The STEP^MT Management Team

Dean Thomas J. Cheatham, will be responsible for the overall management of the STEP^MT project. Dr. Cheatham has extensive experience organizing and managing grants. The co-PIs, all of whom will participate as master mentors, will assist with the decision-making and implementation. An Advisory Board consisting of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Vice Provost for Research, a STEM department chair, a STEM faculty member, Chair of the CBAS Undergraduate Research Council, and an industry partner CEO, will set the strategic direction for the project team.

The STEP^MT team will also include an independent outside evaluator who will measure and report the project's success in achieving its goals and objectives. These evaluations are important not only for documenting the success of the project, but also for developing the plan of reproducing the results at other similar institutions. And a half-time administrator will be hired to arrange and manage the UR grant program, the faculty reassignment program, the summer internship and REU program, and the training program for laboratory interns. This person will report to the PI but will assist the co-PIs too.

	Dr. Thomas J. Cheatham is the dean of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, an award-winning teacher, and a strong advocate for UR and mentoring activities. Dr. Cheatham has participated in over three million dollars in grants for projects that directly impact the success of students over the last three years, including the McNair Scholars grant program, the Student Support Services grant program, the Talent Search grant program, NSF CSEMS grant program, and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation grant program. Along with his years of successful mentoring and mentor training, Dr. Cheatham brings expertise in grant management and the clout of the Dean's office to assist in resolving problems. He has published often with undergraduate co-authors, even since becoming Dean of CBAS.
	Dr. William M. Robertson is an Associate Professor of Physics and chair of the CBAS Undergraduate Research Council. Dr. Robertson has had experience and success at crafting a competitive, funded research program with undergraduates as active and meaningful participants. Most of his UR collaborators have first or co-author status on refereed journal articles. His students have won many awards and a number have gained acceptance into nationally ranked graduate programs. In addition to his own significant skills in mentoring physics students, Dr. Robertson will train colleagues on how to select good projects for undergraduates. His experience from the recent UR pilot project in the MTSU Department of Physics and Astronomy will be very useful to the project team and the success of STEPMT.
	Dr. Andrienne C. Friedli is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and has been a change agent in her department, involving the MTSU SAACS chapter in the initiation of several research-stimulating activities including Golden Goggles Lecture, Demomania, introduction to UR, travel to national and regional ACS meetings, and NCUR meetings. She participated in the CBAS CUR, the MTSU Applied Research Task Force and URSCA, Project Kaleidoscope, CUR, and ACS, and was part of the team that attended the CUR Institute. She also led the recent team efforts to obtain a high field student-friendly NMR instrument, and atomic force microscopy equipment. Her research interests are in the area of organic materials chemistry, and she has presented and/or published with 32 students, most of them undergraduates.
	Dr. Ginger H. Rowell, Associate Professor of Statistics, has a strong record of integrating students into a variety of research projects, mentoring 24 students whose work led to publication and/or presentation since 1999. She utilized her own statistical research for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center as an opportunity to engage five undergraduates in research funded by NASA. She is a nationally known statistics educator who has successfully integrated activity- and discovery-based teaching methods into her lower level statistics courses. She has also mentored a very large class project with over 70 students during two semesters whose work has been both presented and published in a peer reviewed journal. She has given national presentations helping faculty learn how to integrate discovery-based learning into classes. Dr. Rowell is highly regarded in the Mathematics Department for her excellence in teaching, mentoring and research. Furthermore, her expertise in statistics will be invaluable to the project team as the team evaluates its progress in retention.
	Megan R. Hall, STEPMT Coordinator Ms. Hall graduated from MTSU with a degree in Applied Mathematics, Statistics Track in 2005. During her course of study, Ms. Hall participated in numerous undergraduate research projects under the guidance of Dr. Ginger Rowell. Her most notable endeavors are her URSCA project "National Science Foundation and Undergraduate Statistics Education" and her assistance with the NSF grant "CAUSEweb.org," a national digital library for statistics education. Ms. Hall brings statistical as well as administrative and accounting experience to the STEPMT team.
	Dr. Kathy Whatley, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for Natural Sciences and Professor of Physics at UNC Asheville will server as the independent outside evaluator. She will measure and report the project's success in achieving its goals and objectives. Dr. Whatley has extensive experience with UR, shown by her leadership roles in CUR since 1989 and with her many project and departmental evaluations.
Brad Rudnik will serve as the Interim STEPMT Coordinator.