Dr. Robin Andreasen, Co-Director
Professor, Linguistics and Cognitive Science
Robin Andreasen is a Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science and of Philosophy at the University of Delaware (UD). She earned her PhD in philosophy and specializes in philosophy of science (biological and social). She is a co-PI on UD’s ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant. Her current research focus is on diversity in the academic workforce. She is also well known for her work in the philosophy of race and gender. She is on the editorial board of journal Critical Philosophy of Race and was the editor for a special edition of the journal The Monist. Dr. Andreasen was an active participant in University of Delaware’s ADVANCE PAID grant and continues to devote her time to projects that aim to improve the advancement women and under-represented faculty at UD.
Dr. Heather Doty, Co-Director
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Heather Doty is an associate professor of mechanical engineering. She earned her Ph.D. in physics at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she studied the electronic properties of semiconductor heterostructures at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. She worked as a patent examiner specializing in semiconductor devices before coming to UD. As co-PI and UD ADVANCE Faculty Associate to the Provost, Dr. Doty is primarily responsible for overseeing ADVANCE activities that directly impact faculty (e.g., faculty workshops and panels). Dr. Doty advises UD’s Women in Engineering Graduate Student Steering Committee and is a member of the College of Engineering’s Diversity Committee and the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment’s Diversity Committee. She is the 2017 recipient of UD’s Trabant Award for Women’s Equity. Dr. Doty conducts research on diversifying the academic STEM workforce and teaches classes that apply physics concepts (thermodynamics and classical mechanics) to engineering applications.
Dr. Shawna Vican, Research Director
Assistant Professor, Sociology and Criminal Justice
Shawna Vican is a sociologist who studies processes of organizational and institutional change, with a particular focus on the adoption and implementation of new employment practices and corporate social behaviors. Across her research, Shawna seeks to understand how organizational practices, managerial behavior, and workplace culture shape individual career outcomes as well as broader patterns of labor market inequality. Shawna received her Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University and was previously a Research Fellow at Catalyst Inc.
Dr. Yvette Jackson, Senior Researcher
Yvette Jackson – Ph.D., is Professor Emerita, Organic Chemistry, of The University of the West Indies (UWI), with research interests in the synthesis and chemistry of bioactive heterocyclic compounds and their analogues. Her most recent appointment at The UWI was as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Graduate Studies, with responsibility for graduate education across all campuses of the university. Professor Jackson joined the UD Advance Institute in September 2017.
Dr. Pam Cook, Founding Principal Investigator (PI)
Unidel Professor of Mathematical Sciences
Pam Cook (-Ioannidis) is UNIDEL Professor of Mathematical Sciences. She recently stepped down from her role as Associate Dean for Faculty in the College of Engineering. Dr Cook received her PhD in applied mathematics at Cornell University. She received a N.A.T.O. Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. She joined the math faculty at UCLA, where she received tenure. She has since been at UD, where she served as mathematics department chair for nine years. Her research has been in modeling, asymptotics, and nonlinear partial differential equations, particularly as relevant to transonic aerodynamics and complex (viscoelastic) fluids. Dr. Cook is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). She has served as editor-in-chief of the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics (SIAP), as elected secretary of SIAM, as vice president for publications of SIAM, and as president of SIAM. She has received the national WEPAN (Women Engineers ProActive Network) University Change Agent Award, the UD Trabant Award, and the UD Torch Award for her work in supporting, and increasing the number of, STEM women faculty at UD.
Former Team Members
John Sawyer, former Co-PI
Professor of Management
Dr. John Sawyer (Ph.D. University of Illinois) is Professor of Management in the Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics and former Associate Provost, Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at the University of Delaware. Sawyer’s research has focused on science and technology management, organizational-technology systems, and negotiations. As associate provost he worked to assure accessibility, transparency and usefulness of data and information for institutional decision-making.