Speakers and Panelists

Toni Sauncy, Ph.D.
Prof. Toni Sauncy received the BS in Mathematics (magna cum laude), and then MS and PhD in Applied Physics at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. In the consecutive years, she served as assistant professor, research mentor and professor. She has devoted her professional career to the undergraduate physics community with a focus on undergraduate student professional development, leadership and service. Professor Sauncy has a history of proven leadership as demonstrated by her service on numerous collegiate and professional association committees, including those of APS, AIP and AAPT. In 2012 she became the director of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) -Education Division and Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society at the American Institute of Physics. She joined Texas Lutheran University in 2014 as the Chair of the Department of Physics.

Hope Beier, Ph.D.
Dr. Hope Beier has been a Research Biomedical Engineer in AFRL’s Optical Radiation Bioeffects Branch since November 2012. She serves as a principal investigator for efforts using advanced optical techniques to investigate the effects of directed energy (laser and radio frequency) on biology. In this time, she has been the principal investigator on three, three-year AFOSR grants: one to study the effects of THz radiation on biomolecules using low-frequency Raman scattering, a second to examine the thermodynamic propagation in neuronal axons during action potentials and a third to explore the biomechanisms of infrared neural stimulation. Dr. Beier received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in 2009 from Texas A&M University. She joined AFRL in 2010 as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate.

Ginger Kerrick, M.S.
Ginger Kerrick, as a child, dreamed of growing up to be either a basketball player or an astronaut. When neither dream came to fruition, Ms. Kerrick developed a fresh perspective – best summed up by the phrase “It just wasn’t meant to be” – and is today part of NASA, serving in the Mission Control Center at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a Flight Director who has, to date, supported 13 International Space Station and five joint shuttle missions. It was there that Ms. Kerrick, a few years earlier, became the first non-astronaut Capsule Communicator (CapCom), the Flight Control position that relays information from Mission Control to an astronaut crew. Through her service in Mission Control, Ms. Kerrick shares in the experience of space travel; and while she may not be an astronaut, because of her support “each astronaut [is] taking a little piece of [her] with them.” But, it was only through hard work and perseverance that Ms. Kerrick arrived at this place, because to earn both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in physics she first had to win academic scholarships. For Ms. Kerrick, life is an adventure and a fulfillment of her childhood dreams best summed up in her own words: “I have no idea what is next for me, but I trust I will find myself exactly where I am supposed to be!”

Ruth Howes, Ph.D.
Prof. Howes received her Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University where C.S. Wu guided her dissertation work and has worked on research in nuclear physics and on strengthening undergraduate physics education as deputy chair of the National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics. She retired from Ball State University as the George and Francis Ball Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy and moved to Marquette University as Professor of Physics and Chair of the Physics Department. She left in 2008 and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband who grew up in Los Alamos. They have two daughters who both live in California. She has served as president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, president of the Indiana Academy of Science, program officer at the National Science Foundation, Foster fellow at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and a AAAS Congressional Fellow. She has recently been working on the history of women physicists who worked during and immediately after World War II.

Niescja Turner, Ph.D.
Dr. Niescja Turner holds the endowed Charles A. Zilker Professorship in Physics and Astronomy at Trinity University in San Antonio. Dr. Turner earned her bachelor’s in Physics at Rice University and her Ph.D. in Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was a staff scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, Finland before returning to the US as a faculty member at UT El Paso on the US-Mexico border, followed by 9 years as a faculty member at the Florida Institute of Technology. She is in her third year at Trinity, where her research interests involve space physics, including both the Earth’s magnetosphere and cometary processes, as well as space science education. She has a strong interest in issues of equity in STEM. Dr. Turner is a recipient of an NSF Career Award, a NASA Group Achievement Award, and the 2013 Joan Bixby Award for contributions for improving the climate for women.

ReAnna Roby, Ed.M.
ReAnna Roby is a graduate fellow at UTSA. Her research interest are in science education and sociology of education. Her research focuses on the lived experiences of women of color as scientist, Social Justice, Black Feminist Thought, Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Feminism, qualitative research methodology, and curriculum theory.

