12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Forum: The Future of STEM Education in Indiana
Chad Lochmiller
Chad Lochmiller, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Indiana University and currently chairs the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. In addition, he was appointed by Governor Eric Holcomb to serve a two-year term as a member of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and serves as Associate Director for Policy and Advocacy with the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), a national consortium of more than 100 research-intensive universities. His research examines education policy issues that are relevant to both K-12 and higher education. For example, he has evaluated career ladder programs in community colleges, studied participation in dual enrollment and dual credit programs, assessed the structure of workforce training activities, and examined workforce issues for classroom teachers and education professionals. He has also studied funding practices and allocation formulas for K-12 schools. His current research is focused on the continuous improvement of educational programs.
Professionally, Lochmiller has served as a delegate to the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate, a member of the National Faculty for Improvement Science with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a fellow with the Big10 Academic Alliance’s Departmental Executive Officer’s Program, and has been deeply involved in accreditation activities related to the Council for the Advancement of Educator Preparation. He is a past recipient of the UCEA Jack A. Culbertson Early Career Award and his published work has appeared in Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of Educational Administration, and other outlets.
Lochmiller earned his Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Washington in 2010. He is married with two children and resides in Bloomington, Indiana.
Molly Dodge
Molly Dodge serves as Senior Vice President of Workforce and Careers at Ivy Tech Community College. In her role, Molly owns the college “big goal” of 50,000 completions aligned with Indiana’s workforce including measuring certifications that earn above median wage. She partners with campus leadership across the state to ensure the College has the programs and capacity to fill the State’s employer workforce pipeline.
Prior to this role, Molly served as Chancellor of the Madison campus of Ivy Tech Community College. Under Molly’s visionary leadership, the Madison campus was chosen by the Indiana Department of Correction to provide adult education and vocational training programs in fifteen (15) facilities statewide; and the Indiana Department of Education to offer statewide online dual enrollment through the Indiana Course Access Portal (iCAP).
Prior to joining Ivy Tech, Dodge served in dual roles as director of adult education and director of the Clearinghouse and special projects at the Madison-based, non-profit River Valley Resources, Inc. (RVR). As clearinghouse director, she founded a multi-tenant nonprofit center focused on the provision of co-located employment and wrap around services to families living in poverty.
Dodge holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Hanover College, a Master of Arts in Philanthropic Studies and a Master of Public Administration, Nonprofit Management Concentration, from Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Dodge recently completed a three-year term as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services and serves on the American Association of Community College’s Commission on Economic and Workforce Development.
Ben Carter
Ben is the Director of Career Readiness Initiatives at Inspire Success. In this role, he provides project management and training for a variety of education and workforce organizations. Before joining Inspire Success Ben served as the Executive Director of Career Coaching and Employer Connections at Ivy Tech Community College. Previously, Ben was the Director of Workforce and Innovation at the Department of Education leading Graduation Pathways, Work Based Learning, and STEM. Before coming to the Department, Ben led career education in Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) as the Career and Technical Education Director. Ben earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Michigan, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Marian University, and a Master in Education Leadership from Columbia University.
Chrystal Westerhaus
Chrystal is a seasoned charter school leader in Indianapolis. She served as a teacher and assistant principal with the Tindley Schools network in Indianapolis for the past several years. During her four years as a sixth grade teacher at Tindley Accelerated, more than 90% of her students achieved proficiency on the state’s standardized tests, featuring a 100% pass rate in spring 2013. During her two years as assistant principal of culture at Tindley Preparatory Academy, she utilized data-driven decision making by analyzing student discipline data to create a positive culture for student motivation. Chrystal was the founding principal of Avondale Meadows Middle School. In her five years of leadership at AMMS, she led the school to improve its state rating from a “C” to a consecutive “A" ratings. Chrystal holds a degree in elementary education from Purdue University and a master’s degree in urban and educational leadership from Indiana University.
Moderator: Dylan Peers McCoy
Dylan Peers McCoy is an investigative reporter on the education team at WFYI, the Indianapolis NPR station. At WFYI, her coverage has exposed the low rate of transfers and bachelors completions among Indiana community college students. She has covered the dire shortage of special education teachers in the state's public schools, and how another state is successfully tackling that shortage.
She is a 2024 Higher Education Media Fellow with the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. Her reporting for that fellowship focuses on the role of career and technical education in boosting post-secondary attainment at a time when the college-going rate has declined among Indiana high school graduates.
Prior to working at WFYI, Dylan covered K-12 education for Chalkbeat Indiana. She won first place for investigative reporting from the Education Writers Association for her 2019 series exposing how thousands of Indiana high school students were marked as leaving to home-school rather than dropping out.
Her work has aired or appeared on NPR, Latino USA, the Atlantic, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Indianapolis Star.
1:40 pm – 2:20 pm Keynote Speaker: Dr. Carlotta A. Berry
Our keynote speaker is the 2018 Women and Hi Tech Leading Light “You Inspire Us!” Award winner, Dr. Carlotta A. Berry. Dr. Berry is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and the 2021-2024 Dr. Lawrence J. Giacoletto Endowed Chair for Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Berry is the first Black woman to earn tenure, full professor and endowed chairship at Rose-Hulman.
She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Spelman College, bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, master’s in electrical engineering from Wayne State University, and PhD from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests are in robotics education, interface design, human-robot interaction, and increasing historically marginalized and minoritized populations in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.
She has a special passion for diversifying the engineering profession by encouraging more women, marginalized and minoritized populations to pursue STEM degrees. In her current role as visiting scientist at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, she is able to execute her mission and promote her vision for STEM. In 2020, she worked with colleagues around the world to start two nonprofit organizations, Black In Engineering and Black In Robotics. They have a mission to bring awareness to systemic racism and inequity in STEM, build community, advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion and connect with allies and sponsors. Dr. Berry also founded her business, NoireSTEMinist educational consulting, in 2020. Through her organization she provides speaking engagements, workshops, consulting and also sells robots, children's books, romance novels, and other merchandise to promote diversity in STEM.
Her strong longstanding service record has garnered her multiple accolades and awards including ASEE Fellow, IEEE Senior Member, 2023 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2023 Hopper Celebration Abie award for Educational Innovation award, 2022 Society of Women Engineers Distinguished Engineering Educator Award, 2022 Distinguished Educator Award from the American Society of Engineering Education Electrical and Computer Engineering Division, 2022 Open Source Hardware Trailblazer Fellow, and 2021 TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder award.
To learn more about Dr. Berry’s Work visit www.DrCarlottaABerry.comand www.CarlottaArdell.comor connect via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlotta-berry-phd/.
