National and Statewide Research Projects

Religious Leadership and Diversity Project (RLDP) http://www.rldp.net

Interviewer (2013-Pesent) 

The Religious Leadership and Diversity Project (RLDP) is a national qualitative study of multiracial church pastors. This project seeks to understand the roles and experiences of multiracial church head clergy; and how they develop, sustain, and guide their congregations. The RLDP will produce the first-ever comprehensive body of knowledge about leaders of racially diverse churches in the United States.

I conducted 15 in-depth interviews with head pastors of multi-racial congregations. With a team of other scholars and religious professionals, we develop thematic codes of the national data and are currently collaborating together on various writing projects.

Principal Investigator: Korie L. Edwards, Associate Professor of Sociology, Ohio State University. Funded by The Lilly Foundation ($493,101)

Iowa Statewide STEM Education Evaluation (I-SEE) isee.mspnet.org 

Graduate Research Assistant (2013-2016)

The Iowa STEM Education Evaluation (I-SEE): Navigating the Iowa Roadmap is a Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance (RETA) project focused on research on state plans for STEM education. It is seated strategically within the Iowa STEM Education Roadmap, which is led by the Governor’s Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Advisory Council, set in place through Executive Order Number Seventy-Four. The I-SEE is building a coordinated statewide evaluation system that comprehensively assesses the educational and economic changes that occur throughout a long-term statewide STEM initiative.

Contracted Research Projects

Social Network Analysis of the Iowa Statewide STEM Initiative

Consultant (2016-Present) Research Institute for Studies in Education (RISE) www.rise.edu 

One component of the Iowa STEM Education Evaluation (I-SEE) is to map the social network of the Iowa Statewide STEM initiative,  highlighing key decision markers across the state and within its six STEM regions. I have prepared a series of maps and explanations for the Iowa Governor’s Advisory Council and for the Iowa STEM regional managers, including analysis by initiative year, professional affliation and STEM region.

I am currently in the prorcess of finalizing the techincal report for the subimssions to the Nacitonal Science Foundations deatling the use of social network anslysis (SNA) methodologies, advantages and disadvantages, and examples of using SNA in statewide STEM initiatives. Lastly, working in collaboration with RISE team at Iowa State University, we will be developing schoalry articles related to the use of SNA in statewide STEM initiatives.

Urban Ethnography of 64130 (Kansas City, Misouri) 

Consultant  (2010-2012) United Way of Greater Kansas City (UWGKC) www.UWGKC.org 

United Way of Greater Kansas City tasked me with conducting an urban ethnography on the zip code of 64130 in the areas of health, education, and employment. I Conducted a large-scale needs assessment with the help of various undrergradute student researchers which I recurited and managed from an urban ethnography course at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The study consisted of quantitative, qualitative, and spatial (GIS) analysis. I conducted in-dpeth interviews, facilitated focus groups of social service professionals, and executed GIS mapping for partnered agencies. This work was presnted to the  UWGKC broad of trustees and sevred as a conduit to orgzniaing a citywide taks force to address the various social services needed in this area.