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Candidate Bios
*Listed Alphabetically by Last Name*
Stephanie Gardner (candidate for president-elect)
Associate Professor and Associate Head for Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning in the Department of Biological Sciences; Assistant Director of the EMBRIO Institute and Co-Director of the CURE - Purdue Program
Purdue University
https://www.bio.purdue.edu/lab/gardner/History of SABER Involvement
SABER has been essential to my continued growth and career as a DBER scholar since I first attended the annual meeting in 2011. On a practical level, SABER contributed to my ability to become a tenured professor in a biology department. Through SABER I have been challenged to think broadly, have gained an incredible network of colleagues, and have had the privilege to be a part of its development into the dynamic and collectively-owned society that it is today. I have been invested in the success and growth of SABER through attending the business meeting every year, reviewing abstracts, participating in the physiology SiG, as a member of the PEER Network, and shaping annual meeting as head of the invited speaker committee (2019-21).
Professional Activities Aligned with SABER Mission
I aim to support student learning and engagement through my research, editorial service, leadership in professional development for teaching, education research, and curriculum revision. I have been a monitoring editor at CBE-LSE for 5 years and serve on editorial and review boards for 3 other journals. I have a collective leadership style so that voices are heard, valued, and represented. For example, I consulted and worked with graduate students and instructors to design and teach a TA course centered on equity and inclusion. I have led curriculum revisions in my department and strategic planning for the EMBRIO Institute. This work involves building consensus with colleagues and finding solutions that are impactful, yet feasible.
Rationale for Interest in SABER Leadership
SABER is evolving as the field of BER grows and I will to work with others to challenge members to dig deeper, draw from knowledge in other disciplines to enrich our work, and always keep in mind the goal of improving biology education for all students. I am proud of SABER and the work that it has done in the areas of equity and inclusion. My goals are to ensure not only the intellectual growth of the society, but expanding and valuing the diversity of the members, the students they serve, and of scholarship in which the members engage. This will allow SABER to be a society for cutting- edge research in which all members feel valued and have a sense of camaraderie and collective ownership.
Recent Scholarly Contributions in Biology Education Research
Research in my group examines the knowledge and approaches that students and instructors use during science practices to guide instruction and assessment to support competence development. A long-standing research interest is studying the practices used during the analysis and graphing of biological data. This collaborative work has been disseminated via presentations at SABER and other conferences as well as in research articles and book chapters. Our insights have also informed several published instructional resources. Other research areas in my group include examining features of mechanistic explanations, conceptions of hypotheses and predictions, and evaluation research related to interdisciplinary collaboration and research.
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Carlos Goller (candidate for president-elect)
Associate Teaching Professor
North Carolina State University | Biotechnology Program (BIT) and Department of Biological Sciences
https://biotech.ncsu.edu/ccgoller/
History of SABER Involvement
As a dedicated SABER member, I have contributed to the PEERs group over several years. I have attended meetings and strongly advocated for teaching postdoctoral scholars to tap into the wealth of knowledge within the SABER community. My active participation in the seminar series and engagement with the PEERs special interest group further underscores my commitment to advancing biology education research and awareness of exciting teaching innovations and studies. I participate in ASMCUE and NIST's educational efforts and wish to align them with those of SABER. I am excited about the opportunity to promote education research by supporting scholars, connections, and sharing!
Professional Activities Aligned with SABER Mission
As non-tenure teaching faculty committed to learning and sharing ways to improve education, I have spent the last ten years becoming a biology education scholar. As a teaching postdoctoral scholar, I participated in several national initiatives to promote evidence-based practices. As faculty and mentor of graduate teaching assistants and postdoctoral educators, I am committed to sharing resources and opportunities such as those offered by SABER to become education scholars. As a Curriculum Section Editor for the JMBE and Course Editor for CourseSource, I continuously learn about new educational research. My professional activities and experience have helped broaden my network and emphasize my commitment to educational innovation.
Rationale for Interest in SABER Leadership
As an educator, I share the same goals as SABER. It is crucial to me that all educators, including adjuncts, postdoctoral scholars, graduate assistants, and undergraduates, receive adequate support as we learn and develop innovative biology education research. If elected, my primary aim would be to foster cross-network collaborations that promote collegiality and continuous improvement among scholars. I intend to raise awareness of research-sharing opportunities that can support instructors at all levels and facilitate mentoring. To promote inclusivity, it is essential to remove barriers to education research, and this can be achieved through revisiting evidence, promoting openness, and implementing research across educational landscapes.
Recent Scholarly Contributions in Biology Education Research
Over the last five years, I have been fortunate to be part of several educational initiatives that have resulted in exciting educational research. These include publications on a variety of topics, including bioinformatics education (Dow et al. 2021), case studies (Robertson et al. 2021, Goller et al. 2022 CourseSource), faculty development (Pruneske et al. 2022), ethical reasoning (Sjogren, Comstock Goller 2023), and the dissemination of molecular biology education modules (Goller et al. 2021 Frontiers). A full list of publications and funding, with two new (2023) NSF IUSE initiatives I am co-PI on, are listed here: ccgoller.com and https://ci.lib.ncsu.edu/profiles/ccgoller
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Kelly McDonald (candidate for president-elect)
Professor, Biological Sciences; Director, Center for Science and Math Success
California State University, Sacramento
https://www.csus.edu/faculty/m/mcdonald/
History of SABER Involvement
I have been a member of SABER since 2011, two years after joining the biology faculty at Sacramento State as their first science education researcher. I was fortunate to find SABER when I did, as I was transitioning from industry to academia and from molecular/cellular biology research to biology education research. The professional development, mentorship, community, support, and friendship I discovered were invaluable to me professionally and personally. Since 2011, I have attended nearly every annual SABER and SABER West meeting, bringing undergraduate and Master's students to present their work and network with others; served on the DEI committee, as a SABER buddy and now serve on the Growth and Development Committee.
