EERC Staff: Who We Are

Michelle Van Noy is the Director of the Education and Employment Research Center at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She has over 20 years of experience conducting research on education and workforce. Her research includes studies of technician education, community college noncredit education, student decision making about majors and careers, quality in non-degree credentials, higher education labor market alignment, and effective practices in workforce education. 

Before joining EERC, Dr. Van Noy conducted research on community college workforce education at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers and the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has experience conducting large-scale national evaluations in education and workforce development from her previous work at Mathematica Policy Research. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology and education from Columbia University, a M.S. in public policy from Rutgers, and a B.A. in psychology and Spanish from Rutgers.

Genevive Bjorn holds a doctorate in education from Johns Hopkins University, focusing on online learning and mixed methods research methods. Her research interests center on the intersection of higher education, online teaching and learning, science, and equity. Before doctoral research, Genevive taught secondary chemistry at Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, CA. She received an NSF Noyce teaching fellowship in 2013 and won a national teaching award in 2017 from the National Association of Science Teachers. She was also a science journalist and regular contributor to Nature Medicine, and her work has appeared in Nature, Science, The New York Times, and many others. She also received a Knight journalism fellowship in 2011. She has authored and co-authored dozens of publications. Currently, she teaches scientific writing in the COMET program at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

Genevive earned her M.Ed. from the University of California San Diego, M.S. in biomedical sciences from the University of Hawaii, and B.A. in biology and chemistry from Boston University. 

Tracy Cangiano is a Program Coordinator at EERC. As such, she is responsible for program and project coordination and administration. Tracy has a B.A. from Rutgers University.

Dr. Maria L. Espino is newly minted PhD in the Higher Education Administration Program from Iowa State University. Her dissertation explored how Latin* first-generation, low-income early college high school graduates are transitioning to a four-year institution. She obtained her Master’s degree in Educational Policy and Leadership at Marquette University and her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a double major in Community and Nonprofit Leadership and Gender and Women studies. As a qualitative researcher, she explores (in)equities in higher education particularly focusing on the experiences of marginalized students. As a scholar and a student advocate, she believes that it is important to not only conduct research, it is crucial to humanize, empower, and support the community.

Alysa is a Ph.D. Student, Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management and a researcher with EERC.

Tom Hilliard is Research Engagement Manager at the Education and Employment Research Center. He previously served as Senior Policy Analyst at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University, where he shaped state policy innovation around student basic needs security for college students; Senior Advisor to the New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education, where he managed high-priority initiatives for the Secretary; and Senior Fellow for Economic Opportunity at the Center for an Urban Future, a New York-based think tank, where he wrote numerous research studies on higher education and other economic opportunity-related topics. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Auburn University and a Master’s in Policy and Planning from the Bloustein School at Rutgers University.

Parthavi Patel is an undergraduate at the School of Management and Labor Relations. She studies HR, Psychology, and Labor Studies. She is interested in economic development and educational outcomes for students and is excited about the work she is involved in at the EERC. Parthavi hopes to pursue graduate school in the future.

Eliza Peterson is a Researcher with the Education and Employment Research Center. She is a graduate of the Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences, earning her B.A. in American Studies in 2022. Her senior thesis “‘Meet Me Behind the Mall’: Reassessing the Social and Cultural Value of the American Shopping Mall” earned the Henry Rutgers Scholar Award and departmental honors. A portion of her thesis was published in the Aresty Rutgers Undergraduate Research Journal. In 2023, she earned her M.Ed. in Secondary Social Studies Education. Eliza has been on the EERC team since June 2020, where she has contributed to several studies and evaluations on topics like student decision making, workforce programs, and other topics within the world of community college education. Her research interests lie at the intersections between K-12 education, community colleges, workforce programming, and labor. 

Atreyi is a Program Coordinator at the EERC. She graduated from Rutgers in 2023 with a degree in Political Science and Public Relations.

Rohan Shah is a research assistant at the Education and Employment Research Center (EERC) and a student at Rutgers Business School, majoring in Computer Science and Finance. In this role, he supports research on management approaches, worker skills, and productivity in the U.S. manufacturing sector, gathering and analyzing data from industry contacts to identify trends and challenges. Rohan also attends project meetings, collaborates with senior researchers, and maintains detailed records in Excel to contribute to comprehensive study reports.

Anjali Srivastava is a Researcher at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey’s Education and Employment Research Center (EERC). She is currently working on EERC’s State Noncredit Data Project as well as research and evaluation projects studying technical education and apprenticeships. Her research experience encompasses utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods in academic and nonprofit organizational settings. She earned her Ph.D. in Planning and Public Policy and M.A. in Sociology from Rutgers and B.A. from University of Chicago, majoring in Sociology.

Justin is a doctoral student at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. His primary research areas are in labor and employment relations and organizational structure, and include the topics of labor-management partnership, collaborative work arrangements, high performance work systems, and the changing role of middle management. He also approaches his research with a policy lens as his current projects take place in public education and healthcare settings. He works at the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers, studying workforce development programs in community colleges across the US.

