The Graduate College

The Graduate Center for Research and Retention is an innovative one-of-a-kind center that provides sustained one-on-one mentoring, guidance, and advising support to graduate students in all fields. The Center represents an integrated approach to retention, conducts research on time to degree, participates in national research initiatives in graduate education that ensure best practices, and implements programmatic interventions to enhance opportunities for graduate degree completion for all students, and especially for students from underrepresented groups. The Center director is a conflict resolution strategist, serving the needs of graduate students and graduate advising faculty at WMU.

The Graduate Center for Research and Retention announces
Virtual Office Hours

If you need a quick response to your general questions, you may now send an Instant Message to Dr. Marianne Di Pierro, Director of the Graduate Center for Research and Retention, on Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

You can use either AOL or Yahoo Instant messengers by contacting the following usernames:

For Yahoo IM use: GraduateCenterWMU

For AOL Instant Messenger use: GradCenterWMU

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Publication Highlight
from Graduate College Staff

Dr. Marianne Di Pierro

Dr. Marianne Di Pierro has been a member of the Graduate College for six years, serving as Director of the Graduate Center for Research and Retention. The Center is an innovative one-of-a-kind retention entity. It provides sustained one-on-one mentoring, guidance, and advising support to graduate students in all fields, and it employs an integrated approach to retention. Di Pierro conducts research on time to degree, participates in national research initiatives in graduate education that ensure best practices are deployed across the University, and implements programmatic interventions to enhance opportunities for graduate degree completion for all students, and especially those from underrepresented groups. She is also the Graduate College Legata, and is a conflict resolution strategist, serving the needs of graduate students and graduate advising faculty at WMU.

Di Pierro holds a doctorate in English from the University of South Florida and is the recipient of the William G. Bentley Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate in her undergraduate class at the University of Maryland. She was recently elected by the national membership of the Modern Language Association to the Delegate Assembly for a three-year term as a special-interest delegate, representing independent scholars and professionals with alternative careers. Her current research focus is concentrated in graduate education.

Recent Publications and Presentations

• Di Pierro, M. ( 2006, May) Strategies for doctoral student retention: taking the roads less traveled, paper presented at the Educational Policy Institute Retention 2006 International Conference on Student Retention, Las Vegas, NE.
  
• Di Pierro, M. (2007). Excellence in doctoral education: defining best practices. College Student Journal, 2, 368-375.
• Di Pierro, M. (2007). Debriefing: an essential final step in
  doctoral education. Journal of Quality and Participation, American Society for Quality, 2, 14-16.
  Read the entire article in its original format in this .pdf file
• Di Pierro, M. (in press). Preparing for the oral defense of the dissertation. American Society for Quality, Higher Education Brief, Vol 3, No 1, January 2010.
  Read the article here: http://www.asq.org/edu/2010/01/career-development/preparing-for-the-oral-defense-of-a-dissertation.pdf
• Di Pierro, M. (in press). Disambiguation: through the looking glass - from debriefing to process improvement, Journal of Quality and Participation, October 2010.

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Graduate Center for Research and Retention Staff

Doctoral Associate 260 W-WAL 7-8267 home page

A full time Ph.D. student in the Evaluation, Measurement, and Research Program at Western Michigan University. Julien obtained a BA in Interpersonal/Organizational communication from Manchester College, Indiana, USA. He has also earned a BA in Marketing and advertising from the EST-Loko, Ivory Coast. Julien is a public health professional with a M.P.H. obtained from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He worked at Grady Health system as health communication specialist, at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as research assistant and with the Atlanta Public School as a French Teacher. Julien's evaluation projects include the Evaluation of Health Worker Performance in the Treatment of Pneumonia Among Children Seen at Outpatient Facilities in Ouémé, Southeastern Benin: a Longitudinal Study of Patient Register and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Vaccination Trial Information Cards and Their Effectiveness in Increasing Participation Among Members of the African American Community.” Julien's expertise in personal and organizational communication, multi-cultural, public health and teaching are his strongest professional contribution.

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Current Workshops

OUR SERVER IS DOWN AND YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO REGISTER FOR WORKSHOPS ON-LINE. PLEASE EMAIL JAMES KISON AT james.kison@wmich.edu AND BE CERTAIN TO LIST THE NAME OF THE WORKSHOP YOU WANT TO ATTEND. HE WILL REGISTER YOU.

james.kison@wmich.edu

 

Overview of SPSS

Presented by the Graduate Center for Research and Retention

Conducted by Mr. Lincoln Jiang, Graduate Student, WMU Department of Statistics, and Graduate Assistant, Graduate Center for Research and Retention

Date:       MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2010
Time:        9:00 A.M. – NOON
Location: ROOM 1416: COMPUTER LAB, COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

[More Information] - [Register Here]

 

Successful Grant Writing

Presented by the Graduate Center for Research and Retention

Conducted by Gina Betcher, Research and Program Officer, Office of the Vice President For Research, Western Michigan University

Date:       THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010
Time:        1:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M.
Location: FETZER CENTER

[More Information] - [Register Here]

 

Overview of SAS

Presented by the Graduate Center for Research and Retention

Conducted by Mr. Lincoln Jiang, Graduate Student, WMU Department of Statistics, and Graduate Assistant, Graduate Center for Research and Retention

Date:       MONDAY,  MARCH 22, 2010
Time:        9:00 A.M. –  NOON
Location: ROOM 1416, COMPUTER LAB, COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

[More Information] - [Register Here]

 

HOW TO GET PUBLISHED IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS, A WRITERS’ WORKSHOP

Presented by the Graduate Center for Research and Retention
Conducted by JAN ANDERSON , Owner and President, Beyond Words, Inc., a Midwest Consulting Group Affiliate

Date:       TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 2010
Time:        9:00 A.M. – Noon.
Location: Room 2089, College of Health and Human Services

[More Information] - [Registration Coming Soon]

 

Research Data Management

Presented by the Graduate Center for Research and Retention

Conducted by: Mr. Julien Kouame, Ph.D. student in the Evaluation, Measurement, and Research Program and Doctoral Associate at the Graduate Center for Research and Retention

Date:       WEDNESDAY,  APRIL 7, 2010
Time:        1:00 P.M. –  3:00 P.M.
Location: Fetzer Center

[More Information] - [Register Here]