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Staff Biographies
Layne Scherer served as the study director for the Committee on Revitalizing Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century and is a program officer with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Prior to joining the National Academies, Scherer was a science assistant at the National Science Foundation with the office of the Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources and served as an executive secretary under the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education. As a part of her cross-agency work, Scherer developed an interest in performance management and completed training as a facilitator and graphic recorder with the Performance Improvement Council. Scherer earned her master’s of public policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, with a focus on education policy, nonprofit management, and quantitative analysis. She earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan with concentrations in English literature and the history of art.
Austen Applegate is a senior program assistant with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Prior to joining the National Academies, he worked in a number of professional fields including international development, clinical research, and education. Applegate holds a B.A. from Guilford College, with a double concentration in psychology and sociology. It was during this time that he developed an interest in social science research and policy through his coursework in behavioral medicine, clinical assessment, public health, health policy, qualitative and quantitative research methodology, race and gender disparities, and social science history.
Tom Arrison is a program director in the Policy and Global Affairs Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He joined NASEM in 1990 and has directed a range of studies and activities in areas such as research integrity, open science, international science and technology relations, innovation, information technology, higher education, and strengthening the U.S. research enterprise. Arrison served as executive director of the InterAcademy Partnership for Research from 2013 to 2017. IAP-R produces reports on scientific, technological, and health issues related to the great global challenges of our time, providing knowledge and advice to national governments and international organizations. He earned M.A.’s in public policy and Asian studies from the University of Michigan.
Allison L. Berger is currently a senior program assistant for the Policy and Global Affairs (PGA) Division of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Prior to joining PGA, she provided administrative support to the director of the Board on Global Health in the Health and Medicine Division of the NAS, and meeting planning support for the Forum on Global Violence Prevention. During her 15-year tenure with the NAS, Berger has supported other program units including the Food and Nutrition Board, the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, and the Innovation to Incubation program (i2I) under the National Academy of Medicine. Prior to joining the NAS, Berger served as administrative assistant at the American Psychological Association, where she worked on various activities and programs that promote psychological science in academic and scientific areas of research. Berger is currently pursuing a certification program to become a Certified Meeting Professional, which is the highest designation for meeting professionals in the meeting and convention planning industry.
Jaime Colman is an M.A. candidate in international relations and economics with a concentration in African Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. Colman is currently an intern at the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of African Affairs. Prior to that, she was the senior program assistant on the Board of Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academy of Sciences (through November 2017). Colman received her B.A. in sociology and intercultural studies from Houghton College.
Adriana Navia Courembis joined the Academies in January 2012 as part of the Finance Staff for the Policy and Global Affairs Division. At this position she collaborates with the financial management for the Board on Higher Education and Workforce, the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the Science & Technology for Sustainability Program, the Committee on Human Rights, and the Board on Research Data and Information. Prior to the Academies, Courembis worked with the American Bar Association—Rule of Law Initiative
as a program associate and with Bay Management, LLC as an accounts payable associate. Courembis holds a B.A. in international economics from American University.
Maria Lund Dahlberg is the study director for the Consensus Study on the Science on Effective Mentoring in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and a program officer with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce and the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Her work with the National Academies spans topics ranging from science communications through health care for high-needs patients, to postdoctoral research experiences, photonics, and innovation ecosystems. She came to the National Academies by way of a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, which she received after completing all requirements short of finalizing the dissertation for her doctorate in physics at the Pennsylvania State University. Dahlberg holds a B.A. with high honors in physics from Vassar College and an M.S. in physics from the Pennsylvania State University.
Elizabeth Garbee has a Ph.D. in science policy from the Consortium for Science Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University. She studies the value of a STEM Ph.D. outside of academia, and how to support students in whatever career path they choose for themselves. Garbee was a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow, Board on Higher Education and Workforce, from January to April 2018. Elizabeth earned her bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and classical Greek literature from Oberlin College of Arts and Sciences.
Yasmeen Hussain is currently an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Congressional Fellow sponsored by the Biophysical Society, working in the office of Representative Bill Foster. Previously, Hussain was an associate program officer with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce and the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, where she completed a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy fellowship. Hussain’s previous roles have included being a civil engineering technician at the Bureau of Reclamation and extensive volunteer activities in informal science education and mentoring. She earned her Ph.D. in biology at the University of Washington in Seattle and B.S. degrees in mathematics and biology at the University of Utah.
Jay Labov served as senior advisor for Education and Communication for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine until beginning phased retirement in January 2018. He directed or contributed to more than 30 reports on K-12 and undergraduate, teacher, and international education. He served as director of the Academies’ Teacher Advisory Council. He directed the
committee that authored Science, Evolution, and Creationism and oversaw the National Academies’ efforts to confront challenges to teaching evolution in the nation’s public schools. He coordinated efforts to work with professional societies on education issues. He also managed work on improving education in the life sciences under the Academy’s Board on Life Sciences. Labov is an organismal biologist by training. Prior to accepting his position at the Academy in 1997, he spent 18 years on the biology faculty at Colby College (Maine). He is a Kellogg National Fellow, a fellow in Education of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, and a recipient of the Friend of Darwin award from the National Center for Science Education. In 2013 he was elected to a 3-year term as chair-elect, chair, and past chair of the Education Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and now serves on AAAS’s Council and an advisory board for AAAS’s Dialog on Science, Ethics, and Religion. He has been named a Lifetime Honorary Member by the National Association of Biology Teachers, has received the National Science Teachers Association’s Distinguished Service to Science Education award, and was awarded the John A. Moore Lectureship in 2016 by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.
Frederic Lestina, senior program assistant, joins the Board on Higher Education and Workforce staff following 2 years with the Board on Science, Technology, and International Affairs. Lestina is involved with finalizing reports for publication, organizing logistical details for meetings and staff and committee travel, and other administrative duties. Prior to joining the National Academies, Lestina worked as a political transcriptionist, interned as a cartographer, and studied science and development policy.
Barbara Natalizio is a program officer with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Prior to joining the National Academies, she was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow serving in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Graduate Education at the National Science Foundation. During her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, she became very interested in career and professional development for early-career scientists. These collective experiences have provided her with a comprehensive awareness of and appreciation for effective evaluation, assessment, and policy that enables her continued support of higher education reform and STEM workforce development at the national level. Natalizio received her B.S. in biochemistry and history from Montclair State University and her Ph.D. in molecular genetics and microbiology from Duke University.
Irene Ngun is a research associate with the Board on Higher Education and
Workforce at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She also serves as research associate for the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine, a standing committee of the National Academies. Before joining the National Academies she was a congressional intern for the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (Democratic Office) and served briefly in the office of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas (D-33). Ngun received her M.A. from Yonsei Graduate School of International Studies (Seoul, South Korea), where she developed her interest in science policy. She received her B.A. from Goshen College in biochemistry/molecular biology and global economics.
Thomas Rudin is the director of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce (BHEW) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—a position he assumed in mid-August 2014. Prior to joining the Academies, Rudin served as senior vice president for career readiness and senior vice president for advocacy, government relations, and development at the College Board from 2006 to 2014. He was also vice president for government relations from 2004 to 2006 and executive director of grants planning and management from 1996 to 2004 at the College Board. Before joining the College Board, Rudin was a policy analyst at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1991, Rudin taught courses in U.S. public policy, human rights, and organizational management as a visiting instructor at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. In the early 1980s, he directed the work of the Governor’s Task Force on Science and Technology for North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., where he was involved in several new state initiatives, such as the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. He received a B.A. from Purdue University, and he holds master’s degrees in public administration and in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
