Data Champions

Filippo Posta is an Applied Mathematician who strives to create connections for his students between Mathematics and their ambitions. He grew up in Tuscany and emigrated to the US to pursue a Ph.D. at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. After graduating, he spent 3 years at UCLA as a Postdoc until moving to Phoenix Metro to pursue a career in academia. He spent 5 years at GCU and 5 years at EMCC before transferring to Phoenix College in Summer 2023. Filippo facilitates learning by taking advantage of Open Educational Resources (OER) and technology so that students have a modern and accessible scaffold to build their learning. He often develops data-driven assignments that incorporate student passion and ideas. Filippo has presented at many National conferences about these pedagogical endeavors. As Data Champion, he aims to provide PC stakeholders with actionable data about student success. To do so, he plans to use Machine Learning approaches, which he has become familiar with in the last few years while collaborating with researchers at UCLA.

Biography Coming Soon

Biography Coming Soon

Alisia (Giac-Thao) Tran is in her first year at Phoenix College (Counseling Department). She received her master's and doctorate degrees in Psychology (emphasis in Counseling) from the University of Minnesota, after which she worked at Arizona State University for 11 years. She is active in research and data analysis and, to date, has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers, with a current emphasis on athlete mental health. As a Data Champion, she aims to conduct applied research that provides useful information to help close academic gaps for diverse students; and she aspires to make data useful, understandable, and applicable to her campus colleagues.

Anil Kapoor is the Intem Bioscience Department Chair and has been working at Phoenix College for almost ten years. As a Data Champion, Anil will look into which high-impact practices are most effective in moving the needle for minority student success and persistence in the Biology department, in particular the gateway classes like Bio 181 and Bio 201. 

Scott Hauert began teaching at Phoenix College in 1996 and has served as the Paralegal Studies Program Director since 2001. Before joining the faculty at PC, Scott worked as a felony prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and as the judicial clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona. During his time with PC, Scott has served as a department chair and on numerous college and District committees, including as the 2006 HLC Reaccreditation Criterion 5 Co-Chair & Self-Study Author/Editor, Phoenix College Leadership Council, Campus Technology Committee, Budget Review Committee, Space Management Committee, Chair Council, Financial Advisory Committee, Performance Funding Taskforce, and the Maricopa Priorities Steering Team. Scott has also served in several state and national roles, including as a site team chair for the American Bar Association’s Approval Commission, President of the American Association for Paralegal Education, Vice-President of Communications for the Arizona Evaluation Association, and as a member of Arizona State Bar’s Task Force on Paralegal Membership, as well as the Maricopa County Bar Association’s Paralegal Division Board of Directors.  In addition to his J.D. and Ph.D., Scott holds multiple degrees and graduate-level credentials, including a B.S. in Computer Science, an M.B.A., an M.S. Ed. in Program Evaluation, an M.S. in Instructional Design, and graduate certificates in Higher Education Assessment,  Adult & Organizational Learning, and Human Performance Technology. As a Data Champion, Scott’s research will focus on students' perspectives on the purpose of peer-to-peer activities in asynchronous online learning. This study will use a mixed-methods approach to quantitatively examine students’ perceptions regarding the purpose of engaging in peer-to-peer activities in asynchronous online course. The purpose of the research is to better understand what students believe to be the purpose of these activities. By doing so, we can help align students’ view of purpose with that of instructors. Aligning the understanding of purpose can facilitate structuring these activities to better achieve that mutually understood purpose.