Eleanor Close, Ph.D.
Prof. Close is a professor at Texas State University. Her research interest is in physics and science education. She is a former high school teacher and her current research focuses on development of physics identity.

Yan Li, Ph.D.
Dr. Li received her B.Sc. from Peking University and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, and later at Brookhaven National Laboratory, before becoming a Staff Scientist in the Computational Science Center there. She has been working primarily on first-principles studies of ground- and excited-state properties of solids, nanostructures, and interfaces. Yan joined the American Physical Society in 2015 and is now an associate editor for Physical Review B. She will serve as an excellent moderator as she has been working outside of academia.

Haley Rico, B.B.A, B.A.
Haley Rico earned her BBA in Marketing and B.A. in Physics from UTSA. She founded Verify Markets 7 years ago, a market research and consulting firm specializing in Consumer Products, Industrial, Environmental, Energy, and Water markets. Haley serves as the Managing Partner. She will provide input on entrepreneurship, business formation, patents, corporate culture and branding strategy.

Laura McMaster B.Sc. and Angela Boulineau B.Sc.
Laura and Angela are both graduates of the undergraduate program in physics at UTSA. After receiving their B.Sc. in physics they have both began careers with Rackspace. Rackspace is a billion dollar corporation and ranked #1 in management of cloud based computing. Both of them areusing their skills they obtained while completing their physics degrees in their jobs as systems administrators.

Cynthia Lima, Ph.D.
Dr. Lima is a postdoctoral fellow in UTSA College of Education, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning. She has a B.S. in Physics from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research is in STEM education with a focus on assessments. She will be an excellent panelist based on her physics background and her regular interaction with teachers.

Diana Strickland, Ph.D.
Dr. Strickland received her doctorate from UTSA, an MS degree from Auburn University, and a BS degree from USMA at West Point. As a Sr. Research Scientist at Southwest Research Institute, she works on diverse projects involving theoretical development and applications of electromagnetics and synthetic composites such as metamaterials. She has spent her career in a not-for-profit research organization which utilizes here physics background.

E. Ann Nalley, Ph.D.
Prof. Nalley received a PhD from Texas Woman's University in 1975 and has spent her career on the chemistry faculty of Cameron University in Oklahoma where currently holds the Clarence E. Page Endowed Chair in Math and Science Education at CU and is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among her many other accomplishments. Most recently she served as President of the American Chemical Society in 2006. She is an advocate for mentoring at all levels.

Ashley Hicks, M.S.
Ashley is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Central Arkansas, teaching physical science for general education. She received my Master of Science in Engineering in August of 2015. In graduate school, her main research focus was on underwater sound isolation/absorption materials. In addition to acoustics and sound, she has a passion for science education and outreach.

Brandy Vincent, M.S.
Brandy is a recent graduate of Jackson State University where he received her M.Sc. degree in chemistry. Her research focused on use of computational methods such as density functional theory to model molecular structures. She has participated in many mentoring programs throughout her undergraduate and graduate career.

Brian Yust, Ph.D.
Prof. Yust is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley. Brian has great experience in peer mentoring and he has even more in interest in mentoring undergraduates through his research program which is developing at UT-Rio Grande Valley.

