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So excited to join the School of Education as a tenure track Assistant Professor, Fall 2024. Brought on to be an inclusive STEM researcher, I will continue in analyzing data collected from my 1st NSF grant as well as branch out with collaborators in and adjacent to my field.
...deemed worthy
First National Science Foundation Grant
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Those are two sweet words. I'm so excited that my project, The Young Black Girl: Influencing Science Interest and Commitment to STEM through the Merging of Lived Experiences of Learners in an Out-of-School Program is funded by NSF and hosted at The University of Georgia. This project will:
- Recruit Black girls in fourth through sixth grades with various levels of interest in STEM for participation in a summer camp.
- Examine connections between Black girls’ lived experiences and their interest in pursuing STEM careers.
- Increase the potential for young Black girls to pursue careers in STEM.
The project responds to the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2222509&HistoricalAwards=false
Heather Lavender, Selected as an SEC Emerging Scholar
https://www.lsu.edu/chse/education/news/secscholar.php
Baton Rouge, LA - PhD Science Education student, Heather Lavender, was recently selected as an SEC Emerging Scholar. When asked what she enjoyed most about the workshop, Lavender replied, “I felt that they [faculty] were honest and presented their authentic selves in answering the questions we asked.” Lavender also discussed with faculty the value of being selected as an SEC Scholar and her goals for the future in the SEC. Lavender says that in the future she hopes to be writing to the SEC Emerging Scholars Program with news of being an Assistant Professor, an Associate Professor, a Professor, and even perhaps a Chairman of her department.
Heather Lavender, a Shreveport native and first-generation college graduate, earned her BS in Microbiology from LSU and her MS in Microbiology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. While working as a researcher in a microbiology laboratory, Lavender often bridged her work in the lab to the K-12 community but did not know how to assess the educational aspect of what she was doing. Since she loved her work, Lavender brought her concerns to the LSU Education Department, thinking she would just take one class. Lavender will graduate with her PhD in Science Education in December 2021.
Lavender’s research interests include women in STEM careers, visual presentation through propaganda of STEM to marginalized populations, and the stories of women in STEM. She is also interested in the development of the elementary age child’s science identity, through science exposure and experiences in the science classroom, particularly with emphases on girls of color.
Lavender has a message for aspiring graduate students: “Go for it! Stay focused. Get in touch with other graduate students and develop your village. Be patient. Don’t rush this process because it is not an easy one. Assess what you don’t know and seek ways to not be in a status of not knowing. Be honest with yourself in what you don’t know and make a path to change that status."
