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.

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

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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.

Karen V. Rosales Doctoral Associate 260 W-Wal

Karen V. Rosales is a doctoral student at the Department of Statistics at Western Michigan University. She was a Teaching Assistant for three years teaching Business Statistics, Elementary Statistics and Finite Mathematics until she joined the Graduate Center for Research and Retention as a statistical consultant in Fall 2008. She earned her MS in Applied Statistics degree at WMU in 2006 and BS Applied Mathematics degree major in Operations Research in the University of the Philippines (Mindanao) in 2001. She was an instructor at UP for three years teaching variety of Mathematics and Statistics courses. She also joined MPI Research in Mattawan, Michigan in 2006 as a Biostatistics intern. In the Graduate College, she is a Doctoral Associate assigned to Dr. Marianne Di Pierro.

Upcoming Workshops

 

MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW SEARCH FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Conducted by EDWARD ECKEL, WMU SCIENCE/ENGINEERING LIBRARIAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2008, 3:00 P.M. – 4:30 P.M.
Location: PARKVIEW CAMPUS: C-224
[click for more information] - [Register Here]

 

Formatting Workshops for the preparation of Doctoral Dissertations, Specialist Projects, Master’s Theses - Registration Required
Tuesday, October 14 10:00 a.m.—11:30 a.m.
[Click for information & Registration]

 

Formatting Workshops for the preparation of Doctoral Dissertations, Specialist Projects, Master’s Theses - Registration Required
Wednesday, October 15 2:00 p.m.—3:30 p.m.
[Click for information & Registration]

 

HOW TO GET PUBLISHED IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS,  A WRITERS’ WORKSHOP
Conducted by: JAN ANDERSON - Owner and President, Beyond Words, Inc., a Midwest Consulting Group Affiliate
Friday, October 17, 2008, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Room 1010, College of Health and Human Services
[Click for more information] - [Register Here]

 

Dissertation Cafe
Conducted by: Maryanne Di Pierro - Director of The Center for Research and Retention, Western Michigan University
Friday, October 17, 2008, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Emeriti Lounge, Walwood Hall, WMU
[Register Here]

 

Research Ethics in a University
Presented by Michael Pritchard - Professor of Philosophy, Western Michigan University
Wednesday, October 22, 2008, from 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Putney Lecture Hall, Fetzer Center
[Register Here]

 

Formatting Workshops for the preparation of Doctoral Dissertations, Specialist Projects, Master’s Theses - Registration Required
Friday, October 24 4:00 p.m.—5:30 p.m.
[Click for information & Registration]

 

MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW SEARCH FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Conducted by EDWARD ECKEL, WMU SCIENCE/ENGINEERING LIBRARIAN
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2008, 7:00 P.M. – 8:30 P.M.
Location: PARKVIEW CAMPUS: C-228
[Click for more information] - [Register Here]

 

MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW SEARCH FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Conducted by EDWARD ECKEL, WMU SCIENCE/ENGINEERING LIBRARIAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008 - 3:00 P.M. – 4:30 P.M.
PARKVIEW CAMPUS: C-224
[Click for more information] - [Register Here]

 

MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW SEARCH FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Conducted by EDWARD ECKEL, WMU SCIENCE/ENGINEERING LIBRARIAN
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008 - 7:00 P.M. – 8:30 P.M.
PARKVIEW CAMPUS: C-228
[Click for more information] - [Regiser Here]

 

MANAGING YOUR CITATIONS WITH REFWORKS
Conducted by MICHELE D. BEHR, OFF CAMPUS SERVICES LIBRARIAN, and EDWARD ECKEL, SCIENCE/ENGINEERING LIBRARIAN
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Session One: 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Session Two: 1:00 p.m. –3:00 p.m.
Location: Waldo Library/Classroom B: Lower Level
[Click for more information] - [ Registration Coming Soon]

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