Webinar Speaker Bios

NSF HSI Webinars

Tomasz Durakiewicz, PhD
Program Director 
Condensed Matter Physics Program, Division of Materials Research
HBCU-UP Program, Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM
National Science Foundation

Tomasz Durakiewicz received his Ph.D. in Poland in 1998 in the area of Experimental Physics for work on surface properties of metals. After spending a year as Visiting Professor at the University of New Mexico, Durakiewicz joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2000 as Director's Funded postdoc and converted to staff member in 2003. His main research interests are related to the electronic structure of f-electron materials, mostly actinides, explored by angle-resolved photoemission. In addition, Durakiewicz worked on the electronic structure of topological systems, thermionic emission and work function, and also on applications of stable isotopes. Durakiewicz has coauthored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, over 210 conference abstracts, and 6 patents, and presented over 60 invited talks. His published work was cited over 5800 times. Since July 2014 Durakiewicz serves as Program Director for Condensed Matter Physics (CMP) at the National Science Foundation, and manages NSF programs: Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST Centers), Historically Black Colleges and Universities – Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP),  Expanding Capacity in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (ExpandQISE) and Enabling Quantum Leap: Convergent Accelerated Discovery Foundries for Quantum Materials Science, Engineering and Information (Q-AMASE-i).

Michael Ferrara, PhD
Program Director, Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE)
Directorate for STEM Education (EDU)
DUE Lead, HSI Program
Co-Lead, S-STEM Program
National Science Foundation

Michael Ferrara is a permanent program director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation. He earned his PhD in mathematics from Emory University in 2005 and prior to coming to the NSF was a professor in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver from 2009 - 2020.  Dr. Ferrara maintains active research programs in combinatorics and undergraduate STEM education.  He currently serves as one of the lead program officers for the NSF HSI program (w/ Dr. Sonja Montas-Hunter) and co-lead of the NSF S-STEM program in addition to his work on the IUSE:EDU program. 

Elsa Gonzalez, PhD
Program Director 
IUSE (Improving Undergraduate STEM Education): Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI)
Education Core Research Program (ECR)
Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)
Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM (EES)
Directorate for STEM Education (EDU)
National Science Foundation

Dr. Elsa Gonzalez is Associate Professor at the School of Education in Texas A&M University. Dr. Gonzalez currently serves as Program Director at the National Sciences Foundation for the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) program, Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP), and the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER).

Dr. Gonzalez is the Regional Editor of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), and Board Member of the Journal of Hispanic in Higher Education. She is the author of over hundred publications, her research interests include issues in higher education such as underrepresented students, Latinx students, access, resilience, retention, and graduation in STEM fields; HSI institutions; higher education leadership and methodological issues in cross-language qualitative methodology.

Dr. Gonzalez has professional and academic leadership experience as bilingual scholar in higher education institutions in Mexico, Spain, USA, and China. In 2020, she was awarded from the National Science Foundation (NSF) – with a CAREER grant award for her project: CAREER: Broadening Participation in STEM: A Qualitative Analysis of Resilience Experiences and Strategies of Latina STEM Majors in HSIs. She is the author of the book "An Asset-Based Approach to Advancing Latina Students in STEM: Increasing Resilience, Participation, and Success", the book was awarded as the 2022 Book of the Year by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE). Recently, she was named by Diverse Issues in Higher Education as one of the 25 Most Outstanding Women in Academia 2023 in the US.