Sara Armstrong earned her Ph.D. from the Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama program at Northwestern University in 2013. She holds an M.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Kansas, a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Oklahoma, and was a postgraduate fellow in Dramaturgy/Playwriting at the University of Birmingham, England. Her dissertation focused on the role operating theories of embodiment play in privileging and marginalizing particular student bodies in performance learning spaces. She has over twenty years of experience as an actor, director, dramaturg, arts administrator, and educator across professional, university, and community contexts. She has led the CRLT theatre program since 2012 establishing strategic priorities for the company that align with the needs of a range of higher education communities and the Players commitments to advancing social justice and equity in academic spaces.

Eric Bell is a Professor of Astronomy. He received a B.Sc. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Glasgow in 1996 and a PhD in Physics from the University of Durham in 2000. He was a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Arizona and then a staff scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2009. His research focuses on understanding how galaxies grow and develop throughout cosmic history and how we can use observations to learn about the dark matter-driven growth of galaxies. At UM he has served on a number of committees, many focusing on equity and inclusion, often in teaching contexts. He serves as the Graduate Program Director and Associate Chair for the Department of Astronomy. Prof. Bell is a recipient of a John Dewey Award for teaching excellence and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship, the University of Michigan’s highest honor for teaching excellence.

Lilia Cortina is Professor of Psychology, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Management. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Pomona College and A.M. and PhD. in Psychology (with a graduate minor in Quantitative Methods) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Cortina has been a faculty member at UM since 2000. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Using survey and experimental methods, she researches sexual harassment and incivility in the workplace. In addition, Dr. Cortina occasionally serves as an expert witness in forensic venues, translating findings from the scientific literature to inform law and policy.

Vincent Hutchings is the Hanes Walton Jr. Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research. In 2020, he was also appointed as a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor. He received his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Hutchings teaches courses in Black politics, public opinion & voting behavior, and racial attitudes. In 2003, he published a book entitled Public Opinion and Democratic Accountability, from Princeton University Press. Currently, his research examines the ways in which political campaigns and the media frame information about racial issues in order to activate and make politically relevant the voters’ sympathies and/or antipathies for particular racial groups. Professor Hutchings has received multiple grants from the National Science Foundation. In 2012, Professor Hutchings was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

Professor Kuranz is an experimental plasma physicist with research interests in high-energy-density plasmas, hydrodynamic instabilities, radiation hydrodynamics, and magnetized plasmas. She performs her research on high-power laser facilities around the world, including the National Ignition Facility and the Omega Laser Facility. Professor Kuranz received her PhD in Applied Physics from the University of Michigan in 2009 and her Bachelors in Physics from Bryn Mawr College in 2002. Recently she was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has been awarded the Ted Kennedy Family Faculty Team Excellence Award and the American Astronomical Society Laboratory Astrophysics Division Early Career Award. Professor Kuranz also serves as Director for the Center for Laboratory Astrophysics, a National Nuclear Security Administration Center of Excellence, and has a joint appointment in the U-M Climate and Space Sciences Engineering Department.

Yeşim Orhun is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Michael R. and Mary Kay Hallman Fellow at the Ross School of Business, and an Associate Professor of Information (by courtesy) at the School of Information, University of Michigan. She is also a faculty associate at the Center for Positive Organizations and a faculty champion at the Sanger Leadership Center. Her research is in the domains of behavioral economics and industrial organization, with an emphasis on underprivileged populations. In recent work, she examines the role of gendered beliefs in the academic performance gap between women and men studying Business Administration. Her current research stream is examining the role of motivated beliefs in high-stakes decisions. Professor Orhun serves as an Associate Editor at two leading journals in Marketing. She has an M.A. in Economics and a Ph.D. Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband and two young children.

Robin Queen is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Professor of Linguistics, English Language and Literatures and Germanic Languages and Literatures. Her teaching and research center on sociolinguistic questions related to language contact, language ideology, sociolinguistic perception, and language change. She has also considered questions concerning the ties between language and social identities, particularly queer identities. Her work draws on data from a wide variety of sources, including Turkish-German bilinguals, American lesbians, daytime television dramas, American films dubbed into German, experimental data concerning sociolinguistic perception, and shepherds interacting with stockdogs. Her book, Vox Popular: The Surprising Life of Language in the Mass Media (Wiley, 2015) explores how language variation functions within the fictional mass media.

Denise began her role as Director of the U-M ADVANCE Program in Fall 2023, after having previously served on the STRIDE Committee and as the Associate Director for Research in ADVANCE. She is University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Psychology. Her research program in experimental social psychology focuses on intergroup stereotyping, implicit bias, and the experiences of women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering. She received the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award (2015), and the Sarah Goddard Power Award (2012) from the University of Michigan for her work on diversity-related issues.

Chris Torres is an Associate Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership in the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education. He is a qualitative researcher interested in how leadership and policy can stabilize and strengthen school improvement efforts and teaching as a profession. Prior to joining the University of Michigan Chris was a professor of Educational Leadership at Michigan State University and Montclair State University, and he worked in New York City as a K-2 teacher, grade chair, teacher mentor, mentor teacher trainer, teacher educator, school board chair, and in the central office designing teacher hiring and leadership development systems.