2009 Summer Fellowship Participants

Erica Bumbers, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, California University of Pennsylvania, California, PA
bumpers@cup.edu
Research Interests: Teacher Education Programs, College Decision, College Access, and Educational Achievement of Students of Color


Otima Doyle, Ph.D., MSW
Postdoctoral Fellow
Duke University, Durham, NC
Otima.doyle@duke.edu
Research Interests: Child and Adolescents Mental Health, Health Disparities in African American, Latino and Caribbean Families


Kathy -Ann Hernandez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Eastern University, St. Davids, PA
khemand@eastern.edu
Research Interests: Black Diaspora and Saliency of Race/Ethnicity, Gender and Class in Identity Formation, and Social Outcome


Emanique Joe, MSW, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
emjoe@umich.edu
Research Interests: Urban Education; Ethnic minority influence on child’s school readiness and early academic success




Tsui-Sui Annie Kao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
anniekao@umich.edu
Research Interests: Understanding Family Influences on the Development of Adolescents Sexual Behaviors and Promoting Health among the Homeless Population


Nicole Lewis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
nicole.lewis@uky.edu
Research Interests: Identifying Factors that Influence Underrepresented Students’ Matriculation into Doctoral Programs



Sandra Lewis, Psy.D.
Professor
Montclair State University, Montcalir, NJ
lewisssy@mail.montclair.edu
Research Interests: Role of Culture in Health, Mental Health, and Well Being; Addressing Needs of Women, Children and Families Affected by HIV/ AIDS





Ebony McGee, PH.D.
Adjunct Professor
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
emcgee@uic.edu
Research Interests: Math achievement of Black Students


Monique McMillian-Robinson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC
drmmcmillian@gmail.com
Research Interests: Academic Engagement at the student, Family, and School Level; African-Americans, and Latinos






Janella Melius, Ph.D., MSW
Assistant Professor
Winston Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
meliusja@wwsu.edu
Research Interests: Resiliency, and Coping Skills of Underrepresented Groups



Chavella Pittman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL
cpittman@ncf.edu
Research Interests: Use of Social Psychology to Examine how Oppression is Enacted by Dominant Groups and Experienced by Subordinate Groups.


LaTanya Skiffer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
California State University Dominguez Hills
Research Interests: Criminology, gangs






Anjanette Wells, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
awells@gwbmail.wustl.edu
Research Interests: Health, Mental Health, and Community Practice Related to Adherence, Participation, Recruitment, and Retention to Medical and Mental Health Research and Practice with Low Income Populations.



Krystal Williams
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,MI
klwms@umich.edu
Research Interests: Experiences of Minorities and Marginalized Groups in Higher Education as it Relates to College Access.


