The overall purpose of the Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) at UCLA is to provide the Diversity Program Consortium's grantees with coordination and operational support, conduct data coordination/collection and program evaluation, and disseminate best practices.
The CEC is comprised of four cores, the Administrative Core (AC), the Data Coordination Core (DCC), the Evaluation Core (EC) and a Communication and Dissemination Core (CDC) in recognition of the expanded growth of the DPC and the critical importance of both internal DPC communications and disseminating best practices. Each of the Center's cores are guided by a Director and Co-Lead. An External Advisory Board (EAB) provides guidance and recommendations to the CEC.
Co-Director, Communication and Dissemination Core
Hansook Oh is the Co-Director of the Communication and Dissemination Core. Hansook graduated from California State University, Northridge with a Master of Arts in Mass Communications and an undergraduate degree in journalism and Asian American Studies. She led previously the communications effort at one of the 10 BUILD sites, BUILD PODER at CSUN, working with the framework of Critical Race Theory. With experience in public relations, marketing and communication in the field higher educaiton, Hansook's passions and expertise is in telling the unique and inspiring stories of students and faculty, particularly of those from backgrounds historically marginalized and underrepresented in higher education. As Co-Director, Hansook seeks to tell DPC success stories and help write a new story of science, inclusive of all voices seeking to speak truth to power.
EAB Member
Kiefe is the founding chair of the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences (PQHS) at the University of Massachusetts medical School, has been part of the leadership team of CTSAs at 2 Universities and has overseen activities focused on translating scientific advances into human benefit. Her research interests are in the area of cardiovascular outcomes and effectiveness research, in which she has been continuously funded as PI for decades. She is a pioneer in using cluster-randomized trials to improve physician practice patterns and in transdisciplinary research, and has extensive experience in impact outcome evaluation oif multi-modal health services research.
EAB Member
Deborah M. Fournier, MS, PhD, is Assistant Provost for Institutional Research and Evaluation at Boston University Medical Campus. She is also Director of Evaluation for the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training Program at Boston University. She is a skilled evaluation methodologist who has more than 25 years of field experience in applied social science research, educational program evaluation and research evaluation. Her applied scholarship involves collaboration with faculty and administrators to implement rigorous evaluation practices that are integrated with program planning to best assess the impact of grant funded programs, research networks and special projects in ways that can accurately guide operational and strategic management and policy decision-making. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association where she has served on the editorial board of The American Journal of Evaluation, program conference chair for one of the association’s national meeting, and chair of the topical interest group, Theories of Evaluation.
EAB Member
Emma Fernández-Repollet, Ph.D. is a Professor and former VP for Research at University of Puerto Rico (UPR), and Steering Committee Chair of the NIH- Research Centers in Minority Institutions Translational Research Network. She is the Executive Director of the Center for Collaborative Research in Health Disparities at the UPR Medical Sciences Campus. Fernández-Repollet’s expertise lies the areas of cross-institutional collaboration and coordination at a national level.
Catherine M. Crespi, Ph.D. is a Professor of Biostatistics at the University of California Los Angeles. Her field expertise includes biostatics, cancer, community health, disease prevention, minority health, obesity, prevention and intervention studies, program planning and evaluation and statistical methodology. She is affiliated with the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Center of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Crespi has served as President of the Western North American Region of the International Biometric Society and on the Board of Trustees of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and has served on review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the University of California Research Coordinating Committee.
Center Administrator/Manager
Coming Soon...
Dr. Keith C. Norris is an internationally recognized clinician scientist and health policy leader who has been instrumental in shaping national health policy and clinical practice guidelines in the area of kidney disease. He is a leading health disparities researcher and a powerful advocate for increasing minority biomedical researchers (working from K-12 to junior faculty) and enhancing the research infrastructure of minority institutions. He was the founding PI for the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Translational Research Network (RTRN), the only National NIH network dedicated to reducing health disparities. He also served for 7 years as the president of the RCMI Program Directors Association.
Teresa Seeman's research interests focus on the role of socio-cultural factors in health and aging with specific interest in understanding the biological pathways through which these factors influence health and aging. A major focus of her research relates to understanding how aspects of the social environment, particularly social ties, influence health and aging. In addition, she has extensive experience in research operations and has developed and directed data collection and data management systems for a number of multi-site studies.
