EERC Staff: Who We Are

Michelle Van Noy is the Director of the Education and Employment Research Center at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She has over 20 years of experience conducting research on education and workforce. Her research includes studies of technician education, community college noncredit education, student decision making about majors and careers, quality in non-degree credentials, higher education labor market alignment, and effective practices in workforce education. 

Before joining EERC, Dr. Van Noy conducted research on community college workforce education at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers and the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has experience conducting large-scale national evaluations in education and workforce development from her previous work at Mathematica Policy Research. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology and education from Columbia University, a M.S. in public policy from Rutgers, and a B.A. in psychology and Spanish from Rutgers.

Genevive Bjorn holds a doctorate in education from Johns Hopkins University, focusing on online learning and mixed methods research methods. Her research interests center on the intersection of higher education, online teaching and learning, science, and equity. Before doctoral research, Genevive taught secondary chemistry at Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, CA. She received an NSF Noyce teaching fellowship in 2013 and won a national teaching award in 2017 from the National Association of Science Teachers. She was also a science journalist and regular contributor to Nature Medicine, and her work has appeared in Nature, Science, The New York Times, and many others. She also received a Knight journalism fellowship in 2011. She has authored and co-authored dozens of publications. Currently, she teaches scientific writing in the COMET program at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

Genevive earned her M.Ed. from the University of California San Diego, M.S. in biomedical sciences from the University of Hawaii, and B.A. in biology and chemistry from Boston University. 

Tracy Cangiano is a Program Coordinator at EERC. As such, she is responsible for program and project coordination and administration. Tracy has a B.A. from Rutgers University.

Victoria Coty is a Research Project Coordinator for the Education and Employment Research Center. A graduate of Rutgers University with a Bachelors of Arts in Statistics and Sociology, Victoria completed an honors thesis using nationally representative data to explore the relationship between extracurricular engagement, postsecondary aspirations, and educational attainment. She presented her work and was awarded the Henry Rutgers Scholars Award, given to recognize outstanding senior theses. Victoria is currently pursuing an Ed.M in Educational Statistics, Measurement, and Evaluation from Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education. In her role at EERC, Victoria continues to explore the factors that influence educational choices and success while assisting with the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the center’s ongoing work.

Daniel Douglas is a Senior Researcher at the Rutgers University’s Education and Employment Research Center. He is the center’s specialist in experimental and quasi-experimental design, as well as quantitative evaluation methods. At EERC, he is currently working on two grants from the US Department of Education’s First in the World Program. Daniel earned his PhD in Sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2017. His current research projects examine developmental mathematics in postsecondary education, connections between higher education and employment, and student progress through STEM fields of study. His research has appeared in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, The Journal of Higher Education, American Educational Research Journal, and The Sociological Quarterly. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, CNBC, and The Hechinger.

Maria L. Espino is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education Administration Program in the School of Education. Her dissertation is exploring how Latin* first-generation, low-income early college high school graduates are transitioning to a four-year institution. She obtained her Master's degree in Educational Policy and Leadership at Marquette University and her Bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a double major in Community and Nonprofit Leadership and Gender and Women studies. As a qualitative researcher, I explore (in)equities in higher education particularly focusing on the experiences of marginalized students. As a scholar and a student advocate,  she believes that it is important to not only conduct research, it is crucial to humanize, empower, and support the community.

Eliza Peterson is a Research Analyst for the Education and Employment Research Center. She is a graduate of the Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences, earning her B.A. in American Studies in 2022. Her senior thesis “‘Meet Me Behind the Mall’: Reassessing the Social and Cultural Value of the American Shopping Mall” earned the Henry Rutgers Scholar Award and departmental honors. A portion of her thesis was published in the Aresty Rutgers Undergraduate Research Journal. In 2023, she earned her M.Ed. in Secondary Social Studies Education. Eliza has been on the EERC team since June 2020, where she has contributed to several studies and evaluations on topics like student decision making, workforce programs, and other topics within the world of community college education. Her research interests lie at the intersections between K-12 education, community colleges, workforce programming, and labor. 

