D

Committee and Staff Bios

COMMITTEE

FRANCES (FRAN) BAGENAL, Co-Chair, is a senior research scientist and the assistant director for planetary sciences in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, leading its Magnetospheres of the Outer Planets Group. She is also a professor emerita in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interests focus primarily on the outer solar system, explicitly understanding planetary magnetospheres by combining data analysis and theoretical models. She was a co-investigator (Co-I) on the Plasma Science instrument on the Voyager mission; an interdisciplinary scientist on the Galileo mission; a Deep Space 1 team member; a New Horizons mission Co-I and Particles Theme Lead; and a Juno Co-I and co-chair of the Magnetospheres Working Group and the Science Planning Working Group. She has been active in workforce issues, including serving on the advisory committees for the 2011 and 2020 Planetary Science Workforce Surveys. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the James Van Allen Lecture Award from the American Geophysical Union and the Boulder Faculty Assembly’s Excellence in Research Award. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS). She earned her Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

WANDA E. WARD, Co-Chair, is the executive associate chancellor for public engagement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she provides strategic leadership for the university and the broader community to advance the university’s land-grant, public engagement mission. Additionally, Ward chairs the COVID-19 Return to On-Campus Operations: Community and Public Engagement Committee; co-chairs the Call to Action to Address Racism and Social Injustice: Community Action and Public Engagement Committee; and is a member of the Carle Foundation (Urbana) and the Champaign County Community Coalition Executive Committee (Champaign). She joined the university in 2018 as the executive associate chancellor for administration and university relations, where she served primarily as the Chief of Staff (2018-2021). Before joining UIUC, Ward served in several senior leadership positions throughout her 26 years at the National Science Foundation (NSF), including as the senior advisor to the director; the head of the Office of International and Integrative Activities; the deputy assistant director for social, behavioral, and economic sciences; and the deputy assistant director for education and human resources. Also, she has served as the assistant director for broadening participation at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the White House Executive Office of the President; on the

U.S. President’s National Science and Technology Council subcommittees and interagency working groups in the areas of the social, behavioral, and economic sciences; science education; and workforce development; and at the international level, as a member of the International Social Science Council (ISSC) Committee for Developing and Transition Economies (CoDATE) and the ISSC Executive Committee. She was awarded the American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential Citation, the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences Richard T. Louttit Award, and the U.S. Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive. Ward was also selected as a fellow in the University of Illinois System President’s Executive Leadership Program. She earned a B.A. in psychology with an Afro-American Studies Certificate from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.

CLAUDE R. CANIZARES is the Bruno Rossi Professor of Physics at MIT, where he has also served as the vice president, the vice president for research, the associate provost, and the director of the Center for Space Research. Canizares is the associate director of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center and a principal investigator (PI) on NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, having led the development of the Chandra High Resolution Transmission Grating Spectrometer. Canizares’s main research interests are high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy and plasma diagnostics of supernova remnants and clusters of galaxies; X-ray studies of dark matter; X-ray properties of quasars and active galactic nuclei; and observational cosmology. He is the author or co-author of more than 230 scientific papers. Canizares is a member of the NAS and has received several awards, including decoration for Meritorious Civilian Service to the United States Air Force, two NASA Public Service Medals, and the Goddard Medal of the AAS. Canizares earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in physics, all from Harvard University.

ERIN CECH is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. Previously, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and was on faculty at Rice University. Cech’s research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction, especially through seemingly innocuous cultural beliefs and practices. Her work on inequality in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions focuses on the recruitment and retention of women, people of color, and LGBTQ-identifying persons in STEM degree programs and STEM jobs, and the role of professional cultures in this inequality. Cech examines how cultural definitions of “good work” and “good workers” can anchor inequality in the workforce. For example, she examines the role of the “passion principle” in the reproduction of occupational inequalities: how seemingly voluntary and self-expressive career decisions help reproduce processes like occupational sex segregation. She also studies how cultural understandings of the extent and origin of inequality help to uphold unequal social structures. She has worked with NASA previously (Goddard and Johnson Space Center) on diversity issues as it relates to LGBTQ+ populations. Cech’s work is funded by multiple grants from NSF, and her research has appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Journal of Sociology, and the American Sociological Review. Her research has also been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Time, Harvard Business Review, and the news sections of Science and Nature. In 2020, she was named one of Business Equality Magazine’s “40 LGBTQ+ Leaders Under 40” and was honored with the University of Michigan’s Henry Russel Award. She earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, San Diego.