Professional Activities Aligned with SABER Mission
My career has evolved from primarily teaching to mostly administration and research. Currently, I serve as Graduate Teaching Associate Coordinator and Director of a STEM Center at Sac State. I develop/implement programs to support the academic, social, and professional goals/needs of students, manage budgets, fundraise, supervise staff, engage in strategic planning, facilitate professional development, coordinate events, write grants, and assist faculty with instructional goals and grant writing. I am/have been a PULSE Ambassador and the PI or co-PI of multiple NSF I-USE, NOYCE, and ATE grants. I work with departments/faculty across the country, sharing the models we have developed to equitably engage more students in experiential learning.
Rationale for Interest in SABER Leadership
First and foremost, I want to give back to the community that I credit for much of my success, and I believe I have developed the skills and expertise to serve in this position. In addition, my entire academic career has been spent at several community colleges and a Master's granting teaching institution and I absolutely LOVE these environments. One of my goals would be to engage more students, faculty, staff, and administrators from these institution types. I also come from one of the most diverse campuses in one of the most diverse educational systems in the US, and I am highly driven to expand the anti-racist and inclusive practices of SABER with the goal of serving and empowering our community of STEM students and professionals.
Recent Scholarly Contributions in Biology Education Research
The requirements at my institution for peer review publications are minimal, as our primary goal is to train students in research practices. My research group is primarily focused on the impacts that undergraduate research experiences within and outside the classroom have on students and the faculty who mentor them. My students have published (mostly as first authors) in JMBE (3 articles), JCST (2 articles), CourseSource (1), and Journal of Transformative Leadership and Policy Studies (1). We have a CBE-LSE and JMBE article under review and a CourseSource article in prep. I've also contributed to the SABER Frontiers in Education Perspective, a CBE-LSE Meeting Report, and a chapter in Accelerating Systemic Change in STEM Higher Ed Network.
Miriam Segura-Totten (candidate for president-elect)
Professor and Harry Forester Chair
University of North Georgia
https://ung.edu/biology/faculty-staff-bio/miriam-segura-totten.php
History of SABER Involvement
The connections I have made at SABER since I first attended a meeting in 2012 have enriched my scholarship and expanded my professional network. In 2020, I became more involved in SABER as a member of the Action Group on Place and Racial Justice. As a result of this work, I helped to start and currently co-lead the PEER (Persons Excluded because of their Ethnicity or Race) SABER SIG. This role deepened my commitment to inclusion and diversity in the context of professional societies. Becoming Secretary of SABER in 2021 provided me with valuable experience in leading a small but complex organization. Overall, I view SABER as my professional home and as a forum where I can have an impact on BER and on diversity and inclusion issues.
Professional Activities Aligned with SABER Mission
I have extensive leadership experience within and outside of SABER. Serving as Secretary of SABER has provided me with leadership experience relevant to the role of President-elect by exposing me to the day-to-day management of the society. Beyond my roles as co-lead of the PEER SIG and Secretary of SABER, I have been the Themed Issue Senior Editor for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (JMBE) since 2017. Additionally, I have facilitated several ASM professional development webinar series to assist instructors in evidence-based teaching and assessment of their pedagogy. These experiences have taught me how to be organized, self-driven, and how to work effectively as part of a team.
Rationale for Interest in SABER Leadership
SABER has been instrumental to the development of my identity as a BER scholar. As President-elect, I want to focus on: 1) expanding efforts to increase inclusion and diversity within SABER, so the work we have done so far translates into sustainable and long-term change, including extending the reach of SABER to other populations, like 2-year and minority serving institutions; 2) contributing to the future of SABER by implementing a strategic plan that reflects the voices of all of SABER’s constituents and that includes a plan for sustainable growth of the society; and 3) exploring innovative ways to connect with other societies, such as ASM, that are invested in advancing evidence-based pedagogy.
Recent Scholarly Contributions in Biology Education Research
My recent scholarly contributions focus on understanding how students read and analyze primary scientific literature (PSL) and on the learning gains associated with approaches for reading PSL. Through my research, I strive to translate results informed by theory into pedagogy that can be adopted by practitioners. Some examples of my scholarly work are: a study describing an approach for reading PSL that increases scientific literacy (Washburn et al., 2023; DOI: 10.1128/jmbe.00154-22), an assessment for reading PSL developed from our past findings (Lee et al., 2022; DOI: 10.1128/jmbe.00126-22), and a qualitative study that revealed insights into student motivations when reading PSL (Howard et al., 2021; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251275).