PURPOSE Fellows are matched with a FAMU or FSU faculty mentor with whom they will work on multiple projects throughout the year. Mentors will work closely with fellows as they develop and implement their independent research projects. Fellows will further develop their research experience through research apprenticeships on mentors’ ongoing projects.
PURPOSE Scholars join PURPOSE with a faculty mentor, usually from their university, who supports their learning throughout the program.
Below is a complete list of PURPOSE faculty mentors (asterisks indicate faculty who are not accepting fellows in 2026).
To read in-depth bios of our leadership team, please visit our FSU and FAMU Principal Investigator (PI) pages.
| Mentor | Department/Program | Institution | Research Interests | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peggy Auman* | Elementary Education | FAMU | Instructional design process and how it relates to learning in young children; alternative assessment procedures; and measuring teaching effectiveness | Site |
| Cameron Beatty | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies/Higher Education | FSU | Racial Battle Fatigue for undergraduate Black and Latinx Students | Site |
| Tamara Bertrand Jones | Education Policy, Organization and Leadership | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Influences on socialization during graduate education and the professional experiences of underrepresented populations, particularly Black women, in academia; culturally responsive assessment and evaluation | Site |
| Chiquita Brown | Psychology | FAMU | Factors in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, including workplace culture, team cohesion, productivity, bullying, the impact of AI, and how working affects academics | Site |
| Cheron H. Davis | Elementary Education | FAMU | HBCU teacher preparation, pre-service teacher self-efficacy, interdisciplinary literacy practices, early childhood reading interventions | Site |
| Kristine Fleming | Health, Physical Education and Recreation | FAMU | Mixed method approaches; health and leisure behaviors; work-life balance; life satisfaction among college students and faculty at HBCUs; social justice and culturally responsive teaching practices at HBCUs | Site |
| Brittany Griffin* | Psychology | FAMU | Afrikan-centered pedagogy, questioning and challenging antiquated and oppressive systems that cause harm, racism-related stress, rest as a form of resistance, work-life balance, and cyber and Black folx | Site |
| Rasheda Haughbrook* | Psychology | FSU | Genetic and environmental influences on whole-child development using behavioral genetic and family design techniques; how contextual factors moderate the etiology of developmental outcomes related to academic achievement and mental health. | Site |
| Sherelle Harmon | Psychology | FSU | Child and adolescent psychopathology, emotion regulation, executive functions, irritability, anxiety, mood disorders, transdiagnostic approaches, evidence-based practice | Site |
| Flor del Cielo Hernandez | Music Therapy | FSU | Mental health and music education, with particular attention to the intersections of music, emotion regulation, and well-being across diverse populations | Site |
| Meiyah Hill | Assistant Program Director, Educational Talent Search | University of Akron | HBCUs, Black Greek life, higher education, student success, higher education leadership, | Site |
| Lama Jaber | School of Teacher Education/Science Education | FSU | Learner engagement in scientific inquiry in different contexts; and learners’ emotions during engagement | Site |
| Mario Jackson | Educational Leadership & Policy Studies | FSU | Qualitative methodologies to study principal preparation for leading equity and social justice; crisis leadership of school leaders; school improvement/reform efforts; and educational policies that impact K-12 schools. | Site |
| Leona Johnson | Educational Psychology | FAMU | Classroom dynamics and the classroom learning environment (primarily from the student’s voice); factors which influence the classroom learning environment and classroom dynamics such as: culture and learning, online and face-to-face learning, sleep deprivation and learning, stress and learning, group dynamics, student learning preferences, innovative teaching strategies, teacher characteristics, and social media and learning. | Site |
| Dashana Lane | Psychology | Bethune Cookman University | Radical healing, Black feminism, and the unique experiences of Black women and Black girls in and out of school settings and higher education | Site |
| Rhea Lathan | English/Rhetoric and Composition | FSU | Literate and rhetorical history of women of African descent; development of literacy, and delivery systems for the teaching of writing; community based critical intellectualism; identity politics and social historical activism; and critical race theory in rhetoric and composition | Site |
| Huijun Li | School Psychology | FAMU | Psychobiosocial factors related to mental health, such as culture specific beliefs about causes of mental illness, stigma, barriers to services, and physiological stresses among adolescents (middle and high school students in particular) from diverse backgrounds; School staff knowledge of mental illness and its impact on student learning; Using mobile health technology to characterize risk and protective factors of student mental health and school learning, and to improve student cognition (memory, attention, and processing speed in particular) | Site |
| Danny Moraguez | Educational Leadership and Administration | FSU | Leadership for equity and social justice in K-12 schools, culturally sustaining education, principal preparation, and instructional technologies | Site |
| Tehila Nugiel | Psychology | FSU | Developmental cognitive neuroscience, brain function in children, developmental difficulties, and academic and mental health outcomes. | Site |
| Lara Perez-Felkner | Higher Education and Sociology | FSU | Dr. Perez-Felkner’s research uses developmental and sociological perspectives to examine the mechanisms that shape entry into and persistence in institutions and fields in which individuals have traditionally been underrepresented. In particular, she investigates racial-ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic disparities in post-secondary educational attainment and entry to scientific career fields. | Site |
| Laura Reid Marks | Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine | FSU | Minority stressors (e.g., racism, microaggressions, sizeism) and effects on the lives of adults from marginalized groups (e.g., people of color, women). Two major strands of Dr. Marks research are (1) health disparities in people of color (microaggressions, mental health, and alcohol-related behaviors) and (2) career and professional development issues. | Site |
| Keith Rivero | Secondary Teacher Education | FAMU | Cognitive development of students as they grapple with the intricacies of our contemporary world and developed into well-informed, empathetic, and caring global citizens; innovative, inquiry-based curriculum and issues-centered teaching methods that highlight the importance and benefits of incorporating authenticity as part of everyday classroom instruction. | Site |
| Serena Roberts* | Office of Student Services/Center for Academic Success | FAMU | Institutional research for FAMU and the FAMU College of Education; student progression, persistence and retention | Site |
| Alysia Roehrig | Educational Psychology and Learning Systems/Learning and Cognition | FSU | Effective teaching; teacher professional development; student literacy learning and motivation | Site |
| Gwendolyn Singleton | Neuropsychology | FAMU | Efficacy of cognitive and behavior-based interventions in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression; relationships among stress, blood pressure, cortisol, and interleukin-6 (IL-6); impact of stress management intervention on the recovery response to neuropsychological rehabilitation; and relationships among perceived stress, perceived racism, cultural identity, stress biomarkers (cortisol and IL-6) and health outcomes | Site |
| Neico Slater-Sa-Ra | Psychology | FAMU | Dr. Slater Sa-Ra’s research interests include decolonizing science, rites of passage, African-Centered education, spirituality as a psychotherapeutic model, and racial identity development. | Site |
| Novell Tani | Psychology | FAMU | How African-American males face adversities from social and cultural influences; teachers’ perceptions of students from varying demographic backgrounds and the possible effects of perception on students’ academic development | Site |
| Amy S. Thompson | School of Teacher Education | FSU | Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition and the interaction of these IDs and multilingualism, language learning in Anglophone contexts, and a variety of other variables involved in language learning, teaching, and leadership in academia | Site |
| Jeannine Turner | Educational Psychology and Learning Systems/Learning and Cognition | FSU | Motivation, emotions, and self-regulation within learning endeavors | Site |