Erica Bumpers, Ph.D.
Erica L. Bumpers is an Assistant Professor of Secondary Education at California University of Pennsylvania. She currently teaches courses in Multiculturalism, Educational Foundations and English Assessment/Teaching.
Recently, Dr. Bumpers was awarded the Research Scholars Grant from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education titled, Raising the Bar: A Comparative Analysis Identifying Contributing Factors to Increase Enrollment among White and Underrepresented Groups in Selected Pennsylvania Higher Education Institutions.
She currently serves as the coordinator for the Teacher Education Seminar Series at California University of Pennsylvania and serves on several committees.
Dr. Bumpers earned a B.S. in Secondary Education/English from Harris-Stowe State University, an M.A. and Ed.S in Education Administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a Ph.D. from Illinois State University in Education Administration Foundations.
Her areas of research interests include; teacher’s disposition, college decision, college access, and the educational achievement of students of color.
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Otima Doyle, Ph.D., MSW
Otima Doyle, PhD is a PREMIER (Partnership for Excellence in Mental Health Interventions Education and Research) postdoctoral fellow at the Duke University Medical Center. As a PREMIER fellow, Dr. Doyle has been sharpening her intervention research skills via apprenticeships on federally funded clinical interventions studies, such as The AAKOMA (African American Knowledge Optimized for Mindfully Healthy Adolescents) Project, and the CBT-RP (Cognitive Behavioral Relapse Prevention Study). Her research interests include: child and adolescent mental health, preventive intervention with fathers and youth, and health disparities in African American, Latino and Caribbean families.
Dr. Doyle earned her BA with a double major in psychology and sociology from Towson University. Subsequently, she earned her Masters degree from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration (SSA). At SSA, she was awarded the Solomon O. Lichter Memorial prize for professional scholarship and leadership. For the next 5 years, Dr. Doyle practiced as a licensed clinical social worker at the Woodbourne Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Doyle earned her Ph.D. in May of 2008 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) School of Social Work, where she served as a pre-doctoral fellow for the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Development Program (2005-2008). Her dissertation explored factors that influence youths’ perceptions of father nurturance, and the relationship between perceived father nurturance and the psychological well-being of African American youth. Upon graduation, she was invited to join the UMB’s local Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
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Kathy-Ann Hernandez, Ph.D.
Kathy-Ann Hernandez is an educational psychologist and Director of Research for the Loeb School of Education at Eastern University. Her research is focused on the Black Diaspora and the saliency of race/ethnicity, gender and class in identity formation, and social and academic outcomes. Her current projects also address the role of spirituality in constructions of Black Masculinity and as a mediating factor in social deviance.
For the period 2000-2004 she worked at Temple University as a Research Assistant/Associate for the College of Education and the Center for Research in Human Development and Education (CRHDE). During this time she was instrumental in conceptualizing, securing funding, implementing, managing and evaluating three university-community partnership programs targeted at disadvantaged populations: --the Community Technology Center, The Bill Cosby Academic Posse Program, and the Temple University After-school Program. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the Marlene Smigel Korn Humanitarian Award 2003-2004 for excellent contribution in teaching, scholarship and/or service. Her doctoral dissertation, Motivation in Context, which examined differential predictors of motivation and achievement for Black males, was nominated for a 2005 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
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Emanique Joe, Ph.D., MSW
Dr. Joe is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan in the School of Education. Her academic affiliations are with the Combined Program in Education and Psychology and Department of Educational Studies, and the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context. Dr. Joe is a recent graduate of the Urban Education Program at Temple University’s College of Education. Her research focuses on ethnic minority parents’ influence (i.e., via their beliefs and parenting behavior) on their children’s school readiness and early academic success. Dr. Joe is also interested in evidence-based educational policy and programs that seek to improve family and school partnerships. As a social worker she has worked with low-income families surrounding issues of welfare reform policy and the availability of quality child care, in addition to facilitating parent leadership classes around early childhood education advocacy issues.
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Tsui-Sui Annie Kao, Ph.D.
Dr. Tsui-Sui Annie Kao is an Assistant Professor at the School of Nursing, University of Michigan. She also practices as a Family Nurse Practitioner at a homeless clinic. Her research interests include understanding family influences on the development of adolescents’ sexual behaviors and promoting health among the homeless population. Her studies concerning adolescents’ sexual behavior among racial/ethnic diverse populations attempt to delineate parental influences by exploring how adolescents perceive maternal sexual expectation and how the expectancy may influence adolescents’ sexual behaviors particularly when adolescents’ gender and cultural background are considered.
Her research experiences include working with focus groups, conceptualizing models of behavior development, and analyzing large data sets using structural equation modeling. She was a recipient of the Rackham Graduate School Merit Fellowship, a pre-doctoral student award from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation, and a NINR T32 fellowship and a NINR F31 pre-doctoral award.
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Nicole R. Lewis, Ph.D.
