I am writing this letter to express my interest in the Assistant Professor of Education Studies position at the University of Oregon. I graduated from the University of Memphis in 2014 with my PhD in Educational Psychology and a Graduate Certificate of Qualitative Research in Education. Since then, I have worked as the postdoctoral research associate for Howard University’s ADVANCE-IT, which is an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation to increase the representation of women faculty in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). During my postdoctoral appointment, I have been responsible for the data collection, management, and analysis of the social sciences portion of the study. Currently, we are in the process of analyzing our Mapping Guided …show more content…
My interest in STEM education developed out of my desire to answer the call to increase the representation of women and people of color in STEM fields, so that STEM can benefit from the diverse perspectives women and people of color can offer. In addition to STEM education, my interest in identity development in education supported my dissertation research, which focused on the construction of academic identity in African American women engineering students. Currently, I have one article from my dissertation under review and am currently in the process of two more articles from my dissertation research. Finally, my third research interest in adolescent development is related to my interest in identity development as Erikson asserted that individuals primarily construct their identities during adolescence. My research interests and training in quantitative and qualitative methodologies allow me to explore the lives of individuals who have been othered based on socially constructed factors such as race, gender, and