Bruk Berhane
Principal Investigator | Ph.D.
Bruk Berhane is an assistant professor of engineering education at Florida International University’s new SUCCEED school. His research interests include exploring the community college to four year college process for engineering students, and developing a broader understanding of the entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering programs. Dr. Berhane previously served as director of undergraduate recruitment in the A. James Clark School of Engineering, where he helped build partnerships with Maryland community colleges.
Sharon Fries- Britt
Co-Principal Investigator | Ph.D.
Sharon Fries-Britt is a Professor of Higher Education at the University of Maryland, College Park in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education (CHSE). Her research examines the experiences of high achieving Blacks in higher education and underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEM fields. Recent work examines within group experiences of native and non-native Blacks in higher education.
Darryll Pines
Co-Principal Investigator | Ph.D.
Darryll J. Pines has served as dean and the Nariman Farvardin Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Clark School since January 2009. He first arrived in 1995 as an assistant professor and later served as chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering from 2006 to 2009.
Shannon Hayes
Co-Principal Investigator | M.A.
Shannon Hayes is the Assistant Director for Transfer Student Advising & Admissions in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. She is also currently a PhD candidate in the Higher Education Program at UMD. Her research interests focus on community college transfer students, pre-transfer advising, transfer student adjustment, and the role of self-efficacy.
Danielle Koonce
Graduate Assistant | M.A.
Felicia Onuma
Graduate Assistant | M.A.
Felicia Onuma is a Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests center around the enrollment, retention, and intersectional experiences of Black students in STEM fields and the precollege backgrounds of Black immigrant collegians attending private elite institutions.
Peter Chun
Undergraduate Assistant
Peter Chun is currently studying Computer Science at the University of Maryland. He took a Robotics Service-Learning course that exposed to him many contemporary issues in STEM education, prompting an interest to join the BEST Pathways team in Summer of 2019