TRIO Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program

Eastern Washington University

Alumni Spotlight

EWU McNair Alumna Christina Ramelow Accepted into Multiple PhD Programs

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Christina Ramelow Grad School Acceptances Announcements 2019

Congratulations to EWU McNair Alumna Christina Ramelow! Christina has been accepted into the BioMedical Sciences PhD program at the University of Buffalo, the Neuroscience PhD program at the University of Virginia, and the Neuroscience PhD program at Michigan State University! All of these come with full funding. Christina graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2018 with a degree in Biology/Biotechnology. She is currently a masters student at EWU in Biology, working both as a research fellow and a teaching assistant. To prepare for graduate school Christina completed two summers of research internships as well as presented her research at several conferences. To read more about Christina and her research, check out her page on the EWU McNair website.

 

We are so proud to see all of Christina's hard work paying off and excited for her next steps towards attaining a PhD!

EWU McNair Alumna Veronica Albrecht Accepted into Michigan State University PhD Program

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Veronica Albrecht Grad School Acceptances Announcements 2019

Congratulations to EWU McNair Alumna Veronica Albrecht! Veronica has been accepted into the BioMolecular Science (BMS) Gateway at the Michigan State University with full funding! Veronica graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2018 with a major in Biology. As an undergrad she worked with mentor Dr. Andrea Castillo on the fecal coliform levels in the Cannon Hill Pond. She presented her research at multiple conferences around the country. Currently Veronica is in her second year of the MS Biology program at EWU with funding through a Biology Teaching Assistantship. To read more about Veronica and her research, check out her page on the EWU McNair website.

 

We are so proud of Veronica and excited for her next steps towards attaining a PhD!

EWU McNair Alumna Dr. Laura Zamudio-Orozco Joins EWU McNair Program

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EWU McNair Alumna Dr. Laura Zamudio-Orozco

The EWU McNair Program welcomes Dr. Laura Zamudio-Orozco as our interim Academic Advisor! Dr. Zamudio-Orozco is an alumna of EWU’s McNair Scholar Program. She graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2014 with a BA in Mathematics Education (K-8). She worked as an educator at Adams Elementary in Spokane to get some on the ground experience before becoming a Ronald E. McNair Doctoral Fellow at Florida International University. From 2017 to 2019, Dr. Zamudio-Orozco was a full-time graduate research assistant at Florida International University educating preservice teachers how to teach elementary mathematics, including creating inclusive and culturally responsive curriculum. She attained her PhD in Teaching and Learning – Mathematics Education in December 2019.

 

Recently, EWU McNair’s Academic Advisor Najeda (Jade) Patolo became a part of the career advising team at EWU. We are so excited for Jade’s new role at Eastern! As we go through the formal job search process to find a new Academic Advisor, we are so fortunate to have Dr. Zamudio-Orozco joining us to support students who are working towards growing as scholars and getting accepted into Masters and PhD programs. Having gone through the process herself, we know Dr. Zamudio-Orozco will be an amazing asset to our team.

EWU McNair Alumni Dr. Erin McLaughlin teaches at University of Notre Dame

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EWU McNair Scholar Alumni Dr. Erin McLaughlin teaches at the University of Notre Dame.
EWU McNair Scholar Alumni Dr. Erin McLaughlin teaches at the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Erin McLaughlin, an EWU McNair Scholar from the 2003-2004 cohort, currently works as an Associate Teaching Professor for the University Writing Program at the University of Notre Dame. She attained her BA here at EWU and her Masters and PhD (2010) from Bowling Green State University. In her dissertation she analyzed composing strategies used on YouTube and received the Charles E. Shanklin Award for Research Excellence for a portion of this research published in Computers & Composition Online. More recently she was second author on “Outliving the Ghosts: Storytelling and Community Engagement through Classroom Practice,” published in Pedagogy, January 2018.

 

Dr. McLaughlin is invested in supporting student writers and increasing their multimodal literacies. She has created several YouTube videos about how to use online technologies such as GarageBand and WordPress as a part of academic curriculum and the advantages of these tools. In addition to teaching at Notre Dame, she has been involved with the Digital Mirror, a technoliteracy camp for girls in grades 6-8, for which she helped acquire a $10,000 grant from the American Association of University Women.

We are so proud of Dr. McLaughlin’s work in academia and in giving back to students!

EWU McNair Alumni Dr. Martín Meráz García and Dr. Bruno M. Baltodano in collaboration with Dr. Martha L. Cottam published The Role of Female Combatants in the Nicaraguan Revolution and Counter Revolutionary War

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The Role of Female Combatants in the Nicaraguan Revolution and Counter Revolutionary War -Image

We congratulate two of our EWU McNair Alum for their academic success. This book is a qualitative study based on 85 interviews with female ex-combatants in the revolution and counter-revolution from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, as well as field observations in Nicaragua and the autonomous regions of the Atlantic Coast. It explores the reasons why women fought, the sacrifices they made, their treatment by male combatants, and their insights into the impact of the revolution and counter-revolution on today’s Nicaragua.

Dr. Martín Meráz García is a Professor and the Interim Program Director of Chicana/o/x Studies at Eastern Washington University. He was a part of the 1998-1999 cohort of McNair Scholars at EWU. He received his Master’s in Criminal Justice in 2003 and a PhD in Political Science in 2007, both from Washington State University. Currently, he is a fellow with the New Leadership Academy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Dr. Baltodano is a Professor of Political Science at Florida SouthWestern State College. He was a part of the 2003 McNair Scholars cohort at Eastern Washington University and received both his Masters and Ph.D. from Washington State University. His primary research interests are insurgencies and political violence. He has been a contributing writer on books on the Sunni Awakening in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the civil police in Nicaragua, and on journal articles about the Sandinista Revolution.

We are so proud of all of the accomplishments of Dr. Baltodano and Dr. Meráz García!

EWU Alum and McNair Scholar, Dr. Alvina Cawston Marris, awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to support improving health equity in rural areas

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Photo of Alvina Marris courtesy of: https://irleaders.org/team/using-native-knowledge-and-science-to-heal-trauma/ (2019)

Dr. Alvina Cawston Marris (EWU McNair Scholar 2003) was awarded a grant in 2018 and named an Interdisciplinary Research Leader dedicated to improving health equity in rural areas. As a practicing psychologist, Dr. Marris works to improve health equity in rural areas. She works with the Colville Tribes and is currently conducting research to develop a trauma and culturally informed parenting program for her tribal community. Read more about the wonderful work being done by Dr. Marris in a previous article published in 2017. We congratulate Dr. Marris on her well-deserved award and are so proud of her accomplishments!

From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Interdisciplinary Leaders Website:

The broad goal of the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders (IRL) program is to produce diverse interdisciplinary leaders who conduct and apply high-quality, community-engaged, action-oriented, equity-focused health research in order to drive improvements in the health of communities. Another central goal of the IRL program is to foster and support new interdisciplinary, action-oriented research collaborations that will help build the evidence base for effective community interventions to improve health for all.