ANNMARIE ELDERING is the deputy project scientist for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) and the project scientist for OCO-3 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She has been at JPL since 1999, adapting her knowledge of radiative transfer and light scattering to algorithm development for the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) as well as validation of AIRS data. She served as the TES deputy PI and then the PI between 2006 and 2010. That led to leadership roles as the deputy section manager and section manager in Earth Atmospheric Sciences section before she joined the OCO-2 project in 2010. In her recent project and management roles, she provides dynamic technical leadership for teams focused on the extraction of information about clouds, aerosols, and trace gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. She is the PI or a Co-I on a number of competitively awarded research tasks and has worked on the development of several mission concepts. She earned a Ph.D. in environmental engineering science from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

ELENA A. EROSHEVA is a professor of statistics and social work and the associate director of the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the development and application of statistical methods and models for complex and heterogeneous data in the social, behavioral, medical, and health sciences. Her work includes statistical methodology development for multivariate and longitudinal data analysis, text analysis, survey methodology, and analysis of survey data. She is a first prizewinner of the 2014 America Competes Act Challenge competition to maximize fairness in National Institutes of Health (NIH) peer review in the category Most Creative Idea for Detection of Bias in Peer Review. In line with this award, she recently published findings on disparities in peer review scores between white and black applicants for NIH R01 grants. Erosheva is currently serving as an ArXiv moderator for Statistics, and her current and past editorial board service includes the Annals of Applied Statistics, the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, and Psychometrika. She earned a Ph.D. in statistics from Carnegie Mellon University.

ORLANDO FIGUEROA is the president at Orlando Leadership, LLC. He is retired from NASA where he served as the former NASA director for Mars Exploration, the director for the Solar System Division in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, and as the deputy center director for science and technology of the Goddard Space Flight Center. Figueroa’s career with NASA spanned 33 years; throughout which he demonstrated a record of consistent achievements in the planning, design, development, and oversight of multi-faceted scientific space missions. He is well versed in interacting with national and international government and non-governmental organizations. He is considered a highly competent strategist and director of scientific space systems and technology, the management of large multi-disciplinary engineering organizations; and experienced in the management of complex multi-project programs with total budgets in excess of $4 billion. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez.

ALLISON N. JAYNES is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa, where she researches space and plasma physics. Her primary research interests include pulsating aurora, radiation belts, and the connection between the two. She is the Co-I on NASA’s Magnetic Multiscale and Van Allen Probes missions, as well as on a NASA-funded CubeSat, GTOSat, and a NASA-funded sounding rocket mission, LAMP. She served on the Nomination Task Force within AGU’s Space Physics and Aeronomy (SPA) section assembled to increase the diversity of honors and awards winners at AGU. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of New Hampshire.

LINDSEY MALCOM-PIQUEUX is the assistant vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion, and assessment at Caltech. Malcom-Piqueux’s primary interest centers on post-secondary access and success for minority women and men in STEM fields. Following this interest, she has conducted research in several areas including the relationship between financial aid and STEM outcomes, the role of 4-year minority-serving institutions and community colleges in creating educational equity in STEM, and gender equity in STEM among minoritized populations. Malcom-Piqueux also studies the educational experiences and outcomes of students of color at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), predominantly Black institutions, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities; and examines the congruence of the minority-serving designation and academic outcomes among their target populations. Her work has appeared in Educational Researcher, the Review of Higher Education, and the Harvard Educational Review, among other journals, and in volumes edited by Routledge, SUNY Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, and Stylus Publishing. She recently authored a commissioned paper for the National Academies Symposium on Imagining the Future of Undergraduate STEM Education titled “Transformation in the U.S. Higher Education System: Implications for Racial Equity.” Additionally, she has previously served on the National Academies study on Developing Indicators for Undergraduate STEM Education. Malcom-Piqueux earned a Ph.D. in urban education with an emphasis on higher education from the University of Southern California, and an M.S. and an S.B. in planetary science from Caltech and MIT, respectively.

