Prior to beginning the fellowship, students will identify a faculty mentor with compatible research interests with whom they will work on multiple projects throughout the year. Mentors will work closely with fellows as they develop and implement their service learning research project at the FAMU DRS Freedom Schools. Fellows will further develop their research experience through research apprenticeships on mentors’ ongoing projects.
Below is a complete list of the PURPOSE faculty mentors. Students may choose to work with any faculty mentor, regardless of whether that mentor is from the same program, department, or university.
| Mentor | Institution | Department/Program | Research Interests | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron Beatty | FSU | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies/Higher Education | Racial Battle Fatigue for undergraduate Black and Latinx Students | Site |
| Tamara Bertrand Jones | FSU | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies/Higher Education | Influences on socialization during graduate education and the professional experiences of underrepresented populations, particularly Black women, in academia; culturally responsive assessment and evaluation | Site |
| Walter Ecton | FSU | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies/Higher Education | Dr. Ecton’s research lies at the intersections between high school, higher education, and the workforce, and the pathways students take as they navigate those sectors. His work primarily focuses on students who take nontraditional pathways through education, with particular focuses on high school students in career and technical education, students who attend community college, and students who return to education later in life. His research uses large administrative datasets at the state and federal levels to explore educational and labor market outcomes from students’ participation in education programs. He aims to produce work that can inform local, state, and federal policy decisions, and that shines light on the importance of equitable access to high quality educational opportunities for all students. | |
| Cheron Hunter Davis | FAMU | Elementary Education | Exploring preservice teachers’ reflective pedagogy and digital literacy; early literacy interventions; multicultural literature; using literature to address social justice | Site |
| Lama Jaber | FSU | School of Teacher Education/Science Education | Learner engagement in scientific inquiry in different contexts; and learners' emotions during engagement | Site |
| Leona Johnson | FAMU | Educational Psychology | Classroom dynamics and the classroom learning environment (primarily from the student’s voice); factors which influence the classroom learning environment and classroom dynamics such as: culture and learning, online and face-to-face learning, sleep deprivation and learning, stress and learning, group dynamics, student learning preferences, innovative teaching strategies, teacher characteristics, and social media and learning. | Site |
| Rhea Lathan | FSU | English/Rhetoric and Composition | Literate and rhetorical history of women of African descent; development of literacy, and delivery systems for the teaching of writing; community based critical intellectualism; identity politics and social historical activism; and critical race theory in rhetoric and composition | Site |
| Serena Roberts | FAMU | Office of Student Services/Center for Academic Success | Institutional research for FAMU and the FAMU College of Education; student progression, persistence and retention | Site |
| Alysia Roehrig | FSU | Educational Psychology and Learning Systems/Learning and Cognition | Effective teaching; teacher professional development; student literacy learning and motivation | Site |
| Gwendolyn Singleton | FAMU | Neuropsychology | Efficacy of cognitive and behavior-based interventions in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression; relationships among stress, blood pressure, cortisol, and interleukin-6 (IL-6); impact of stress management intervention on the recovery response to neuropsychological rehabilitation; and relationships among perceived stress, perceived racism, cultural identity, stress biomarkers (cortisol and IL-6) and health outcomes | Site |
| Neico Slater | FAMU | Psychology | Dr. Slater Sa-Ra's research interests include decolonizing science, rites of passage, African-Centered education, spirituality as a psychotherapeutic model, and racial identity development. | Site |
| Jeannine Turner | FSU | Educational Psychology and Learning Systems/Learning and Cognition | Motivation, emotions, and self-regulation within learning endeavors | Site |
| Laura Reid Marks | FSU | Counseling Psychology | Minority stressors (e.g., racism, microaggressions, sizeism) and effects on the lives of adults from marginalized groups (e.g., people of color, women). Two major strands of Dr. Marks research are (1) health disparities in people of color (microaggressions, mental health, and health behaviors) and (2) career and professional development issues | Site |
| Annie Wofford | FSU | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies/Higher Education | Dr. Annie Wofford conducts qualitative and quantitative research that examines structural inequities to and through graduate education, often focusing on disparities in STEMM disciplines and within mentoring relationships. By uplifting the strengths of students who have been historically excluded from graduate education, Dr. Wofford’s research also offers key implications for equity-minded support in graduate school pathways. | |
| Kristine Fleming | FAMU | Health, Physical Education and Recreation | Mixed method approaches; health and leisure behaviors; work-life balance; life satisfaction among college students and faculty at HBCUs; social justice and culturally responsive teaching practices at HBCUs |
To read in depth bios of our leadership team, please visit our FSU and FAMU Principal Investigator (PI) pages.