This month, we're featuring members of our SABER Scholars-in-Training community who were acknowledged for their talks or posters at our annual national meeting in July.

Our second "Human of DBER" for September is Ray Potter, a PhD Student at the University of Washington and 2026 recipient of the Bill Wood Graduate Talk Award. 

The way I found DBER was because as an undergraduate I got the opportunity to be a teaching assistant, and I kept noticing while some students really thrived, others were struggling, and I wanted to think about how to create an environment where everyone could succeed. When I entered my masters in ecology and evolutionary biology program, there was a fantastic TA training program. The instructor Katie Dixie had a profound impact on me. She emphasized iterative improvement– start with what you think you can do better, try it out, and then continue to modify and adjust. I continued my education research journey with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), a national organization with a program at UCLA led by Katie and K. Supriya. I ended up doing a project on implementing problem solving sessions in addition to office hours in a calculus for life scientists course. Many students had told me they wanted to come to office hours but felt intimidated, so I thought that scaffolding and adding structure with worksheets would help students. The survey results indicated students really enjoyed these sessions, and they helped improve grades. After completing this project, there was funding to present at SABER West. That conference was a very eye opening experience, where for the first time I fully realized how many DBER career paths there were.

In my PhD with Dr. Elli Theobald at University of Washington, I’ve examined features of STEM classrooms that make them feel welcoming or exclusionary. I started noticing a lot of parallels between ecology and education research. For example, just as students exist within classrooms within a broader society, organisms exist in populations that exist in larger ecosystems. Why some individuals thrive and others struggle is due to a complex interaction between multiple levels of the environment. One of my favorite parts about DBER and SABER is people come in with so many different disciplinary backgrounds, and that shapes the research questions and methods they use. Bringing your unique background also includes your identities and how you navigate the world. As someone who is neurodivergent, gender queer, and disabled, this shaped my experiences with higher education, and the research questions and interests I now have in DBER. Science is often portrayed as “objective,” while identity absolutely impacts any research. In DBER, not only is this recognized, but it’s encouraged to use your personal experiences to shape your research questions, and I really like getting to bring my whole self into this work. Advice I would give to anyone wanting to go into DBER is to use your unique background to help shape your research, and also talk to and collaborate with people with different backgrounds and perspectives.

If you have a colleague in DBER that you'd like to nominate to be the next Human of DBER, please submit your nomination here! Nominations are welcome for members of the SABER and biology education research community, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff, educators, and community partners who contribute to biology education, research, or inclusive STEM initiatives.

This month, we're featuring members of our SABER Scholars-in-Training community who were acknowledged for their talks or posters at our annual national meeting in July.

Our first "Human of DBER" for September is Rose Sofia, a PhD Student at Auburn University and 2026 recipient of the Bill Wood Graduate Talk Award. 

My heart was for teaching right from the start. As a young child, I’d play teacher by arranging my stuffed animals in a semi-circle and surrounding them with my babbling, nonsensical lectures and haphazard scribbling on my Little Tikes chalkboard. I carried these memories of play fondly into my undergraduate biology degree, where I ecstatically accepted the opportunity to work as a tutor. Tutoring came naturally for me as I aspired to deliver enthusiasm and warmth to an otherwise stressful space, a space where some students were on their last leg. Yet halfway through my undergraduate biology degree, I kept hearing from my peers that enrolling in research credits was essential for meeting graduate professional degree requirements. The idea of “research” itself felt nebulous, almost like a box to check rather than a way of seeing and being in the world, one grounded in applying translatable skills into the real world. The word “research” lingered intimidatingly in the back of my mind until the spring semester of my junior year, when I enrolled in an upper-level Virology course expecting a similar prescriptive formula to any biology course: lectures and exams with little career relevance. However, the professor was anything but a passive lecturer; he was an active participant in our learning and occupational goals. He’d host resume nights, and it was there he encouraged me to apply for a position in his laboratory studying the impact of common environmental pollutants on mosquito development. I took him up on the offer, albeit nervously anticipating what research was actually like, but my hesitance immediately faded into the background, and the year I spent in the lab making friends and memories (and killing some not-so-nice mosquitoes) was invaluable.

As I was applying to graduate school, I couldn’t help but notice the little voice in the back of my head wondering whether I could find myself back to teaching. Browsing online and reading lab websites, I found Dr. Cissy Ballen. I was amazed at what she and the lab were doing! I had never heard of biology education research before, and I was enticed by the possibility of redirecting my career journey, so I cold-emailed her. As I will always be grateful for, Cissy took me under her wing and has guided me through multiple ongoing projects, specifically projects that aim to understand how undergraduate biology students perceive and interact with terms described as harmful in invasion biology. Among the many responsibilities of a graduate researcher, I also teach introductory biology labs and serve as the public relations officer for the F.S. Arant Auburn University Entomology and Plant Pathology club, where I can provide a welcoming, collaborative learning space for all students. While I do wear multiple hats each day as a graduate student, fulfilling the role of an educator is the one that fits just right!

