Team Members

Jimmy Aguilar

Steering Committee /

Jimmy Aguilar (he/him/his) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Urban Education Policy program at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. He serves as a research associate at the Pullias Center for Higher Education under the guidance of Dr. Julie Posselt. Aguilar’s research examines organizational behavior and change, organizational communication, and equity in admissions, with a particular focus on the role of technology in shaping and transforming admissions processes. His work, informed by his professional experience in admissions, seeks to uncover how digital tools and communication strategies can be leveraged to create more transparent, efficient, and equitable admissions practices, especially in the context of race-neutral policies. Aguilar is a Gates Millennium Scholar and earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science and Chicanx Studies, with a minor in education, from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also holds a Master of Education (Ed.M.) in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). 

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Steve Desir

Facilitator, Project Team, Steering Committee /

Director, Professional Development Equity in Graduate Education ConsortiumAssistant Research Professor, Rossier School of Education University of Southern California Steve Desir (He/him/his) is an Assistant Research Professor in the Pullias Center for Higher Education and the USC Race and Equity Center. Steve currently serves as the Director of Professional Development and Organizational Learning for the Equity

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Kristyn Lue

Facilitator, Project Team /

Postdoctoral Research Associate & Project Coordinator, IGEN Research Hub University of Southern California Kristyn Lue is a Postdoctoral Scholar with the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the Rossier School of Education, where she works with Julie Posselt in the Equity in Graduate Education Resource Center on a research study of disciplinary societies’ diversity, equity,

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Annie Wofford

Facilitator, Project Team, Steering Committee /

Associate Director, Equity in Graduate Education Consortium Assistant Professor of Higher Education Florida State University Annie M. Wofford, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at Florida State University. Her research interests center on structural inequities within graduate education, and she focuses on the development

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Damon Williams

Uncategorized /

Associate Dean and Chief Diversity Officer at The Graduate School Northwestern University Damon joined Northwestern from Emory University, where he served as the inaugural Director of Diversity, Community, and Recruitment in the James T. Laney Graduate School. At Emory, he created the EDGE-Emory Diversifying Graduate Education Office that supports diversity and inclusion initiatives for graduate

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Sara Xayarath Hernandez

Facilitator, Project Team, Steering Committee /

Liaison Community Engagement Coordinator, Equity in Graduate Education Consortium Associate Dean for Inclusion & Student and Faculty Engagement Cornell University – Graduate School As the Associate Dean for Inclusion and Student and Faculty Engagement in the Graduate School at Cornell University, Sara provides strategic leadership to advance institutional goals related to access, equal opportunity, and

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Stephanie Santos

Project Team, Steering Committee /

Project Coordinator, IGEN Inclusive Practices Hub Rochester Institute of Technology Stephanie Santos is Project Specialist for the Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN), an NSF INCLUDES Alliance. She manages operations of IGEN’s Inclusive Practices Hub, including the coordination and delivery of professional development workshops aimed at culture change and the diversification of STEM graduate programs across

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Yasmin Kadir

Project Team, Steering Committee /

Consortium Manager, Equity in Graduate Education Consortium University of Southern California After graduating from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor’s in Business Management, Yasmin held an integral development and operational role as the first full-time employee at a human rights nonprofit in Los Angeles. Since then she has managed multiple research projects and

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Casey Miller

Facilitator, Project Team, Steering Committee /

Director, Inclusive Graduate Education Network Inclusive Practices HubSenior Advisor, Equity in Graduate Education Consortium Rochester Institute of Technology Casey W. Miller is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Affairs in the College of Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is an experimental physicist focusing on nanoscale magnetic materials and related devices. He graduated

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Julie Posselt

Facilitator, Project Team, Steering Committee /

Director, Equity in Graduate Education ConsortiumDirector, Inclusive Graduate Education Network Research HubAssociate Dean, USC Graduate School, Office of the ProvostAssociate Professor, Pullias Center for Higher Education University of Southern California Julie Posselt is Associate Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Southern California, Associate Professor in the USC Rossier School of Education, and

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