Nicole R. Lewis is an Assistant Professor of Program Evaluation at the University of Kentucky, College of Education. Her area of expertise lies in identifying factors that influence underrepresented students’ matriculation into doctoral programs, focusing on the role of undergraduate research involvement, student-faculty interactions, and peer support. In addition, her research also examines the ways by which K-12 educational experiences influence participation in post-secondary education, particularly related to the pursuit of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degrees and careers. Dr. Lewis received her B.A. in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), her M.Ed. in Education Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University, and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Evaluation from UNC-CH. Prior to joining the faculty at UK, Professor Lewis worked with Dr. William A. Darity as a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality at Duke University.
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Sandra Lewis, Psy.D.
Dr. Lewis, a Professor of Psychology and Director of African American Studies at Montclair State University is actively involved in addressing the needs of women, children and families affected by HIV nationally and internationally. Her HIV-related publications include articles, book chapters, monographs, training curricula, research reports, and educational videos. She was a Senior Faculty member for the American Psychological Association Office on AIDS and worked with an interdisciplinary team of health care providers to develop a national wellness program for healthcare providers in Botswana. Her work in HIV/AIDS earned her awards for distinguished public service from three organizations. The role of culture in health, mental health, and well-being, particularly among Black women, is one of her primary interests. She authored the chapter, Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Women of Color: Integrating Ethnic and Gender Identities in Psychotherapy. Dr. Lewis is conducting the study, “Stress and Coping—What Works for Black Women.”
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Ebony McGee, Ph.D.
Dr. Ebony McGee completed a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, with a concentration in Mathematics Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago under the direction of Dr. Danny Martin, Associate Professor and Department Chair. In Dr. McGee’s dissertation Race, Identity, and Resilience: Black College Students Negotiating Success in Mathematics and Engineering, she analyzed the life and educational experiences of twenty-three high-achieving Black mathematics and engineering college students. Dr. McGee’s analysis of the students’ retrospective and in-the-moment accounts of their experiences revealed two primary, and interrelated, motivations that influenced their resilience in mathematics and engineering: (1) succeeding to disprove racial stereotypes, and (2) succeeding to serve as role models for other Black learners. Past support for Dr. McGee’s dissertation included: the Spencer Foundation, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Abraham Lincoln Fellowship Program, the African American Success Foundation, ASHE/Lumina Foundation, and Diversifying Faculty in Illinois Fellowships.
Dr. McGee’s research and teaching opportunities have allowed her to contribute to an emerging literature in mathematics, science, and engineering education that is moving the field beyond explanations that normalize Black student failure. As a former electrical engineer and current mathematics education and educational psychology lecturer, Dr. McGee is concerned with how Blacks and other marginalized groups are being constructed and represented in these fields.
Dr. McGee is currently performing postdoctoral research as a 2009 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago to refine and extend the results of her dissertation. She is working with Dr. Margaret Beale-Spencer, Professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development and Dr. Charles Payne, Professor in the School of Social Service Administration. Dr. McGee’s conceptual model of resilience is an extension of Dr. Spencer’s Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory model. Additionally, she is working part-time with a qualitative research team, under the leadership of Dr. Richard McGee (no relation), Associate Dean of Faculty Recruitment and Professional Development, in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. This research group is focused on achieving a greater understanding of the processes and factors that are currently influencing career decisions of young and potential scientists.
Dr. McGee’s research in mathematics education was published in a book, co-authored with her dissertation advisor, Dr. Danny Martin, entitled Mathematics literacy for liberation: Knowledge construction in African American context. This chapter appears in B. Greer, S. Mukhophadhay, S. Nelson-Barber, & A. Powell (Eds.), Culturally responsive mathematics education. Dr. McGee is also serving as the first author along with Dr. Beale-Spencer, on a book chapter entitled, Three Life Stories: African American Mathematics and Engineering Resilience, which will appear in Spaces of Educative Possibility (H. Varenne, E. W. Gordon, and L. Lin, Eds.), to be published in early 2011. She recently submitted another academic article entitled, “From the Hood to Being Hooded: Case Study of a Black Male PhD,” to the Journal of Negro Education. One of Dr. McGee’s other articles, “‘You would not believe what I have to go through to prove my intellectual value!’: Stereotype Management Among Successful Black College Mathematics and Engineering Students,” co-authored with Dr. Martin, is currently under consideration by the Harvard Educational Review and recently passed the initial review process.
In late 2008, Dr. McGee cofounded a non-for-profit organization called The MathTech Project. The mission is to increase the number of academically high-achieving inner city students pursuing mathematics and technology careers, by acquiring skills in the under-represented fields of mathematics and technology. Additionally, Dr. McGee also serves on the board of Athletes Committed to Education, a non-for-profit organization that offers unique outreach that blends educational initiatives and athletic programs to improve the lives of inner-city youth.

