Director
Dr. Dawn Culpepper (she/her) is the Director of the ADVANCE Program. In this role, she guides the strategic direction of ADVANCE, oversees its management and programs, and engages in translational research focused on faculty work environment and faculty development issues.
Program Coordinator
Jasmine Stephens is the Program Coordinator for the ADVANCE Program. She provides support to ADVANCE faculty peer networks, coordinates faculty search committee workshops and faculty search coaches, and develops communications and marketing materials for the ADVANCE Program.
Graduate Assistant; Ph.D. Student, International Education Policy
Wuqi Yu is the Graduate Assistant for ADVANCE Program. He primarily supports education and training initiatives, including coordinating Inclusive Hiring Workshops and the Equity Coaches Program. He is also a Ph.D. student in the International Education Policy Program.
Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Dawn Culpepper (she/her) is the Director of the ADVANCE Program. In this role, she guides the strategic direction of ADVANCE, oversees its management and programs, and engages in translational research focused on faculty work environment and faculty development issues.
Dawn's research broadly examines equity, diversity, and inclusion in the academic workplace, with an emphasis on identifying strategies and disrupting practices that limit full participation for women and scholars from racially minoritized groups. She has examined faculty hiring, workload, tenure and promotion, postdoctoral training programs, work-life integration, graduate education, and faculty-related COVID-19 policies. Her work has been published in top education and diversity-related journals, and she has led or served on numerous projects funded by the National Science Foundation, including as the social science research team lead for the NSF INCLUDES RISE-UPP Alliance.
Professor, Department of Government and Politics
Dr. Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham (she/her) is a BSOS ADVANCE Professor at the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland. Her primary research interests include self-determination, secession, civil war, leadership in rebellion, and non-violent resistance.
Associate Professor, Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
Dr. Jennifer Danridge Turner is currently Associate Professor in Reading Education and the Director of the Reading Specialist program in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland. Dr. Turner’s research focuses on three interrelated areas: (a) Black young people’s futures; (b) the pedagogical practices in P-12 schools that cultivate and affirm the futures of youth of Color; and (c) critical visual and multimodal research methods.
Ph.D. Student, International Education Policy
Wuqi Yu is the Graduate Assistant for ADVANCE Program. He primarily supports education and training initiatives, including coordinating Inclusive Hiring Workshops and the Equity Coaches Program. He is also a Ph.D. student in the International Education Policy Program.