DAVID J. MCCOMAS is the vice president for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. He has participated in numerous solar science missions, including as the PI for NASA’s IMAP, IBEX, and TWINS missions and a lead Co-I for instruments on the ACE and New Horizons missions. McComas has invented a variety of instruments and missions for space applications and has authored papers in the fields of heliospheric, magnetospheric, solar, and planetary science, as well as on space instrument and mission development. His numerous honors include the 2014 COSPAR Space Science Award, a NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal, and AGU’s James B. Macelwane Medal. McComas serves on the board of directors of the Brookhaven National Laboratory Science Associates. He recently served on the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and chaired the NAC Science Committee. Previous service includes chairing NASA’s Sun-Earth Connections Advisory Subcommittee, chairing two Solar Probe and Solar Probe Plus Science and Technology Definition Teams, and serving as a member of NASA’s Space Science Advisory Committee. He earned a B.S. in physics from MIT and a Ph.D. in geophysics and space physics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

CHRISTOPHER B. NEWMAN is an associate professor in the Department of Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University (APU). Before joining the faculty at APU he was a professor at the University of San Diego. His research focuses primarily on outcomes, inequities, and undergraduate student experiences in STEM. Additionally, he has interests in multi-cultural education in global contexts. Utilizing critical leadership and organizational change theoretical perspectives, Newman has worked with colleges and universities in the United States and abroad as they prepare for diversity, inclusion, equity, and/or racial justice action. He has worked, in collaboration with the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP), on African American workforce development in physics and astronomy. Newman has served as a consultant to NSF’s Colloquy on Minority Males in STEM and regularly serves as a review panelist for grant proposals to NSF. Newman earned a B.S. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an M.S. in leadership studies from the University of San Diego, and a second M.S. and a Ph.D. in higher education and organizational change from the University of California, Los Angeles.

KUNIO M. SAYANAGI is an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Hampton University. His core research expertise is in atmospheric dynamics. He applies his expertise to understand the atmospheres of solar system planets through theoretical analyses; numerical modeling; Earth-based telescopic observation analyses, space-based remote-sensing, and in-situ measurements; and planetary mission concept development. He was the PI of the Small Next-generation Atmospheric Probe mission concept development funded by NASA’s PSDS3 program. He was also an affiliate member of the NASA Cassini mission’s Imaging Science Team. He has also been active in formulating and advocating for NASA’s planetary exploration priorities and is currently on the Steering Committee of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group. He was selected to be on the first Forum for New Leaders in Space Science program in 2014 jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Space Studies Board of the National Academies. He leverages his position as a professor at an HBCU to broaden participation in space science, and actively recruits undergraduate students to start research careers in space science while they are in college. He also regularly leads and participates in regional educational/public outreach activities at local schools and science museums. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Arizona.

KEIVAN G. STASSUN is the Stevenson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University. Stassun served on the AAS task force for promoting diversity and inclusion in astronomy graduate education. He is known for his leadership and distinction as a scientist and as an innovator in broadening the participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. He is the founding director of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s to Ph.D. Bridge Program, is a recipient of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring award, and has given testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives on the Bridge program and broadening participation in STEM fields. He has extensive National Academies committee experience, and specifically on projects requested by NASA, including the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020), the Panel on the State of the Profession and Societal Impacts in Astronomy, the Committee on the NASA Science Mission Directorate Science Plan, the Committee on Effective Mentoring in STEMM, and the

Committee on Understanding and Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Particular Science and Engineering Disciplines. He earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

LOUIS-GREGORY STROLGER is the deputy head of the instruments division and observatory scientist in the Science Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He is primarily concerned with clues to the nature of supernova progenitors through bulk analyses, rates, environmental effects (star-formation, metallicity, etc.), and the global evolution of these properties over the history of the Universe. He is also involved in projects on four robotic telescopes: three in space, the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope; and one on the ground, the RCT 1.3-meter. Strolger is active in several initiatives addressing underrepresented minorities in astronomy and physics, and looking at approaches to improve recruitment and retention. He earned a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

STAFF

SANDRA J. GRAHAM (Co-Study Director) has served as a senior program officer at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Space Studies Board (SSB) since 1994. During that time Graham has directed a large number of major studies, many of them focused on space research in biological and physical sciences and technology, including the comprehensive 2011 decadal survey, Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration—Life and Microgravity Sciences Research for a New Era. High-profile studies in other areas have included an assessment of servicing options for the Hubble Space Telescope, a study of the societal impacts of severe space weather, and the Pathways to Exploration report reviewing the U.S. human space program. Prior to joining the SSB, Graham held the position of senior scientist at the Bionetics Corporation, where she provided technical and science management support for NASA’s Microgravity Science and Applications Division. Graham’s honors include the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Distinguished Service Award, the NRC Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences Exceptional Achievement Award, and the Orr-Reynolds Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research. She is a member of the American Chemical Society and the Project Management Institute. She received her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Duke University, where her research focused on rate modeling and reaction chemistry for biological metal complexes and their analogs.