Radha Roy Biswas is a regional development and public policy researcher by background, with a focus on higher education and workforce development, particularly on the evolving role of community colleges, workforce intermediaries and regional development studies. After acquiring her Master’s Degree in Economic Development studies from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, she worked in Boston, USA. She has a range of published academic papers and reports to her credit. In addition to her work in the USA, she has provided evaluation services for an Indo-US academic leadership summit for the World Bank & USEFI funded Obama-Singh Knowledge Initiative, conducted a commissioned study on international skills migration for the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and authored thought pieces for the Wadhwani Foundation for their Race To A Jobs Initiative - a bi-nodal skilling and employment project undertaken in the USA and India. Her recent interests include the role of edutech and jobtech in skill development.

After 15 years in the USA, she is currently based between the USA and India. She has a keen interest in reading, in Indian and western music, has published various essays and articles, and enjoys writing for, and putting up performances with children.

Sam Scovill is a researcher at the Rutgers University’s Education and Employment Research Center. They are currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Sociology at University of Arizona where they teach classes on social movements, Internet qualitative research, and popular culture. Their primary research areas are in social movements and young people’s politics with a focus on digital political engagement. They are currently working on their dissertation, which looks at how young people’s (18–24) social positionality shapes how they define politics and come to adopt political identities. Prior to graduate school they were a program and administrative assistant at Community Action Youth & Workforce Development Programs where they developed an interest in youth workforce development.

Anjali Srivastava is a Researcher at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey’s Education and Employment Research Center (EERC). She is currently working on EERC’s State Noncredit Data Project as well as research and evaluation projects studying technical education and apprenticeships. Her research experience encompasses utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods in academic and nonprofit organizational settings. She earned her Ph.D. in Planning and Public Policy and M.A. in Sociology from Rutgers and B.A. from University of Chicago, majoring in Sociology.

Delande is an Economics and Labor Studies double major. He has a strong interest in economic research and hopes to use his skills to spread economic prosperity to all type of people in a variety of ways. 

Justin is a doctoral student at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. His primary research areas are in labor and employment relations and organizational structure, and include the topics of labor-management partnership, collaborative work arrangements, high performance work systems, and the changing role of middle management. He also approaches his research with a policy lens as his current projects take place in public education and healthcare settings. He works at the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers, studying workforce development programs in community colleges across the US.

Justin is the recipient of the Baden-Württemberg Scholarship to study at the University of Konstanz’s Department of Politics and Public Administration. In addition to working on numerous projects, he is co-writing a review of Robert B. McKersie’s recent book, A Field in Flux: Sixty Years of Industrial Relations, which will be published in LERA’s latest Perspectives on Work volume. He was also co-organizer of the first annual Industrial Relations PhD Student Conference held at Cornell ILR, involving doctoral students from Rutgers SMLR, MIT Sloan, and Cornell ILR.

Dr. Elisabeth Barnett is a Research Affiliate with the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University. She also serves as Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University and is a Professor of Practice with the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership at Kansas State University. Dr. Barnett’s research interests relate to workforce education, access to college, student assessment and placement, college culture, student supports, and dual enrollment. Dr. Barnett has authored or co-authored research reports, book chapters, and articles on a wide range of related topics. Dr. Barnett received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Educational Organization and Leadership with a focus on higher education.

Peter Bahr serves as Associate Professor in the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. Dr. Bahr is a nationally recognized scholar and expert on community colleges, student outcomes, and economic mobility. His research focuses on students’ pathways into and through community colleges and other sub-baccalaureate institutions, and then into the workforce or onto four-year postsecondary institutions. His current work is funded by federal and foundation grants encompassing investigations of how to improve education and labor market outcomes of students in postsecondary career and technical education, including short-term skills-building programs, longer-term credential programs, and stackable credential pathways; research illuminating how noncredit workforce education programs are being utilized by community colleges and the education and labor market outcomes that students in noncredit programs are experiencing; studies seeking to strengthen STEM pathways from community colleges to universities; and research on optimizing developmental education reform in community colleges.

