Michael Cunningham Academic Advisor, Individualized and Interdisciplinary Studies

Michael is not new to UConn academics. He holds both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from UConn. He began his undergraduate career at Lehigh University where he earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering. Previous positions have included roles as an instructor and adjunct professor of history at UConn, Wesleyan, Manchester Community College, and ECSU. Michael also brings private sector experience, having worked for Travelers Insurance as an account manager in the Loss Control and Engineering Department.

Research Interests: European History and History of Science.

Fun Fact: He has two beagles, Shelby and Maisy.

Jaclyn Chancey Assistant Director for Curriculum, Assessment, and Planning, Honors

Jaclyn has a Ph.D. from UConn in educational psychology with concentrations in gifted education and counseling psychology. Before pursuing her Ph.D., Jaclyn worked in information technology at the University of Alabama for eleven years. She also taught in the university’s honors program. In her current role, Jaclyn will be involved in evaluation practices of UConn’s Honors Program to directly assist various departments to develop and strengthen Honors courses and curriculum paths. Jaclyn will also participate in strategic planning for NextGenCT.

Research Interests: Gifted students’ college experiences, particularly within honors programs.

Fun Fact: Jaclyn is active in animal rescue. She and her family have two dogs and four cats.

Rowena Grainger Academic Advisor II, National Scholarships & Fellowships

Rowena is an alumna of the University of Arizona, graduating with a B.S. in molecular and cellular biology and a doctoral degree in medical pharmacology. Upon completion of her Ph.D. in 2010, she pursued postdoctoral training at Washington University in St. Louis. At UConn, she plans to design fellowship workshops that facilitate interaction of graduate students with postdoctoral trainees.

Research Interests: The therapeutic intervention of respiratory disease.

Fun fact: Rowena was born and raised in Guyana, South America.

New Faces in Honors & Enrichment ProgramsMelissa Berkey IDEA Grants Program Coordinator, Undergraduate Research

Melissa completed her M.A. Ed at UConn in the Higher Education Student Affairs (HESA) program. She also has a B.A. in social services from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. While completing her master’s at UConn, she worked in the Department of Career Services as a graduate assistant and finished a practicum at the Women’s Center. After graduating from the HESA program, she joined the staff of Undergraduate Career Services at Yale University. Her most recent role was Associate Director of Student and Professional Development. While at Yale, in addition to counseling undergraduates, she also oversaw the general career development curriculum, the Peer Advisor program, and wrote and designed the office publications. After seven years away from UConn, Melissa is thrilled to be back. She hopes to increase student awareness of the opportunities available through the IDEA Grants Program.

Research Interests: Social media in higher education.

Fun Fact: She has an adorable and very spoiled beagle named Maggie who is her pride and joy.

LuAnn Saunders-Kanabay Assistant Director, National Scholarships & Fellowships

LuAnn is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts (B.A., psychology) and UConn (M.A., medieval studies) and has taught European history and art history courses as a visiting instructor at Connecticut College and lecturer at UConn campuses. LuAnn first joined ONS&F as a part-time advisor, while advising full time for students with individualized majors in the Individualized and Interdisciplinary Studies Program. Before joining the Enrichment staff at UConn, she was Student Development Specialist/Academic Advisor at ECSU.

Research Interests: Women in the medieval English village and Norman Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Fun Fact: LuAnn has completed three marathons, six half marathons, and countless 5Ks.

Caroline McGuire Interim Director, Undergraduate Research

Caroline completed a B.A. in French and Italian at Princeton University and a Ph.D. in education at the University of Pennsylvania. She comes to UConn from the University of California, Irvine, where she started as a laboratory manager in the Department of Cognitive Sciences and most recently managed a cluster of academic departments in the School of Humanities. She is looking forward to working with the first cohort of IDEA grant recipients and hopes to establish an online database of active research opportunities at UConn to help connect students with potential projects and mentors.

Research Interests: How students and teachers talk together about multimodal texts and how students appropriate techniques and devices from the texts they encounter.

Fun Fact: She loves fall and winter, so she’s looking forward to experiencing the seasons again!

Edward F. Kammerer, Jr. Pre-Law Advisor

Before coming to UConn, Edward taught several pre-law courses at Northeastern University as part of the minor in Law & Public Policy. These included Introduction to Law; Law & Literature; Introduction to Law, Policy, and Society; Global Human Rights: A Social and Economic Perspective; and Advanced Debate in Law & Policy. Edward is also a trial attorney specializing in criminal defense. Prior to teaching, he worked full time with the Committee for Public Counsel Services as a public defender in some of the busiest courts in Massachusetts. Edward completed his law degree at Suffolk University Law School with a concentration in international law and his undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a double major in English and political science. He is currently completing his doctoral dissertation at Northeastern in Law & Public Policy, focusing on storytelling and persuasion in the legal and policy fight for marriage

equality in Massachusetts. Here at UConn, Edward is developing a Pre-Law Program speaker series called Hot Topics in Law and STEM initiatives from a legal prospective.

Research Interests: Criminal defense, LGBT legal issues, and the intersection of law and public policy.

Fun Fact: Edward is an amateur photographer. Examples of his work can be seen at flickr.com/efkjr79.

Kaitlin Heenehan Program Coordinator, Honors (Programming and Residence Life)

Kaitlin recently graduated from Virginia Tech with a Master of Arts in higher education, where she served as the graduate assistant for living and learning programs. Before attending Virginia Tech, she attended UConn, graduating as an Honors Scholar with a Bachelor of Science in ecology and evolutionary biology. She is excited to be back in Storrs where her passion for higher education began, and looks forward to continuing to use her science and research background to connect with students to help them fulfill their unique missions.

Fun Fact: Kaitlin enjoys playing and watching sports (her favorite professional team is the New York Giants)!