TIFFANY E. TAYLOR (Co-Study Director) is a program officer for the Board on Science Education (BOSE) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In this role, she provides research, planning, and management support for several ongoing projects including the Standing Committee on Advancing Science Communication, a consensus study on Enhancing Science and Engineering in Grades PreK-5, and a consensus study on Equity in PreK-12 STEM Education. Additionally, Taylor is the co-study director for a consensus study requested by NASA on Increasing Diversity and Inclusion in the Leadership of Competed Space Missions, in collaboration with the SSB. Taylor came to the National Academies as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy fellow in 2017, where she also worked with the BOSE. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Howard University and her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of California, San Diego. Taylor is extremely passionate about the inclusion of persons of diverse background in science, and aspires to leverage her Ph.D. training and science policy experience to address educational inequity within society, in both domestic and global settings.

ABIGAIL SHEFFER is a senior program officer with the SSB. She has been the staff officer and study director on a variety of activities such as the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020), the Committee on Solar and Space Physics, Open Source Software Policy Options for NASA Earth and Space Sciences, Strategic Investments in Instrumentation and Facilities for Extraterrestrial Sample Curation and Analysis, and Achieving Science with CubeSats: Thinking Inside the Box, among others. In 2009, Sheffer came to the National Academies as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow with the SSB. Sheffer earned her Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Arizona and A.B. in geosciences from Princeton University.

GAYBRIELLE HOLBERT joined the SSB and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) as a program assistant in 2019. In this role, she assists with ongoing projects and workshops by providing logistics, report creation, and project support including the Standing Committee on Earth Sciences and Applications from Space (CESAS). She previously worked as a communication specialist for the United Black Fund Inc. a nonprofit organization that helped inner-city youth by providing after-school programs, scholarships, and resources to engage and enhance their educational needs. Prior to that, she was the social media consultant for the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights, a non-profit advocacy platform that supports responsible, community-focused economic development and as a production assistant for a startup multimedia production company. She holds a B.A. in mass media communications from the University of the District of Columbia.

COLLEEN HARTMAN joined the National Academies in 2018, as the director for both the SSB and the ASEB. In 2021, she additionally became the director for the Board on Physics and Astronomy. After beginning her government career as a presidential management intern under Ronald Reagan, Hartman worked on Capitol Hill for House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Don Fuqua as a senior engineer building spacecraft at NASA Goddard and as a senior policy analyst at the White House. She has served as Planetary Division Director, Deputy Associate Administrator and Acting Associate Administrator at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, as Deputy Assistant Administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and as Deputy Center Director and Director of Science and Exploration at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Hartman has built and launched scientific balloon payloads, overseen the development of hardware for a variety of Earth-observing spacecraft, and served as NASA program manager for dozens of missions, the most successful of which was the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Data from the COBE spacecraft gained two NASA-sponsored scientists the Nobel Prize in physics in 2006. She also played a pivotal role in developing innovative approaches to powering space probes destined for the solar system’s farthest reaches. While at NASA Headquarters, she spearheaded the selection process for the New Horizons probe to Pluto. She helped gain administration and congressional approval for an entirely new class of funded missions that are competitively selected, called “New Frontiers,” to explore the planets, asteroids, and comets in the Solar System. She has several master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in physics. Hartman has received numerous awards, including two prestigious Presidential Rank Awards.

HEIDI SCHWEINGRUBER is the director of the BOSE at the National Academies. She has served as the study director or the co-study director for a wide range of studies, including those on revising national standards for K-12 science education, learning and teaching science in grades K-8, and mathematics learning in early childhood. She also co-authored two award-winning books for practitioners that translate findings of National Academies’ reports for a broader audience, on using research in K-8 science classrooms and on information science education. Prior to joining the National Academies, she worked as a senior research associate at the Institute of Education Sciences in the Department of Education. She also previously served on the faculty of Rice University and as the director of research for the Rice University School Mathematics Project, an outreach program in K-12 mathematics education. She has a Ph.D. in psychology (developmental) and anthropology and a certificate in culture and cognition, both from the University of Michigan.