Kiefe is the founding chair of the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences (PQHS) at the University of Massachusetts medical School, has been part of the leadership team of CTSAs at 2 Universities and has overseen activities focused on translating scientific advances into human benefit. Her research interests are in the area of cardiovascular outcomes and effectiveness research, in which she has been continuously funded as PI for decades. She is a pioneer in using cluster-randomized trials to improve physician practice patterns and in transdisciplinary research, and has extensive experience in impact outcome evaluation oif multi-modal health services research.
Deborah M. Fournier, MS, PhD, is Assistant Provost for Institutional Research and Evaluation at Boston University Medical Campus. She is also Director of Evaluation for the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training Program at Boston University. She is a skilled evaluation methodologist who has more than 25 years of field experience in applied social science research, educational program evaluation and research evaluation. Her applied scholarship involves collaboration with faculty and administrators to implement rigorous evaluation practices that are integrated with program planning to best assess the impact of grant funded programs, research networks and special projects in ways that can accurately guide operational and strategic management and policy decision-making. She is a member of the American Evaluation Association where she has served on the editorial board of The American Journal of Evaluation, program conference chair for one of the association?s national meeting, and chair of the topical interest group, Theories of Evaluation.
Heather McCreath is a researcher in the Division of Geriatrics, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Previously, she worked as the associate director for the Multi-Site Studies Coordinating Center at the University of Alabama. Her current research focuses on aging and biomarkers. McCreath has a doctorate and a master’s degree in environmental psychology from Arizona State University.
Professor Wallace is Professor of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research He is Co-PI of the coordinating center for NIA’s Resource Centers on Minority Aging Research, and PI of several projects that provide community-based training on how to use data to advocate for improving access to care for underserved populations in California. He is a leading scholar nationally on aging in communities of color an on immigrant health.
Senior Investigator
Core Co-Director
Dr. Christie's work has three main foci: Applied evaluation research studies, Research on evaluation practice and Theoretical analysis.
Dr. Christie is committed to training educational scholars in mixed-methods, and evaluation and research methods. She is the former Chair of the Theories of Evaluation Division and the Research on Evaluation Division and now serves on the board of the American Evaluation Association (elected) as member at large (2011-2013). She served as a section editor of the American Journal of Evaluation (2004-2009) and serves on the editorial board of Studies in Educational in Evaluation.
Senior Investigator
Core Co-Director
Sylvia Hurtado is Professor of Education at UCLA, and served as Director of the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) for over a decade. She has led several national research projects, including a NIH/NIGMS-sponsored project (R01) on the longitudinal assessment of students aspiring for STEM careers and case studies of institutional strategies to broaden participation in STEM. Hurtado has published numerous articles and books related to her primary interest in student educational outcomes, STEM education, and diversity in higher education. She is past-President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and served on Board of Higher Education and Workforce, Policy and Global Affairs Division of the National Research Council/NASEM. She served on study committees that produced several National Academy Press reports on STEM, student success, and mentoring. She is senior investigator in the NIH's Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) Coordination and Evaluation, UCLA.
Dr. Dennis is the managing director of the Computing Technologies Research Lab (CTRL) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he also received his PhD. His research interests and current projects focus on clinical and research data collection, Internet-based decision support authoring tools, interactive educational technology, database design and development to support online research systems and community web applications.
Director, Communication and Dissemination Core
Dr. Cynthia Joseph is an investigator with expertise in communication education combined with experience and research interests in STEM diversity initiatives. As a Diversity Director for a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, she led, implemented and evaluated diversity programming targeting high school, community college and four-year college students. Dr. Joseph's research applies critical theory with components of psychology, sociology and anthropology to identify implicit academic science norms as described by historically underrepresented STEM faculty.
Senior Investigator
Kevin Eagan is Assistant Professor in Residence and Director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), the longest-running and largest empirical study of higher education in the country. He is also the Interim Managing Director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA (HERI). Dr. Eagan's research interests include issues related to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, contingent faculty, student retention, institutional contexts and structures of opportunity, survey validity and reliability, and advanced quantitative methods.
