Erika Nadile
Erika M. Nadile (PhD), a biology education researcher by training, joined the Searle Center in September 2022 as the Assistant Director of STEM Education. Nadile earned her master’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (UMass Lowell), a university close to her hometown and her doctorate at Arizona State University. There she explored student and instructor perceptions of some of the most commonly used teaching practices (i.e., letting students ask and answer questions in class).
Prior to Searle, Erika was involved in enhancing the student experience in multiple ways at both UMass Lowell and ASU. Through research efforts, she contributed to expanding the knowledge base surrounding how motivation changes in introductory biology students, particularly, how first-generation college students from underrepresented backgrounds change in their motivation. While at ASU, she took a leading role contributing to the mission of supporting students, both graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty members by co-organizing a variety of initiatives and through teaching efforts. She facilitated a large virtual speaker series in collaboration with her early research mentor, Sara Brownell (PhD) and the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) to promote inclusion in academic biology spaces. Further, she re-imagined and co-facilitated a graduate student orientation for new teaching assistants while working in the Teaching Innovation Center (TIC). In addition, she also organized and facilitated the BioBridge Early Start Program for incoming Life Science students to promote a sense of awareness, community, and well-being. She had also re-imagined what being a teaching assistant online could be for an animal physiology course while collaborating with a team of teaching assistants when classes transitioned online.
She is thrilled to lead newly imagined initiatives to center equity in STEM and to make STEM more inclusive as part of national goals to drive Inclusive Excellence in STEM.