NRMN CC Team Members

Christine Pfund, Ph.D. is a scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). Dr. Pfund earned her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology, followed by post-doctoral research in Plant Pathology, both at University of Wisconsin-Madison. For almost a decade, Dr. Pfund served as the Associate Director of the Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning and the co-Director of the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching helping to train future faculty to become better more effective teachers. Dr. Pfund is now conducting research with several programs across the UW campus including the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and the Center for Women’s Health Research. Her work focuses on developing, implementing, documenting, and studying interventions to optimize research mentoring relationships across science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). Dr. Pfund co-authored the original Entering Mentoring curriculum and co-authored several papers documenting the effectiveness of this approach. Currently, Dr. Pfund is co-leading multiple studies focused on the impact of training on both mentors and mentees and understanding specific factors in mentoring relationships that account for positive student outcomes. Dr. Pfund was one of the principal investigators of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN), directing both the NRMN Mentor Training and Administrative Cores. She is now the principal investigator of the NRMN Coordination Center. She is also director of the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experience in Research at UW-Madison (CIMER). She is currently serving on a committee of the National Academies to explore the science of effective mentoring in STEMM.

Christine Sorkness, RPh, PharmD, is UW Institute of Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) Senior Associate Executive Director and oversees the Translational Endeavors efforts. She serves as co-director of the ICTR Collaborative Center for Health Equity. She has a special interest in health disparities in asthma, in which she has conducted both clinical efficacy and comparative effectiveness trials. Dr. Sorkness is affiliated with the UW Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Division, with more than 25 years of NHLBI-funding as either a co-investigator or co-principal investigator. She is a co-investigator with the NIAID Inner City Asthma Consortium. A long-standing member of the UW Health Sciences IRB, she has also served on several NHLBI-appointed Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for multi-center national trials. Dr. Sorkness holds professorships in both the UW School of Pharmacy and the School of Medicine and Public Health. She provided instrumental leadership in support of the UW Mentoring Trial and the development of a legacy web-based mentoring resource. The implementation and dissemination of the mentoring initiatives at UW ICTR have benefited from Dr. Sorkness’ extensive mentoring experience and long-standing dedication to training diverse clinical and translational researchers. Dr. Sorkness is a past Lead Team Member with the CTSA Workforce Domain Task Force.

Emily Utzerath, M.A., has been part of the NRMN community since 2015, first serving as the Assistant Director of the NRMN Mentor Training Core during phase 1 and now as the Associate Director of the NRMN Coordination Center during phase 2. She is affiliated with the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has many roles within NRMN including developing programs and curricula, optimizing programmatic operations, and leading workshops to teach individuals how to build local capacity for sustainable mentorship programming.

Prior to joining NRMN, Emily was the Assistant Director of an interdisciplinary early-career faculty development program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Junior Historian and Museum Educator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and an Assistant Art Curator at a contemporary art space in Munich. She holds degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder (M.A., German Studies) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A., English). In her free time, she loves listening to podcasts (“Reply All” is her current favorite), exploring new neighborhoods, and delighting in the perfect cup of tea.

Emma Dums recently graduated from UW-Platteville with her bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in applied statistics. She dedicated a lot of time during her studies to getting involved in research projects across a variety of disciplines, and is excited to join a team that values research in a collaborative environment! As a result of her genuine love of learning, Emma spends much of her free time reading. She also enjoys journaling as well as many outdoor activities, including just being outside in general!

Fatima Sancheznieto has recently completed her DPhil in Biomedical Sciences through an NIH/Oxford fellowship (funded by an HHMI Gilliam fellowship), where she spent four years studying hematopoietic stem cells to develop therapies for patients with various inherited bone marrow failures. As a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami, she gained experience working with mesenchymal stem cells across three labs (two at her alma mater, and one at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute). Likewise, she has fixed medical equipment in rural hospitals in Tanzania, and then returned to study Trypanosomiasis on a Fulbright scholarship. She continues to be conversational in Kiswahili, and as a double major in English with a creative writing concentration, continues to explore her passion for writing and languages. During her PhD years, Fatima became aware of the many systemic and cultural problems in academia that prevent early career researchers, particularly those from URM backgrounds, from obtaining independent positions. Because of this, she became a staunch advocate for healthy, supportive, lab environments and mentoring. She founded www.Labmosphere.com, is currently the President of Future of Research (http://www.futureofresearch.org/), and was invited by Dr. Francis Collins to sit on a working group to draft recommendations for the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) on the Next Generation Researcher’s Initiative (NGRI), which just recently reported its draft recommendations in December. Currently, she is a postdoctoral research associate at UW - Madison, helping with curricular development around mentor training and studying burnout symptoms in postdocs, particularly those from URM backgrounds, and how their training environment affects their career satisfaction and decisions to persist in academic career tracks. She is also coordinating the NRMN Measurement Library.

