Project Team

TIDeS Leadership

Anne Egger

PI, Central Washington University

Anne Egger is a professor with a joint appointment in Geological Sciences and Science and Mathematics Education at Central Washington University. Her teaching includes introductory Earth science courses for future elementary and middle school teachers, and she mentors undergraduate and graduate students in education research. As a co-PI on the InTeGrate project, she helped design the rigorous, collaborative curriculum development process used in TIDeS. She is also the Executive Director of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT), and has led dozens of professional development workshops for faculty through NAGT.

Project role: Dr. Egger manages the overall project, mentors and manages the Science Education Specialists, manages materials development teams, and leads project-wide events (e.g. face-to-face workshops and advisory board meetings).


Anthony Carpi

co-PI, John Jay College-CUNY

Anthony Carpi is a Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Associate Provost for Research and Professional Studies at John Jay College of the City University of New York. He has taught a variety of introductory undergraduate science courses, and mentors undergraduate and graduate students in science research. He has focused the last 20 years of his career on developing programs and learning materials that support under-served populations, and broadening diversity in STEM fields.

Project Role: Anthony leads the project components at Visionlearning, including hiring of editors, authors, managing content creation, infrastructure redesign, and assuring compliance of all materials with Visionlearning's standards and goals.


Ellen Iverson

co-PI, SERC

Dr. Iverson oversees the evaluation team at SERC and manages aspects of the project related to Serckit tools for data collection and website dissemination. Iverson consults with Egger and Carpi on assessment activities conducted by the SES and Visionlearning. Iverson brings experience in evaluating more than 35 science education projects in faculty development, student learning, broadening participation, and website evaluation, including the InTeGrate STEP Center on which this project is modeled.

Project Role: Ellen leads the external evaluation of the project, including hiring of assessment consultants, assuring compliance of all materials with curriculum standards and goals, and assessing project success against proposed goals and objectives through a mixed-method approach.


TIDeS Team Members


Carl Avidano

UX Designer, City of New York

Carl Avidano is a Senior UX Designer for the City of New York. His primary focus is front-end development and accessible best-practices. In addition, Carl oversees the design of mobile apps for citywide services.

Carl is also the owner of Avidano Digital, where he designs and develops websites and other digital marketing materials for nonprofit and conservation organizations around the world.

Project Role: Carl will lead the user experience design and front-end development for the project. This will include providing guidance and support for digital accessibility and inclusivity.


Brittany Bartoli

Operations Manager, Visionlearning

Brittany Bartoli is a digital-focused Project Manager with a decade of experience overseeing creative, technical and communications-driven projects in the private sector. Some of her recent projects include managing the redesign and development of the websites for The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund website and L'Arche USA. Brittany is passionate about creating and implementing processes that facilitate the collaborative development of digital content using UI/UX best practices.

Project Role: Brittany will work with the Visionlearning team to coordinate the hiring of authors and editors, the development of new content and design changes made to the Visionlearning website.


Mitchell Bender-Awalt

Project Coordinator, SERC

Mitchell Bender-Awalt is a Project Coordinator at the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College. As part of SERC's Webteam, Mitchell works with PIs and project leaders to develop and disseminate web content, manage projects, and implement professional development. Mitchell's science education interests include teaching and learning in the field; justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion; and systemic/institutional change. Mitchell has a Master's degree in Geology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where he studied the metamorphism and deformation of oceanic lithosphere at convergent plate boundaries.

Project Role: Mitchell will work with TIDeS project leaders and team members to build the TIDeS website and support the use of web tools in development and promotion of instructional materials.


Devarati Bhattacharya

Science Education Specialist, Central Washington University

Devarati Bhattacharya is a Science Education Specialist in the Department of Science and Math Education at the Central Washington University. Building on her doctoral research in Science Education (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) where she analyzed secondary teachers' understanding about complex natural phenomena such as global climate change, her research encompasses Design-Based Research to develop, implement and assess STEM-curricula for supporting students' use of a data-driven approaches for in science investigations, particularly about the Earth's climate.

Project role: Through the TIDeS project Dr. Bhattacharya will support participating faculty in developing, implementing and assessing the effectiveness of undergraduate introductory courses that integrate equity, inclusion and diversity in their teaching of science.


Matthew Changar

Undergraduate researcher, Central Washington University

Matthew Changar is an undergraduate research assistant majoring in STEM Education and Geology at Central Washington University. For the past four years, Matthew has worked as an intern in the Science Education department doing everything from running community-centered math outreach to 3rd through 5th-graderobotics education. Matthew is finishing his undergraduate degree in the fall of 2021 and is hoping to continue his education in the coming years.

Project Role: Matthew is assisting Dr. Anne Egger, Dr. Devarati Bhattacharya, and Dr. Leighanna Hinojosa in pilot data collection.


Russ Demarest

Web Developer, Visionlearning

As a member of the Visionlearning team for twenty years Russ Demarest has been responsible for the design, development and administration of all aspects of the projects technology, including code base, database and server infrastructure. Working closely with the team to create new features and tools for our many users, he also works with designers and developers to bring their vision into the Visionlearning system.

Project role: Mr. Demarest will support the design, development and implementation of features into the Visionlearning system to support Next Generation Science Standards and other technology related to this project.


Leighanna Hinojosa

Science Education Specialist, Central Washington University

Leighanna Hinojosa is a Science Education Specialist in the Department of Science and Math Education at Central Washington University. She hasa dual Ph.D. degree in Learning Sciences and Human Development and Cognitive Science from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she conducted ethnographic research on learning and identity development in a museum-based community science program, and among undergraduate and k-12 students engaging in STEM outreach across multiple programs and disciplines. She is interested in how formal and informal learning environments structure learning and influence professional identity development in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), particularly for individuals from nondominant communities.

Project role: Dr. Hinojosa will assess and support participating faculty in developing and implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) of investigation and design, and culturally relevant pedagogy in STEM undergraduate introductory courses.