Primary Investigator  

Ann E. Austin serves as the Interim Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs at Michigan State University, where she is also a University Distinguished Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education and previously served as Interim Dean of the College of Education. Her research and publications concern academic work, careers, and professional development; organizational change in higher education; doctoral education; and STEM Education in higher education. 

She has been a Fulbright Scholar to South Africa and a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, and she currently serves as Co-Chair of the Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is a PI/Co-PI for several National Science Foundation-funded projects (one on improving teaching evaluation; one on processes of institutional change to promote STEM equity; and this project on examining networks of organizations committed to strengthening undergraduate education). 

She is also the very happy grandmother of her 23-month-old grandson, Ellison! 

Co-Primary Investigator

Susan Rundell Singer serves as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Rollins College. Previously, she led the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was the Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of Biology at Carleton College, where she directed the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching. Her charge at NSF was to implement holistic, evidence-based approaches to increase persistence and success of all undergraduates. She led a network of 14 federal agencies in achieving the undergraduate goals of the first Federal STEM Education 5-year Strategic Plan, including producing one million more STEM graduates by 2018. 

Her scholarship focuses on partnerships and networks of organizations collaboratively advancing undergraduate STEM education, with an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. 

Cycling is her passion and she recently bikepacked 400 miles of the Erie Canal Trail in upstate New York.

Postdoctoral Researcher 

Adam Grimm is a research associate with a Postdoctoral Research Appointment at Michigan State University College of Education. Adam has served on the OCNs project since it's inception in 2017, exploring the ways networks of organizations form and function to pursue change related to STEM undergraduate education. We hope to understand how and why these organizations structure themselves to promote their initiatives and how this might have changed over time and in different contexts. . In an era where political and economic forces are emphasizing inovative approaches to education, it is important to understand how organizations have aligned within various networks to promote change in undergraduate STEM education. 

In addition to the OCNs project, Adam's work includes research and praxis around global education. He enjoys supporting and expanding the College's efforts to promote global mobility, learning, and engagement. 

When he's not functioning as a an appendage to his screen, you can find Adam wandering the woods with his ornery daughter, Avalyn!