Christina Richey, Ph.D.
Dr. Richey is a Senior Scientist at Smart Data Solutions, LLC, working for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters. She received her undergraduate degree in Physics at Wheeling Jesuit University in 2004. She completed her Masters (2007) and PhD (2011) in Physics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where she did laboratory investigations related to both the icy moons of the outer solar system and the interstellar medium. Dr. Richey is the Deputy Science Advisor for SMD, where she compiles and distributes information about the Research and Analysis (R&A) awards from the SMD Divisions, and focuses on communication with the greater communities working directly with the SMD. Additionally, she is the Deputy Program Scientist in the Planetary Science Division (PSD) for the OSIRIS-REx Mission (the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security- Regolith Mission). OSIRIS-REx is scheduled for launch in 2016 and will travel to a near-Earth Asteroid, called Bennu and bring back a returned sample to Earth for study. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth. Currently as a Cross-Divisional Discipline Scientists, Dr. Richey is either the lead or a secondary Discipline Scientist for the Discovery Data Analysis Program, the Emerging Worlds Program, the Cross-Divisional Exoplanets Research Program, the Planetary Data, Archiving, Restoration, and Tools Program, and the Laboratory Astrophysics portion of the Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program. She is also an active blogger for the Women in Astronomy Blog. She was awarded the 2014 Special Service Award at NASA HQ for her work within the Planetary Science community, and was awarded the 2015 Harold Masursky Award from the Division for Planetary Sciences for Meritorious Service, particularly for significant contributions to fostering equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion in planetary science. She was also awarded the 2015 Rev. James O'Brien, S.J. Alumni Award at Wheeling Jesuit University, and is participating as WJU's 2015 Distinguished Alumni Scholar in Residence.

Dave McComas, Ph.D.
Dr. McComas is the Assistant Vice President Space Science & Engineering at Southwest Research Institute. He has served as principal investigator for NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission, Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISIS) on the Solar Probe Plus mission, Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers (TWINS) Explorer Mission-of-Opportunity, Ulysses Solar Wind Observations Over the Poles of the Sun (SWOOPS) Experiment, lead co-investigator for the Solar Wind Electron Proton Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) instrument on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), solar wind analyzer for the New Horizons mission to Pluto (SWAP), and Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument on Juno.
He is the Founding Director of the Center for Space Science and Exploration (CSSE) and has his career in various organizations including Los Alamos National Laboratory (1998-2000), NASA Program Manager at Los Alamos (1997-2000) and Group Leader for Space and Atmospheric Sciences, (1992-1998).

Dan Cooper, Ph.D.
Dr. Cooper teaches and consults on innovative thinking and leadership. Previously, he created and taught the leadership development program at Southwest Research Institute. He has over 40 years of experience developing and managing technical education programs in a variety of organizations, including running his own company for 15 years in Boston. His Ph.D. is in educational psychology and communications from Stanford, and his bachelor’s degree is in social relations from Harvard.

Fran Bagenal, Ph.D.
Prof. Bagenal studies the magnetic fields of planets, the interactions of plasmas with atmospheres, and magnetospheric processes. She has worked with plasma data from a variety of space missions, starting with the Voyager mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. She was on the science teams of the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Deep Space 1 mission to Comet Borrelly. She edited Jupiter: Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere (Cambridge University Press, 2004). She heads the plasma teams on the first two New Frontiers missions: New Horizons mission to Pluto (launched January 2006, due to arrive at Pluto in July 2015) and Juno, a Jupiter polar orbiter (launched 2011, due to arrive at Jupiter in 2016).

Patrcia Reiff, Ph.D.
Prof. Reiff is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and is the founding Director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University. Her research focuses on space plasma physics, mostly in the area of magnetospheric physics: "space weather". Her research includes study of the aurora borealis, magnetic reconnection, solar wind-magnetosphere coupling (including solar wind control of magnetospheric and ionospheric convection), and magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. She is the director for a major project which has developed an off-ramp for the information highway by "Creating the Public Connection" , bringing real-time earth and space science data to museums and schools (originally sponsored by NASA's Digital Library Technology Program). Over ten million people have interacted with her exhibits and planetarium shows at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and other museums, and another five million with her web sites. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union , where she serves on the SPA Public Education Committee. In 2009, she received the AGU "Athelstan Spilhaus Award" and in 2013 she won the "SPARC" Award (Space Physics and Astronomy Richard Carrington Award) for service in public education. She is the Rice University representative and former Chair of the Council of Institutions of the USRA - the Universities Space Research Association. She has served on advisory committees for NASA, NSF, NCAR, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NAS/NRC and AAU.