Justin is the recipient of the Baden-Württemberg Scholarship to study at the University of Konstanz’s Department of Politics and Public Administration. In addition to working on numerous projects, he is co-writing a review of Robert B. McKersie’s recent book, A Field in Flux: Sixty Years of Industrial Relations, which will be published in LERA’s latest Perspectives on Work volume. He was also co-organizer of the first annual Industrial Relations PhD Student Conference held at Cornell ILR, involving doctoral students from Rutgers SMLR, MIT Sloan, and Cornell ILR.

Michelle Zhu is a Research Assistant for the Education and Employment Research Center (EERC). She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Finance with a minor in Computer Science at Rutgers Business School. Michelle is the Peer Mentor for the Business and Economics LLC, Communications Director for Rutgers Democrats, and the Co-Director of Marketing for Rutgers FORM. 

Dr. Elisabeth Barnett is a Research Affiliate with the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University. She also serves as Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University and is a Professor of Practice with the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership at Kansas State University. Dr. Barnett’s research interests relate to workforce education, access to college, student assessment and placement, college culture, student supports, and dual enrollment. Dr. Barnett has authored or co-authored research reports, book chapters, and articles on a wide range of related topics. Dr. Barnett received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Educational Organization and Leadership with a focus on higher education.

Peter Bahr serves as Associate Professor in the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. Dr. Bahr is a nationally recognized scholar and expert on community colleges, student outcomes, and economic mobility. His research focuses on students’ pathways into and through community colleges and other sub-baccalaureate institutions, and then into the workforce or onto four-year postsecondary institutions. His current work is funded by federal and foundation grants encompassing investigations of how to improve education and labor market outcomes of students in postsecondary career and technical education, including short-term skills-building programs, longer-term credential programs, and stackable credential pathways; research illuminating how noncredit workforce education programs are being utilized by community colleges and the education and labor market outcomes that students in noncredit programs are experiencing; studies seeking to strengthen STEM pathways from community colleges to universities; and research on optimizing developmental education reform in community colleges.

Debra D. Bragg is President of Bragg and Associates, Inc., an equity-minded consulting group dedicated to advancing student success in education and employment. During her career, she founded two community college research centers, Community College Research Initiatives at the University of Washington in Seattle (2016-2020) and the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1989-2015) where she is Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor emerita. Dr. Bragg’s research focuses on transitions to and through education to employment. She has led national studies on a wide range of P-20 education policies, including developmental education, career-technical education and career pathways, transfer (vertical and reverse credit), and community college baccalaureates.  .

Dr. Bragg uses quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand how different levels of change and innovation are working to enhance student success, including student, program, institution, system, state, and national levels. Dr. Bragg has an extensive resume, including books, journal articles, briefs, and blogs in major media outlets. In 2015 she was named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and Dr. Bragg received the Distinguished Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) in 2016. In 2019, Dr. Bragg was honored with the national Transfer Champion Award from the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students (NISTS).

Dr. Bragg received a BS degree in secondary teaching from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MS and PhD degrees from The Ohio State University, with specializations in postsecondary and adult education, public policy, and program evaluation.

Mark D’Amico is a Professor of Higher Education at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research occurs at the intersection of community college student success and workforce development. Mark is currently Co-PI on a project with the Rutgers Education and Employment Research Center funded by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES-NSF) to study the community college noncredit data infrastructure. He is a Past-President of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges and former Associate Editor of Community College Review.  Prior to his faculty role, Mark served in administrative positions with the South Carolina Technical College System, Midlands Technical College, Francis Marion University, and UNC Charlotte.

Monica Reid Kerrigan is a Professor in the Educational Services and Leadership Department at Rowan University, where she teaches courses on higher education policy, community colleges, and research methods in the Educational Leadership EdD program and the PhD in Education program. She also serves as the coordinator of the Rowan University Community College Leadership Initiative (CCLI).

Her research interests include institutional structures and public policies that influence the transition of historically marginalized students into and through higher education and into the labor market. She also explores the research methods that support inquiry into students’ access to and success in postsecondary education.  She has published in academic journals and edited volumes including The Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, American Behavioral Scientist.

She is also co-owner of Kerrigan Reid LLC, a firm focused on employee benefits and educational consulting.

Bill has 20 years of experience in using longitudinal administrative data to study the employment and economic effects of education and workforce development policies and programs. Much of his work has focused on evaluating the effectiveness policy initiatives and programs that support community colleges and the public workforce system. In addition, Bill specializes in building user-friendly data visualizations based on these data.To deliver the results of his analyses, Bill has authored numerous studies and built practical tools for data visualization.

Corey Moss-Pech is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida State University. His research examines how individuals navigate educational organizations and labor market institutions to better understand stratification and social mobility outcomes with particular emphasis on gender inequality.  His research agenda is motivated by changes to the economy that make jobs and careers less stable while simultaneously increasing the cost of higher education. He investigates how these two forces shape individuals’ career tracks and higher education decision-making with a focus on intersecting inequalities, including gender, race, and class. Corey’s first book, Major Trade-Offs: The Surprising Truths about College Majors and Entry-level Jobs is forthcoming May 2025 with the University of Chicago Press. Before joining FSU, Corey was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Sociology Department at the University of Michigan.