2016 Winter

About the Authors

Emma Leeburg

Emma Leeburg is a project manager at The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University and is the Managing Director and co-principal investigator for EvaluATE, the evaluation hub for the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. She is the co-creator of creating one-page reports and specializes in data communication and visualization. She has over seven years of evaluation experience, presenting in webinars and workshops for national and international audiences, developing resources, newsletters, and reports.

Will Tyson

Dr. Tyson’s research focuses on gender and racial disparities in education, with a focus on student- and institutional-level influences on high school and college science and math course enrollment and achievement, as well as STEM degree attainment. Dr. Tyson has worked on several grants funded by the National Science Foundation. He is currently principal investigator of “Successful Academic and Employment Pathways in Advanced Technologies” ($1.2 million over 4 years). PathTech (for short) is a collaboration with Tampa Bay area high schools, community colleges, and technology small businesses to better understand pathways into AS degree programs and into the local workforce. This grant was the largest NSF grant awarded to USF in 2011, one of eight NSF grants over $1 million awarded to Florida universities, and the only $1 million grant awarded to an assistant professor at a Florida university. In total, Dr. Tyson has been awarded $2.2 million in external funding as a principal investigator and co-principal investigator and an additional $3 million as senior personnel. Dr. Tyson teaches courses in race and ethnicity, sport in society, and sociology of education.

Lori Wingate

Lori has a Ph.D. in evaluation and more than 20 years of experience in the field of program evaluation. She is co-principal investigator of EvaluATE and leads and a variety of evaluation projects at WMU focused on STEM education, health, and higher education initiatives. Dr. Wingate has led numerous webinars and workshops on evaluation in a variety of contexts, including CDC University and the American Evaluation Association Summer Evaluation Institute. She is an associate member of the graduate faculty at WMU.