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Monique McMillian-Robinson, Ph.D.
Dr. McMillian-Robinson earned her doctor of philosophy degree in educational psychology, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shehas taught various psychology courses, including Multicultural Psychology, Human Growth and Development, Introduction to Educational Psychology, and Introduction to Statistics in Education.
Her research interests focus on academic engagement at the student, family, and educational-institution levels. Her early research focused on the disidentification hypothesis, by examining student-level variables (e.g., gender, self-esteem, academic self-concept, and achievement). Her current study—a collaborative effort with Tom Munk—is a multilevel, latent variable analysis of full-school engagement. A substantial portion of this work focuses on African-American boys and girls. Thus far, all of her research studies have involved collaborations with interdisciplinary faculty members, research assistants, and external research organizations. Most of these studies have been funded by national, interdepartmental or departmental sources.
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Janella Melius, Ph.D., MSW
Dr. Melius completed her doctorate in social work at Norfolk State University with specialized training in community development. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Work at Winston-Salem State University.
Dr. Melius has conducted research addressing disparities among diverse groups, and has over ten years of experience as a clinician, and is an expert in the field of foster care. Her training and background involves interdisciplinary collaborations between social services, medical, education and legal systems. She has previous experiences in utilizing secondary data, and is knowledgeable in multivariate analysis. Her current research agenda focuses on exploring the social experiences of economically-disadvantaged individuals and its influences on their health and academic outcomes. She is especially interested in examining the impact of stress from ecological sources and the coping skills of among minority families.
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Chavella Pittman, Ph.D.
Dr. Chavella T. Pittman attended Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) as an undergraduate, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Michigan in 2003. She also earned a Masters in Higher Education from U of M’s School of Education. She was awarded a University of California’s President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA and was also chosen as a Research Scholar at their Center for the Study of Women. Her research interests center on the social psychology of social justice, with particular emphasis on racial, ethnic, and gender-influenced behaviors. Dr. Pittman is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at New College of Florida.
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LaTanya Skiffer, Ph.D.
Dr. La Tanya Skiffer was born and raised in the South Central community of Los Angeles, California. She is a veteran of the United States Army with six years of combined active duty and reserve military service and strong teaching and grant writing skills. Dr. Skiffer holds the following degrees: A.A. in Sociology from Moorpark College in Moorpark, California (1993); B.A. in Sociology from the University of Colorado at Denver in Denver, Colorado (1996); M.A. (1999) and Ph.D. (2007) in Sociology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in Columbia, Missouri. Professor Skiffer is currently an assistant professor teaching criminology at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. Additionally, she is drafting two journal articles and recently authored a book entitled How Black Female Offenders Explain Their Crime and Describe Their Hopes: A Case Study of Inmates in a California Prison (2009). For the past two years, she has also served on Mayor Villaraigosa’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development grant proposal review team and serves as a consultant for the Long Beach Boys & Girls Clubs.
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Anjanette Wells, Ph.D.
As a doctoral student, Dr. Wells received a NCI Research Supplement, a NCI F31 Dissertation Fellowship, and an American Cancer Society Pre-Doctoral Oncology Fellowship. She was also awarded a Council for Social Work Education Minority Research Fellowship. In February 2009 she defended her dissertation, which focused on low-income, minority cancer patients who dropout of depression treatment.
Currently, as an Assistant Profession at the Brown School of Social Work, she was awarded a Junior Investigator Award from the Center for Excellence in Cancer Communication Research. Although most of her research uses qualitative methods, she will have the opportunity to analyze quantitative datasets in her cancer adherence, recruitment, and retention research with low-income and ethnic-racial minority groups (particularly African Americans). Dr. Wells teaches both a foundation level Health Behavior and Education course in the School of Public Health and social work practice courses in the health concentration in the School of Social Work.
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Krystal Williams
Krystal Williams is a fifth year doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, and a native of Fort Worth, Texas. She attended Clark Atlanta University where she studied mathematics under the guidance of one of the first African Americans to earn a PhD in the subject. Krystal earned a Bachelors and Masters degrees in mathematics and graduated as the valedictorian. She is currently a research assistant at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. Furthermore, she is a recipient of the School of Education Scholar Award and a member of the inaugural cohort for the University of Michigan Edward Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. As a graduate student, Krystal has worked on research projects designed to increase college access for underrepresented groups. This work has been published in various policy reports distributed by the Lumina and Ford Foundations, as well as book chapters in Readings on Equal Education.
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