Debra D. Bragg is President of Bragg and Associates, Inc., an equity-minded consulting group dedicated to advancing student success in education and employment. During her career, she founded two community college research centers, Community College Research Initiatives at the University of Washington in Seattle (2016-2020) and the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1989-2015) where she is Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor emerita. Dr. Bragg’s research focuses on transitions to and through education to employment. She has led national studies on a wide range of P-20 education policies, including developmental education, career-technical education and career pathways, transfer (vertical and reverse credit), and community college baccalaureates.  .

Dr. Bragg uses quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand how different levels of change and innovation are working to enhance student success, including student, program, institution, system, state, and national levels. Dr. Bragg has an extensive resume, including books, journal articles, briefs, and blogs in major media outlets. In 2015 she was named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and Dr. Bragg received the Distinguished Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) in 2016. In 2019, Dr. Bragg was honored with the national Transfer Champion Award from the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students (NISTS).

Dr. Bragg received a BS degree in secondary teaching from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MS and PhD degrees from The Ohio State University, with specializations in postsecondary and adult education, public policy, and program evaluation.

Mark D’Amico is a Professor of Higher Education at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research occurs at the intersection of community college student success and workforce development. Mark is currently Co-PI on a project with the Rutgers Education and Employment Research Center funded by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES-NSF) to study the community college noncredit data infrastructure. He is a Past-President of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges and former Associate Editor of Community College Review.  Prior to his faculty role, Mark served in administrative positions with the South Carolina Technical College System, Midlands Technical College, Francis Marion University, and UNC Charlotte.

Monica Reid Kerrigan is a Professor in the Educational Services and Leadership Department at Rowan University, where she teaches courses on higher education policy, community colleges, and research methods in the Educational Leadership EdD program and the PhD in Education program. She also serves as the coordinator of the Rowan University Community College Leadership Initiative (CCLI).

Her research interests include institutional structures and public policies that influence the transition of historically marginalized students into and through higher education and into the labor market. She also explores the research methods that support inquiry into students’ access to and success in postsecondary education.  She has published in academic journals and edited volumes including The Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, American Behavioral Scientist.

She is also co-owner of Kerrigan Reid LLC, a firm focused on employee benefits and educational consulting.

Bill has 20 years of experience in using longitudinal administrative data to study the employment and economic effects of education and workforce development policies and programs. Much of his work has focused on evaluating the effectiveness policy initiatives and programs that support community colleges and the public workforce system. In addition, Bill specializes in building user-friendly data visualizations based on these data.To deliver the results of his analyses, Bill has authored numerous studies and built practical tools for data visualization.

Corey Moss-Pech is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the department of Sociology at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD from The Ohio State University. His research examines the intersection between work and education, and how experiences in, and attitudes toward, both work and school shape labor market and gender inequality.

Corey is currently writing a book on inequality in the college-to-work transition and collecting data on how early career work experiences shape young professionals’ career ambitions.

Dr. Faye-Marie Vassel is a native of NYC and received her B.S. from SUNY Stony Brook University where she studied biochemistry and Russian studies. Following her undergraduate studies at Stony Brook University Faye-Marie went on to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received her Ph. D. in cancer biology. Faye-Marie’s doctoral research was focused on better elucidating how DNA-damage response mechanisms modulate chemotherapeutic resistance in drug-resistant lung cancer.

Faye-Marie is currently a 2019-2021 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow and has had the opportunity to work as an evaluability and research synthesis fellow helping her host agency better understand the evolving nature of the STEM education research funding landscape. Faye-Marie’s time as a AAAS fellow has been incredibly rewarding and given her greater insight into critical issues of equity, access, and inclusion of great importance to the STEM education research community. In  Fall 2021 Faye-Marie will start a STEM Equity and Inclusion research fellowship at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. In the long term, Faye-Marie aims to pursue academic tenure track faculty positions where she can develop a research career focused on identifying and better understanding social and structural determinants impacting access to quality and equitable STEM educational opportunities. By conducting research of this nature, Faye-Marie hopes to help reduce the educational disparities still present in the academic trajectories of many STEM learners.