Laura S. Dahl, Ph.D. (she/her) is a visiting professor of higher and postsecondary education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and the coordinator for the MA program in higher education and student affairs. Dr. Dahl’s research broadly uses quantitative methods to critically examine how collegiate environments can influence prosocial outcomes such as sense of belonging, self-authored worldview commitment, career outcome expectations, appreciative attitudes toward diverse others, and integrative learning. She currently leads the Assessment of Collegiate Residential Environments and Outcomes (ACREO) project and is co-PI on a study funded by the National Association of Campus Activities focused on examining college student organization new member hazing experiences. Dr. Dahl is also a research consultant for the Interfaith, Spiritual, Religious, and Secular (INSPIRES) Campus Climate Index and the Including Faculty on Religious, Spiritual, and Secular Mattering (InFORM) projects.

Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Dahl was an assistant professor of education at North Dakota State University. She also worked as the research director of the College Impact Laboratory at The Ohio State University. She also worked at Rutgers University’s Douglass Residential College as the Director for Research Programs and Advising for Undergraduate Women in STEM. She earned her PhD in Educational Studies (Higher Education and Student Affairs) from The Ohio State University in 2019. She holds a BS in applied mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MEd in college student affairs administration from the University of Georgia. 

Eric McChesney’s research focuses on the development of robust, transferrable interventions and novel pedagogical designs that improve the outcomes of and environments experienced by women, people of color, and other historically-marginalized students pursuing degrees in Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Technology (STEM). Specifically, he researches STEM learning engagement and methods of increasing equity-centered belonging and retention in STEM.

His empirical research has led him to co-author the Revised Affective/Behavioral/Cognitive Model of Learning Engagement (or ABC+ Model) -a novel way of thinking about, measuring, and supporting STEM learning. His belonging and retention work has focused on testing and refining effective psychosocial interventions, faculty adoption and adaptation of inclusive pedagogies, and institutional/structural change in STEM pathways.

He conducted a Postdoctorate at the University of Pittsburgh under Drs. Christian Schunn, Linda DeAngelo, and Kevin Binning; he earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education and Student Affairs under Dr. Matthew Mayhew at The Ohio State University; and he acquired a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Florida. He is currently a Postdoctoral Associate for Psychosocial Interventions at Scale with the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, and a consultant at the College Impact Laboratory at The Ohio State University. He may be contacted at erm216@pitt.edu, or at https://www.stemequityresearch.com.  

Dr. Christa E. Winkler is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Mississippi State University. Her research focuses on the measurement and assessment of college student outcomes, with particular attention to emerging trends in quantitative educational research and training. Dr. Winkler’s work has been published in various methodological (e.g., Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal) and higher education (e.g., Review of Higher Education, Innovative Higher Education) journals, and she serves on the editorial boards for Research in Higher Education and the Journal of College Student Development.  

Educational background:

Ph.D. Quantitative Research, Evaluation, and Measurement (Ohio State University, 2020)

M.S.Ed. Higher Education and Student Affairs (Baylor University, 2013)

B.A. Psychology (The University of Texas at Austin, 2011)

Current role: 

Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Mississippi State University

Dr. Benjamin Selznick is an associate professor in the School of Strategic Leadership, College of Business at James Madison University (JMU) located in Harrisonburg, VA USA. Dr. Selznick’s research focuses on impact, innovation, and inclusion in the context of institutional leadership and equitable student success. He is specifically interested in how Jewish students and faculty experience the university environment, as well as in how to better connect strategic decision making to student outcomes through mixed methods approaches to research and assessment. Outside of work, he spends time with his family and is an active musician.

Dr. Selznick holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s and Doctoral (Ph.D.) degree from New York University, where he studied under Dr. Matthew Mayhew.

Dr. Musbah Shaheen is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Policy, Research, and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from The Ohio State University, an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of Vermont, and a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Music (cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Vanderbilt University. His research examines queer and Muslim identity development, campus climate, interfaith engagement, and issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and contributes to public scholarship through outlets such as Forbes, The Conversation, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, and he was recognized with the 2024 NASPA Outstanding Research Award for his contributions to the study of spirituality and religion in higher education