Washington Consortium for Undergraduate Research & Equity (WA CURE)

The Washington Community & Technical Colleges Consortium for Undergraduate Research & Equity (WA CURE) is an emergent collaboration of faculty and administrators and the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges serving the 34 institutions of the Washington state Community and Technical College (CTC) system. WA CURE seeks to engender systemic change to the culture and organization of undergraduate research to improve CTC student learning experiences and create equitable outcomes by expanding access to quality, discovery-based learning opportunities.

Washington State CTC faculty have been national leaders in developing and implementing undergraduate research (UGR) experiences in CTC classrooms and have seen the benefits for improved student engagement and learning, equity, and improved retention and completion–especially for Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color and first-generation college students. It is an evidenced based equity practice that works. It is time to take this collective expertise and scale it so that all CTC students have equal access to undergraduate research in their classrooms and pathways. The principal barriers for incorporating undergraduate research into every CTC student’s pathway are primarily structural and institutional and require systemic level changes to improve and ensure equitable access for all students across our state system.

To do this capacity building work, we have formed a statewide consortium of Washington CTC faculty and administrators to investigate, inventory, and strategize how to expand access to UGR experiences to students and faculty of all 34 of Washington State’s CTCs. The goals of this project are to:

1. Develop a distributed leadership structure
2. Investigate systemic barriers, challenges, and opportunities for expanding UGR experiences, and educational equity at institutional and state-wide levels.
3. Develop a shared vision and strategic plan.
4. Form a statewide pedagogical community of practice for course-based UGR experiences.
5. Build institutional and statewide executive leadership support. 

Meet our Team 

We have 44 faculty leaders from 25 different colleges who have stepped up to engage in this systemic change effort and offer their insight into the design of a consortium that serves all our colleges, faculty, and students and their diverse needs. 

Program Coordinator:

Katie M. Bryant, Bellevue College

Steering Committee: 

• Wendy Rockhill, Seattle Central College
• Irene Shaver, SBCTC
• Val Sundby, SBCTC
• Kyle Hammon, Adjunct Professor
• Robin Datta, Edmonds College
• Ann Murkowski, North Seattle College

Regional Coordinators: 

• Matthew Loeser, Yakima Valley College
• Jennifer Liou, Pierce CC
• Travis Kibota, Clark College
• Anita Harker, Whatcom CC

Community of Practice Facilitators: 

• Shannon Newman, Green River College
• Jacqueline Gapinski, Bellevue College
• Suki Smaglik, Yakima Valley College
• Roberto Anitori, Clark College
• Kimberly McClure, Lake Washington Institute of Technology

Institutional Action Leads: 

• Terrah Goeden, Clark College
• Patricia Atkinson, Clark College
• Sidnee-Marie Dunn, South Puget Sound CC
• Claudia Arends, Grays Harbor College
• Colleen Sheridan, Highline College
• Elena Garrison, South Puget Sound CC
• Scott Robertson, Olympic College
• Henry Olson, South Seattle College
• Timothy Ewing, Bellingham Technical College
• Azizeh Frajallah, Cascadia College
• Josh Searle, Everett College
• Armin Seidl, North Seattle College
• Paul Mattson, Peninsula College
• Kevin Michael Overa, Shoreline CC
• Kristen Hoffbuhr, Skagit Valley College
• Lauren Maniatis, Whatcom CC
• Celeste Lonson, Bellevue College
• Chitra Solomonson, Green River College
• Narayani Choudhury, Lake Washington Technical College
• Nazanin Ruppender, Seattle Central College
• Dori Miller, Big Bend CC
• Sandya Kesoju, Columbia Basin College
• Sara Egbert, Walla Walla CC
• Waleed Muhammad, Wenatchee Valley CC
• Holly Ferguson, Yakima Valley CC
• Michael Rodriquez, Lake Washington Technical College
• Janae Carrothers, Spokane Falls CC

This project is funded by the National Science Foundation (IUSE) Improving Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education Program. NSF ID#: 2121486