January 29, 2013
Undergraduate Research director forums set
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Five candidates for the position of director of the Center for Undergraduate Research at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will meet with constituents and members of the University community during a series of forums beginning this week.
The candidates are: Pamela J. Barnes, a former administrator at Southeast Missouri State University; Rodrigo Carramiñana, associate professor at St. Augustine College in Chicago; Janette Howard, a housing officer with University Housing at SIU Carbondale; Rhetta M. Seymour, associate director of the McNair Scholars Program at SIU Carbondale, and Michael Cochise Young, former director of The Flinn Scholars Program for The Flinn Foundation.
The director will be responsible for a variety of areas that include strategic planning and program development; advising students and coordinating faculty mentors; organizing and implementing undergraduate research-related forums, seminars, institutes, research opportunity programs, awards competitions and informational sources; and also support continuing recruiting and retention efforts.
The forums, which will include a presentation by the candidates, will give University students, staff and faculty an opportunity to meet with the candidates and ask questions about their proposed approaches to the position and will be done in conjunction with their interview for the position.
Full curriculum vitas for the five candidates will be available at pvcaa.siuc.edu/searches.html.
The Center for Undergraduate Research will help coordinate and bring together the following programs and units: Undergraduate Assistantships, Students Promoting Education and Research (SPEAR), Research Enriched Academic Challenge (REACH), McNair Scholars Program, Saluki Research Rookies, and the Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.
Here is a schedule of the forums:
- Howard will hold her forum from 10 to 10:45 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 31, in the John C. Guyon Auditorium at Morris Library.
- Seymour will hold her forum from 10 to 10:45 a.m., Friday, Feb. 1, in the John C. Guyon Auditorium at Morris Library.
- Young will hold her forum Feb. 8; time and location will be determined.
- Carramiñana will hold his forum Feb. 13; time and location will be determined.
- Barnes will hold her forum Feb. 14; time and location will be determined.
Pamela J. Barnes earned her Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis in 1996 and a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1993, both from the University of Missouri. She earned a specialist in educational administration from Southeast Missouri State University in 2004, and is currently working on her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Analysis through the University of Missouri.
From August 2006 to May 2012, Barnes was the director of certification and assessment and the national/state accreditation coordinator for The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and Missouri Standards for Teacher Education Programs (MoSTEP) at Southeast Missouri State University. From August 2003 to December 2005 she was executive director and CEO with the non-profit Cultural Exchange Network in Jackson, Mo.
Barnes’ experience also includes time as adjunct faculty for master’s-level courses in educational administration at William Woods University in Fulton, Mo.; principal for the Millersville and Gordonville attendance centers for kindergarten through third-grade students in southeast Missouri; principal at Washington Elementary in Cape Girardeau, and an elementary teacher at schools in Cape Girardeau and Columbia, Mo.
Rodrigo Carramiñana earned his doctorate in mathematics in 1993, and master’s degree in Science, in 1984, both from the University of Iowa. He earned the equivalent of a master’s degree in mathematics from the Technical University of Chile in 1977, and was an undergraduate student at the University of Chile from 1971 to 1973, earning the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree there. Carramiñana’s varied teaching and academic experience includes currently serving as principal investigator for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and National Science Foundation grant at St. Augustine College. He is also a visiting scholar in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).
Carramiñana has also held teaching or research positions at the Universidad Federico Santa Maria in Valparaiso, Chile; the Center for Mathematics Education of Latinos/as at UIC; Rhode Island College; Northwest Missouri State University, and the University of Iowa. He was also in various teaching positions in Chile from 1972 to 1980.
Carramiñana’s experience also includes serving as director of the Rafael Cintron-Ortiz Latino Cultural Center at UIC from 1994 to 2009. He was co-director and co-principal investigator for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation at UIC from 2003 to 2010.
Janette Howard is a two-degree graduate of SIU Carbondale, and is currently pursuing a doctorate of philosophical education from SIU. She earned a Master of Science in Education in August 2008, and a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1999; both from SIU’s Workforce Education and Development.
She was an instructor in fall 2012 for UCOL 101, which is part of the Saluki First Year initiative. Howard’s teaching experience includes co-teaching classes in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the summer and fall 2011 semesters.
Howard has been a housing officer with University Housing since March 2012. Among her duties are coordinating and supervising open houses, conferences and workshop area assignments, and supervising and training student workers, clerical staff and other housing staff employees. As a residence hall administrator from 1996 to 2012, her duties included managing more than 50 Civil Service staff, more than 100 student employees, and creating and implementing diversity training and leadership training programs.
Rhetta M. Seymour has been with the University since 2006. She is a doctoral student in Education Administration and Higher Education at SIU Carbondale, and has advanced graduate study in history from Auburn University. She earned a Master of Arts in History from the University of Northern Iowa in 1994, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Southern University in 1992.
The associate director of the University’s McNair Scholars Program since October 2012, Seymour served as the program’s interim director from July 2009 until September 2012. Seymour also has served as director of the Saluki Research Rookies Program since July 2009, where she directs the recruitment, application and selection process for 25 freshman and sophomore participants. Seymour also served as coordinator of the Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, assistant director of the McNair Scholars Program, and career placement specialist providing counseling to graduate students receiving a Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Fellowship.
Seymour worked at Dillard University in New Orleans from 2001 to 2005 until after Hurricane Katrina. She was interim director of the university’s African World Studies Institute and an assistant professor of history, and also served as an assistant dean in the division of social sciences for nearly two years. She was director of the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame and assistant professor of history at Judson College in Marion, Ala., from 1999 to 2001. She also worked as a graduate assistant at Auburn University and the University of Northern Iowa.
Michael Cochise Young is an independent consultant in higher education and professional development, and is the founder and CEO of Aspire/Inspire, a private consulting firm in Phoenix, Ariz. From 2001 to 2012, she was director of the Flinn Scholars Program, and assistant vice president of the organization’s scholarship program. The program is part of the privately endowed, philanthropic Flinn Foundation, also in Phoenix.
Prior to that, Young worked as an administrator in several capacities at Arizona State University from 1990 to 2001. She was an associate dean for Barrett, The Honors College, at ASU from 1990 to 1998, and director of the university’s Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree program in 1999. From 1999 to 2001, Young directed the university’s Office of National Scholarship Advisement. Young also spent nine years at Tulane University, serving as assistant professor in English from 1981 to 1990, and director of Tulane’s University Honors Program from 1986 to 1990.
Young earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Saint Joseph’s University, and her master’s and doctoral degrees also in English from the University of Pennsylvania.