school teachers and community college instructors in partnership to advance their knowledge about the teaching and learning of common mathematics content across middle school and college developmental mathematics, and she is also a Co-PI on an NSF grant of $2.3 million, called Algebra Instruction @ Community Colleges, which focuses on the conditions under which instruction in community college algebra courses can be associated with student learning gains and course performance.

Contact: april.strom@cgc.edu

Laura Watkins, Ph.D., Glendale Community College

Dr. Watkins has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Utah State University. She is a Mathematics Instructor at Glendale Community College. Her research focuses on mathematics and STEM learning and degree progression, particularly at community colleges. She is currently a co-PI on a $899,523 NSF grant focusing on empowering high school ready girls, college ready high school graduates, and career ready college graduates to prepare for a future in STEM-related fields, and is also the PI on a $2.3 million NSF grant that focuses on the conditions under which instruction in community college algebra courses can be associated with student learning gains and course performance.

Contact: laura.watkins@gccaz.edu

Sara Mellencamp

Sara Mellencamp has a Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art from the University of Arizona. In her role as Assistant to the Project Manager, she provides administrative support.

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