Regional Nodes

To increase faculty and student engagement in the GEP, the NIH’s Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) grant provides support for regional clusters of participating GEP institutions (Regional Nodes). Regional Nodes are encouraged to develop events that allow undergraduates to present their work to other scientists, and/or faculty to learn, collaborate, mentor, and develop curricula.

Quick Links

Regional Node Event Planning (Proposal Form & Resources)
Regional Node Overview Trello Board
Map of Regional Nodes
Building Community Resources
Informal Gatherings (under development)

Contacts

Regional Nodes Director: Jenni Kennell
Regional Nodes Co-Director: Kellie Agrimson
GEP Program Assistant: Sarah Potts
Regional Node Leaders & Co-Leaders

FAQs

What are Regional Nodes?

In April 2019, the GEP was awarded funding by the NIH’s Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) to sustain and develop centralized support and regional training. A main focus of the IPERT grant is to increase faculty and student engagement in the GEP by leveraging the available regional clusters of participating GEP institutions (Regional Nodes).

Each of the 13 Regional Nodes can offer Regional Node Meetings (symposia) and/or Regional Node (New Member) Training. The Regional Node Meetings serve the dual functions of allowing undergraduates to present their work to other scientists, and faculty to learn, collaborate, mentor, and develop curricula. The Regional Node Training workshops expand the timing and location options for GEP training, thereby increasing and diversifying participation while testing a new regional training format. A particular goal of these Regional Node activities is the recruitment and support of new members from Community Colleges and Minority-Serving Institutions.

Regional Node Leaders & Co-Leaders

Regional Node	Node Leader	Leader’s Institution	Node Co-Leader	Co-Leader’s Institution
CalNeAr (CA, NV, AZ)	TBD
Carolinas	Marisol Santisteban	University of North Carolina at Pembroke (NC)	Michele Eller	Southern Wesleyan University (SC)
DMV (DC, MD, VA)	Matt Wawersik	William & Mary (VA)	Christine Fleet	Emory & Henry College (VA)
Midwest North	Jenny Mierisch	Loyola University Chicago (IL)	Sarah Justice	Marian University (IN)
MN/IA/Dakotas	Kellie Agrimson	St. Catherine University (MN)	Andy Arsham Tam Mans	Bemidji State University (MN) North Hennepin Community College (MN)
New England	Rachel Sterne-Marr	Siena College (NY)	Jenna Roecklein-Canfield	Simmons University (MA)
New York & New Jersey (NY/NJ)	Guy Barbato	Stockton University (NJ)	Raffaella Diotti	CUNY Bronx Community College (NY)
Pacific Northwest (PNW)	Norma Velazquez-Ulloa	Lewis & Clark College (OR)	Jack Vincent	University of Washington-Tacoma (WA)
Pennsylvania (PA)	TBD
Puerto Rico (PR)	Angel O. Custodio	University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla (PR)	Sheylda Díaz-Méndez	University of Puerto Rico-Ponce (PR)
Rocky Mountain	Shan Hays	Western Colorado University (CO)	Zeynep Ozsoy	Colorado Mesa University (CO)
Southeast	Cheri Bardales	Louisiana State University of Alexandria	TBD
Texas & Oklahoma (TX/OK)	Lindsey Long	Oklahoma Christian University (OK)	Chitra Chandrasekaran	Texas Wesleyan University (TX)

What is my assigned Regional Node?

Find your institution on the Nodes Map and then use the key to determine your Regional Node and/or click on the icon of your institution and the Regional Node will be listed.

What is a Regional Node Event (RNE)?

Regional Node Events include Regional Node Meetings (RNMs) and Regional Node Training (RNT). Regional Node Events leverage available regional clusters of participating GEP institutions (i.e., Regional Nodes).

What is a Regional Node Meeting (RNM)?

Regional Node Meetings (RNMs) leverage available regional clusters of participating GEP institutions (i.e., Regional Nodes) to increase faculty and student engagement by allowing undergraduates to present their work to other scientists, and faculty to learn, collaborate, mentor, and develop curricula.

A Regional Node Meeting is defined as any GEP activity that involves at least two institutions in the Regional Node that includes at least one of the following:
- Student presentations (poster or oral)
- Professional development activity
- Speaker gives a seminar on a research- or pedagogy-related topic
- Training in curriculum or science projects of current GEP faculty
- When Recruiting: ‘taster’ demos for prospective members (currently unavailable)
- Unlike Regional Node New Member Trainings, RNMs are typically single day events with a smaller budget. What happens at RNMs can vary, but they focus on community building and engagement within their region. In a nutshell, it’s up to the Regional Node to decide what they most need to address (e.g., faculty only meeting to work on professional development, opportunities for students, or a recruitment event to grow the Node membership).

What is a Regional Node Training (RNT)?

Regional Node Training (RNT) and New Member Training (NMT) are the same thing. NMT is typically used with “national” level events.

RNT/NMT is designed to onboard new members by helping faculty integrate GEP curriculum materials into existing courses and engage their students in scientific research through CUREs. Training new members typically takes 15-20 hours and can occur in-person (2.5 days) or virtually (1.5 hour/10 days).

What should my Regional Node do if we want to host an event?

See the “Regional Node Event Planning” web page (generic password) for more details.