GTAP Advisory Group

Gloria J. Ashaolu

Gloria J. Ashaolu is a doctoral student in the Department of History at Michigan State University. Through her academic studies and community engagements, and commitment to a career of learning, teaching, research, advocacy, and servant-leadership, Gloria aspires to create and engage with meaningful work that helps us better understand the present through our collective history, coupled with effective, innovative, and educational instructional practices that have a transformative effect. She also enjoys exploring new places, cooking, outdoor activities, reading, and spending time with friends and family.

Hima Rawal

Hima Rawal is a doctoral candidate in Second Language Studies. She earned her MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Michigan State University and M.Ed. in English Education from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. She was a Fulbright fellow for her MA in TESOL program. She has served as a graduate student representative in the College of Arts and Letters’ College Graduate Committee, College Curriculum Committee, and College Advisory Council. She has volunteered in teaching English to immigrant youth and adults at Lansing Public library, Capital Area Literacy Center, and the Refugee Development Center’s GLOBE program. Her research interests are teacher professional development, trauma-informed teaching, learner and teacher emotions, and humanizing research and pedagogy in linguistically diverse classroom settings. Currently, she is working as a Graduate Assistant with Dr. Stefanie Baier at the Graduate School.

Contact: rawalhim@msu.edu

Arya Gupta

Arya Gupta is a doctoral student at Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University. His current research interests include Distributed Systems, Graph Theory, Theoretical Computer Science. He loves teaching Mathematics and Computer Science. With prior service for teaching assignments (as a TA) for three years, he is serving as a TA with CSE at MSU for more than one year (3 semesters).

Contact: atgupta@msu.edu

Seth Hunt

Seth Hunt is a doctoral student in Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University.  He previously earned his M.S. in Water Science at Murray State University and worked as a preceptor with the Interdisciplinary Science Learning Laboratories at the University of Delaware.  His research combines traditional aquatic ecological field work with discipline-based education research.  Seth is studying the factors that influence the movement of dissolved nutrients in rivers while also working to understand how students employ systems thinking skills when reasoning with nutrient cycling models.  He has served as a graduate teaching assistant for both majors and non-majors introductory biology courses as well as upper-level courses for biology majors.

Contact: huntseth@msu.edu

Tianyi (Titi) Kou-Herrema

Tianyi (Titi) Kou-Herrema is a doctoral candidate in the German Program in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at MSU. Her research focuses primarily on the ways in which the sociological phenomenon of football influences national identity in Germany in the digital age. She is interested in integrating computational techniques into humanities research and is currently working with the Computational Humanities Team at Leipzig University in Germany. Titi is also a passionate teacher who has taught German language courses including GRM 101, 102, 202, and 325. In Spring 2022, she is offering a new course -- GRM 291, Soccer and Society.

Contact: koutiany@msu.edu

Chase Bruggeman

Chase Bruggeman is starting his 4th year as a Chemical Engineering PhD student with Dr. Hickey. He is from Lake Zurich, Illinois (near Chicago), and he completed his undergraduate studies (Chemistry and German double major) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also became Catholic. He worked in the flavor industry for three years after undergrad before coming to Michigan State. His favorite foods include barbecue ribs and fondue. When not actively doing research, Chase enjoys reading, bike riding, doing calculus, and swing dancing.

Samara Chamoun

Samara Chamoun is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the department of Mathematics at MSU, with a specialization in Control Theory. She is an international student from Lebanon and has earned her master's degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics in Lebanon, and her bachelor's degree in Pure Mathematics there.

Education and Professional development opportunities are strong passions of hers, as she is always trying to find ways to grow as an educator and a person. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, and visiting new places.

Contact: chamouns@msu.edu

Sewwandi Abeywardana

Sewwandi Abeywardana

Contact: Info comming soon.

Former Advisory Group Members

Ellen Searle, 2021-2023

Funmi Ayeni

Dr. Oyesola Oluwafunmilayo Ayeni, 2020-2022

Alexandra Lee

Alexandra Lee, 2020-2022

April Athnos

April Athnos, 2020-2022

Blake Ginsburg, 2020-2022

Nathalie Marihno, 2019-2021