Research Team
Principal Investigators
Marybeth Gasman is a Professor of Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds secondary appointments in history, Africana Studies, and the School of Social Policy and Practice. Her areas of expertise include the history of American higher education, historically black colleges and universities, minority serving institutions, African American leadership, and fundraising and philanthropy. She has written or edited 15 books, including Envisioning Black Colleges: A history of the United Negro College Fund. Dr. Gasman received the Penn GSE Excellence in Teaching Award as well as the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s Early Career Award in 2006. In 2010, she was awarded the Ozell Sutton Medallion for Justice by Philander Smith College and named a member of the board of trustees at St. Augustine College. In May 2012, she received an honorary degree from Paul Quinn College.
Clifton (Clif) Forbes Conrad is Professor of Higher Education and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His scholarship is aimed at advancing knowledge and understanding of college and university curriculum—at the undergraduate and graduate levels, in the liberal arts and sciences as well as across professional fields—in ways that help enrich the teaching and learning experiences of students and faculty. Author of 15 books and more than 100 other publications (including articles and book chapters), his research is centered around four major lines of inquiry: program quality in higher education (institutional, program, and course levels); teaching and learning; liberal and general education; and Minority-Serving Institutions (Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions) of Higher Education.
Research Associates
Ufuoma Abiola is a doctoral student and research assistant in Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where she also earned an M.S.Ed. in Higher Education. Ufuoma received a B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in African and African Diaspora Studies from Boston College; and also earned an M.A., with the Graduate Certificate in Clinical Child and Family Studies from Roosevelt University. Her professional experience includes having worked as a counselor/therapist, adjunct professor, and higher education and student affairs administrator. Ufuoma’s research interests involve college student affairs, and increasing students of color persistence and success at higher education institutions.
Michael Armijo is a 4th year doctoral student in the Higher Education division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. His research interests focus on state and federal policy interventions that improve educational outcomes for students. As an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Michael's training includes impact evaluation, research design, case study methods, and policy analysis. Currently, he is working on an i3 grant to evaluate the impact and implementation of Reading Recovery using a large-scale randomized control trial and case studies. He is also part of a research team that is investigating how policies in five states relate to high school and college performance outcomes. For his dissertation, Michael plans to examine if an articulation agreement between El Paso Community College and the University of Texas El Paso affects transfer student completion.
Felecia Commodore is a 2nd year PhD student in higher education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. She has a background working in higher education as an admissions counselor and academic advisor at Trinity University, Washington, D.C. and University of Maryland, College Park respectively. While in that role she also was the advisor to the Black Political Student Association. Felecia received a B.S. in Marketing with a minor in Sociology from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. She has also obtained an M.A. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Felecia’s research focus area is HBCU leadership, governance, and administrative practices.
Yvonne Hyde-Carter is an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. She is majoring in Communication, with a minor in Hispanic Studies. She plans to pursue a career in the legal field, combining her passion for communication and the culture industries with her interest in law. In addition to her academic life at Penn, Yvonne is a research assistant to Dr. Marybeth Gasman, in the Graduate School of Education. Her research is centered on Minority Serving Institutions, with a particular focus on the presence of MSIs in the media. Yvonne has also been featured in the Huffington Post.
Todd Lundberg is a Research Assistant in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and a graduate student in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Todd came to WCER and policy studies in 2009 after two decades of teaching college English, the last six at Cascadia Community College in Bothell, Washington where he was a founding faculty member. His research and publications, like his teaching, focus on understanding and developing academic programs that make space in higher education for first-generation college students. His current work focuses on definitions of student success that contribute to student learning.
Thai-Huy Nguyen is a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania. His interests lie in the role of minority-serving institutions in reducing educational and professional disparities. In addition to the MSI Models of Success grant, he also serves as project manager for the Diversity in Nursing grant, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Before entering the University of Pennsylvania, Thai-Huy was a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Andrés Castro Samayoa is a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. Andrés's research interests focus on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer history on college campuses in the United States, as well as contemporary experiences of LGBTQ/Questioning international students. Andrés holds a B.A. in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Harvard College and completed an M.Phil. in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies as a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.