Currently I am the Research Director for the Center for the Improvement of Research Experiences in Mentoring (CIMER) at the UW-Madison. I will be leading the Data Core in the NRMN Coordination Center. My background is in Sociology. Throughout my career, I have focused on studying underrepresented groups in different sectors of society and the underlying structures that contribute to these inequalities. I have a strong background in theories of stratification and in particular, gender inequalities as well as advanced quantitative skills. In the past I have focused on how cultural background and context impact the effectiveness of interventions for a variety of groups, including entrepreneurs and incarcerated individuals. More recently I have focused on the study of mentoring. In NRMN phase I, I led the research and evaluation initiative of the Mentor Training. In addition, I examined the role that cultural diversity plays in mentoring relationships and explored what cultural factors affect both the mentees and the mentors in a mentoring relationship and how can these relationships can be optimized through a research mentor training intervention. One of my strength is my experience working with large datasets, including the set-up process such as merging, coding and cleaning of the data. I have extensive skills in data coding as well as data analyses, particularly with ‘big data’ methods. I have worked with large research studies helping to set up their data collection process (including the collection platform), IRB protocols (including multi-site/institution protocols) and analytic methods. I look forward to getting to work with everyone!

My undergraduate degree is from UW-Eau Claire and my master’s and doctorate degrees are from UW-Madison. I have worked in a variety of roles in research and practice from career advisor to assistant professor and most recently Director of CareerLocker, an online career information system. I have lived across the country including Illinois, North Dakota and California. I am a first- generation college student and my dissertation focused on first-generation college students through the lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory. I explored students’ academic development in relation to self-efficacy, race, social class and classism. I have 3 nieces and a nephew. This is a picture of us together. With my down time, I like to craft with friends, do CrossFit, swim, and spend time with my extended family and my cat Maggie.

Kim Spencer, MS, is an Assistant Researcher with the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Assistant Director of the NRMN Coordination Center Data Core. In this role, she will support PIs and other U01 project staff to facilitate the sharing and coordination of data, including overseeing data collection, data tracking, reporting, and security. Kim served as the Research Program Manager for the NRMN Phase 1 Mentor Training Core where she oversaw data collection of mentor, mentee, and facilitator training events.

Lisette Serrano is the Program Manager with the NRMN Coordination Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lisette joined the NRMN Phase 1 team in February of 2018 and is excited to continue advancing this important work in Phase 2.

Melissa McDaniels, Ph.D. is Senior Advisor to the Dean in the Graduate School at Michigan State University. She is also an Investigator with the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (www.cimerproject.org) and Director of the CIMER Master Facilitator Initiative. Dr. McDaniels is a co-Investigator with the NRMN Coordination Center and will serve as Community Manager, working to support PIs and other U01 project staff through needs assessment and communications, as well as study the existing and developing networks across NRMN Community.

So Hee Hyun, PhD, is a Research Programmer and Analyst of the NRMN Coordination Center. So Hee earned her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fall 2019. Her research interests are students’ learning experiences and effectiveness of academic programs in the higher, postsecondary, and continuing education, especially she has focused on studying underrepresented students in American higher education such as immigrants and first-generation college students. She also has various research experience in K-16 education, including the development of teaching instruction and students’ learning in high school and college, graduate education, and educational policy analysis. As a Research Programmer and Analyst of the NRMN Coordination Center, she will support Data Team to build and maintain master datasets from NMRN Phase I, all 11 U01 sites in NRMN Phase II, and the Resources Center, including tracking data collection, data visualization, and data dissemination.

Taylor Ajamian obtained her BA in English from Carthage College in Kenosha, WI and has worked in academic support roles since graduating. Pre-covid, she spent her summers teaching at a leadership camp for high school students in her hometown. As a human, Taylor describes herself as laid-back, creative, and intuitive. As a worker, Taylor values effective communication, creative problem solving, and equity, and really strives to create supportive, inclusive, and fun work environments. She is currently learning American Sign Language (ASL) and has really enjoyed learning more about the deaf community/culture. When she is not working or learning, you can find Taylor doing yoga, reading Faulkner, or rooting for the Packers.