Thank you to my friends, colleagues, and mentors for supporting and guiding me. Thank you to my amazing family, to whom I am eternally grateful for providing me with wisdom, love, and strength throughout my life.

If you have a colleague in DBER that you'd like to nominate to be the next Human of DBER, please submit your nomination here! Nominations are welcome for members of the SABER and biology education research community, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff, educators, and community partners who contribute to biology education, research, or inclusive STEM initiatives.

This month, our "Human of DBER" is Dr. Lauren Stoczynski, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences at Le Moyne College. 

I have always had a passion for teaching. Both of my parents were in K-12 education, and my friends and I would even “play school” in the summer. Pretty early on in my undergraduate career I knew I wanted to be a college professor and had my heart set on getting a PhD. While completing my graduate degrees at Clemson, I was a graduate teaching assistant under a wonderful mentor, Professor Chistine Minor, who provided me with so many opportunities to grow as an educator. Mind you, I had, at this point, never heard of discipline-based education research (DBER). I started a certificate in teaching from the Engineering and Science Education Department at Clemson during the first semester of my PhD pursuit, where I first learned about DBER and how to conduct biology education research. During my time at Clemson, Professor Minor and I were interested in trying to help the introductory biology students become more proficient in using excel, making graphs, and interpreting graphs. I developed a series of data analysis assignments to complement the labs students were completing, some parts of which are still used today but more incorporated within the labs themselves. While learning about DBER, I was conducting research in landscape ecology using freshwater stream fish as a model system. I was lucky to be co-advised by two mentors who encouraged me to take on as many side projects as I could as a graduate student. I have always had a love for the outdoors and fell into working with freshwater fish as a master’s student (I really wanted to be a shark scientist initially). I still reflect on growing up next to Lake Erie and never knowing or learning about the diversity in freshwater fish that lurked in the streams, rivers, and lakes (pictured is a male common shiner (Luxillus cornutus) who is colored up for spawning). I wanted to teach more people about the fish and insect diversity in our freshwaters in North America.

Knowing I could conduct research on my teaching, I wanted to build my skills in DBER and sought a DBER focused postdoctoral opportunity. I did a quick google search of DBER researchers who were investigating students’ ability to graph and immediately Dr. Stephanie M. Gardner’s research page at Purdue came up. I cold-emailed Dr. Gardner, explaining my situation and asking if she would have any openings in her lab. Little did I know that my email was received with perfect timing as the GraphSmarts team had just gotten a new grant to continue working on answering the very questions I was so interested in. I enjoyed two years working in Dr. Gardner’s lab, building a myriad of skills for conducting biology education research. Two years ago, I started as an assistant professor in the department of biological and environmental sciences at Le Moyne College, a small Jesuit liberal arts institution that fit everything I was looking for! I consider myself a bit of a rarity since I am trying to continue to do both biology education research in the form of understanding what students know about creating and interpreting graphs as well as conducting ecology research on stream fish and aquatic insect community compositions within trout streams in Central New York. I have had success in working with undergraduate students in DBER at Le Moyne with two of my students recently presenting their posters at SABER East and conducting field research during the warm months (picture is from a recent outing on June 2nd). I think the biggest advice I could give aspiring biology education researchers is to find your passion and then do what you can to set yourself up to succeed. My story may seem very linear, but I put in a lot of work seeking opportunities to build the skillset that I have. I also sought mentors that would let me explore and find my passions. Sometimes it just takes sending a random email to get you to the next step!

If you have a colleague in DBER that you'd like to nominate to be the next Human of DBER, please submit your nomination here! Nominations are welcome for members of the SABER and biology education research community, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff, educators, and community partners who contribute to biology education, research, or inclusive STEM initiatives.

This month, our "Human of DBER" is Dr. Dina Newman, a Professor in the College of Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the recipient of the 2026 Mary Pat Wenderoth Lectureship Award.

I never set out to become a biology education researcher—in fact, I didn't know the field existed until I was nearly 40. My training was in molecular genetics, first studying bacterial colony development and later investigating complex diseases in humans. I was really looking for a teaching position in Upstate New York when I found an opportunity to study the genetics of age-related hearing loss at Rochester Institute of Technology as the Department of Biological Sciences' first research faculty hire. There, I led a grant-funded human genetics research program focused on mentoring undergraduate researchers. A few years later, I moved into a tenure-track position that I thought would allow me to spend more time teaching. Ironically, just as I made that transition, RIT began shifting from a primarily teaching-focused institution to a stronger emphasis on research and scholarship. The type of undergraduate-centered genetics research I had been doing was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain and publish, and I worried about how I would succeed in this new environment.

