Our Team
Sarah Mason, Ph.D.
Center for Research Evaluation (CERE), University of Mississippi
Sarah Mason is the Director of the Center for Research Evaluation at the University of Mississippi. Sarah leads the BUILD PODER evaluation and works with others on the team to capture high-quality data about the value of the program. Before living in Mississippi, Sarah worked in Afghanistan, Australia, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, East Timor and Thailand—and she loves any opportunity to learn more about students' experiences during college!
Shannon Sharp, Ph.D.
Center for Research Evaluation (CERE), University of Mississippi
Shannon Sharp is a Research Associate at the Center for Research Evaluation. She manages the day-to-day aspects if the BUILD PODER evaluation and makes sure everything happens when it should! Shannon previously worked as a school psychologist and combines her knowledge of evaluation with practical, real-world understanding of working within school systems to create healthy learning environments for students of all ages.
Frank Fernandez, PhD
University of Mississippi
Frank is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Mississippi. He writes about educational policy and equity issues. He also works closely with the evaluation team to help us design and analyze our data to make sure we have as rigorous an evaluation as possible.
Monica Coleman
Center for Research Evaluation (CERE), University of Mississippi
Monica is a doctoral student in the Counselor Education Ph.D. program at the University of Mississippi and a Graduate Assistant with CERE. She works with our team on all things PODER-related: from data collection, to analysis and reporting.
Heather Codd
California-based Evaluation Consultant
Heather is our team's California-based representative. She leads the implementation and analysis of our oral histories so that we can learn from students' stories about their lives.
Gabriela Chavira, PhD
BUILD PODER, California State University Northridge
Gaby is lead Principal Investigator for the BUILD PODER II initiative at CSUN. She is also the Director of the Student Training Core and uses Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a framework to engage diverse students in biological, social and health sciences .
Carrie Saetermoe, PhD
BUILD PODER, California State University Northridge
Carrie is a Principal Investigator for BUILD PODER at CSUN. She is Co-Director of the HERE Center, Director of the Research Enrichment Core and a Professor of Psychology at CSUN.
Carrie works closely with the evaluation team to help design and deliver a useful evaluation study.
Patchareeya (Patty) Kwan, PhD
BUILD PODER, California State University Northridge
Patty is a Principal Investigator for BUILD PODER and a Co-Director of the Research Enrichment Core. She is our evaluation team's primary liaison at CSUN and helps us make sure our evaluation plans are feasible for students and faculty across CSUN.