A pivotal conversation with my dean led me to a physics colleague, Scott Franklin, who introduced me to the field of discipline-based education research, taught me its foundations, and welcomed me into the DBER community. Together with Scott, a chemistry colleague named Tom Kim, whose deep knowledge of the literature and thoughtful guidance helped me develop as a researcher, and my biology colleague Kate Wright, who shared both my circumstances and my fascination with teaching and learning, we formed a small DBER journal club. Kate and I soon launched our first studies on why students struggle to understand meiosis, and that work grew into a long-standing and fruitful research partnership that continues to this day. Through DBER, I found a way to bring together my love of biology, teaching, and research while becoming part of a vibrant interdisciplinary community. I began attending SABER in 2011, and it quickly became my professional home. The friendships, collaborations, and mentorship I found there have shaped my career ever since and inspired me to help build community for others through SABER East, a regional meeting that I launched in 2024 and have hosted at RIT for the past three years. That same spirit of community-building helped our small journal club grow into CASTLE, a research center that now includes numerous faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates working across STEM education research. Looking back, the path was anything but linear, but the projects, collaborations, and institutional changes that once seemed daunting led me to work that now feels deeply meaningful. 

This month, DBER-SiT is continuing our "Humans of DBER" series with a feature of Jackie DaSilva, an MSc student at the University of British Columbia!Hi, I’m Jackie, a Master’s student in Zoology at the University of British Columbia conducting Biology Education Research. My path to DBER wasn’t planned. As an undergraduate, I knew I wanted to gain research experience but wasn’t sure in what area. Around the same time, I was reflecting on my own experiences in science courses—periods where my sense of belonging and confidence fluctuated—and noticing through conversations with classmates that we could share a classroom yet experience it very differently. While searching for research opportunities, I came across a DBER research assistant position at York University almost by accident. Working with Dr. Tamara Kelly and biology teaching faculty introduced me to a field that examines how instructional practices shape students’ learning, engagement, and sense of belonging. That experience ultimately led me west to UBC, where I now study instructor discourse in active-learning classrooms and how it shapes students’ learning experiences and affective outcomes under the supervision of Drs. Jackie Stewart and Blaire Steinwand.

Pursuing DBER within a traditional biology department has required persistence, collaboration, and creative navigation of existing institutional frameworks, particularly as the field is still emerging in Canada and lacks many established structures and funding pathways. Navigating these challenges has strengthened my ability to advocate for the value of DBER and to translate its relevance to diverse academic audiences. Along the way, I’ve found unexpected joy not only in my research, but in fostering community: facilitating professional development workshops, supporting teaching assistants through UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, and connecting with students as a teaching assistant myself. My advice to aspiring biology education researchers is to seek collaborators beyond your discipline, remain adaptable in emerging spaces, and be willing to help build the pathways you hope to follow.

DBER-SiT is starting a new project called "Humans of DBER"! The goal of our project is to create a way for SABER members to get to know one another, foster collaborations, and increase access to role models in our community. Our first feature as part of this series is Noah A. Courtney, a PhD student at Texas Tech Univeristy.My academic story didn’t start with science– it almost didn’t include science at all. Ten years ago, I failed out of college and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. I joined the Coast Guard to have a direct and daily impact on people’s lives, and when I was medically retired, I deeply craved a civilian career that was grounded in the same sentiment of service. However, I didn’t think I would go back to school. The phrase “I never have to go college again” put a smile on my face; I never imagined that one day, I would look back during the first year of my Ph.D. and say that I love learning. Admittedly, I was skeptical when I enrolled in introductory biology at Harford Community College, but I was shocked at what I discovered. I found myself looking in a mirror: my passion for advocacy and service was reflected in my professors’ teaching and mentorship. I felt alone as the only non-traditional student-veteran in my classes, but my professors never let any of my questions about science careers go unanswered. While student-veterans may be rare in college STEM spaces, I was inspired by those instructors who assured me that I could be a scientist, and that my previous failure didn’t define the new career that I wanted to build.

Today, I am a biology education researcher because of great instructors– I want every student to experience how my community college instructors made me feel. During my first semester after transferring to a large university, I noticed a culture shift: I witnessed some of my classmates hesitate while asking questions in class and feel pressure to fuel their GPA rather than their curiosity about science. This tension led me to find the biology education research lab on campus, where mentors like Dr. Michelle Smith and Dr. David Esparza provided me with the tools to follow my passion for supporting and investigating the community college STEM contexts that built the foundation of my passion for science. Through my undergraduate career, I published my first paper and found a home in the SABER community, where I became connected with my current Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Lisa Limeri. Since 2023, I have attended three "big" SABER meetings and one SABER East meeting, where this community has only continued to provide me with role models and colleagues who share and reflect my passion for students and science. My favorite part of being a Ph.D. student is mentoring undergraduate students and giving them tools to explore and articulate their curiosity. Few things have felt as rewarding as supporting my undergraduate colleagues as they cultivate their own scientific ideas, sharpen their writing, and build quantitative analysis and science communication skills. If I could offer advice to aspiring biology education researchers, it would be this: Surround yourself with role models who make you better, let your curiosity drive your reading of the literature, and allow your passion to guide you through the frustrating moments of the research process.

If you have a colleague in DBER that you'd like to nominate to be the next Human of DBER, please submit your nomination here! Nominations are welcome for members of the SABER and biology education research community, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, staff, educators, and community partners who contribute to biology education, research, or inclusive STEM initiatives.