Dr. Linda J. Sax, Founding Director
Linda J. Sax (she/her/hers) is a professor of higher education in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA. She is also the founding director of Momentum: Accelerating Equity in Computing and Technology at UCLA. For over three decades, Dr. Sax’s research has focused on gender differences in college student development, with an emphasis on women in STEM fields. She has secured over $10 million in extramural support from organizations including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Computing Research Association, AnitaB.org, the Kapor Center, and Pivotal Ventures. Dr. Sax previously served as national director (from 1997 to 2005) of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), the nation’s largest and longest-running multi-institutional study of college students. Dr. Sax is the author of more than 100 publications, including The Gender Gap in College: Maximizing the Developmental Potential of Women and Men (Jossey-Bass, 2008). She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1999 Early Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the 2005 AAUW Scholar-in-Residence Award, the 2015 UCLA Department of Education Distinguished Teaching Award, and the 2019 ASHE Mentoring Award.
Kathleen J. Lehman (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Academic Researcher and Assistant Adjunct Professor in UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies and serves as Associate Director of Momentum: Accelerating Equity in Computing and Technology at UCLA. Dr. Lehman holds a B.A. in French from Miami University. Then, she started her career in higher education, earning a Master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs from The Ohio State University and taking on several roles in student affairs working with living-learning programs for STEM students first at The Ohio State University and later at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. After watching women and minoritized students struggle to find support in these programs, ultimately leading many to switch to non-STEM majors, Dr. Lehman moved into research, where she would be better positioned to impact best practices and institutional change in support of groups historically excluded from STEM fields. While working with Dr. Sax to launch BRAID Research, Dr. Lehman earned her PhD from UCLA in 2017, after which she began working for Momentum full-time. Her research interests center on the experiences of women and minoritized students in STEM fields (particularly computer science), with an emphasis on creating additional pathways into STEM/computing majors and fields. Dr. Lehman serves as co-Principal Investigator for several Momentum projects, including the NSF-funded broadening participation literature database, as well as the team’s work with the Center for Inclusive Computing.
HyeJin Tina Yeo is a Post-Doctoral scholar of Momentum: Accelerating Equity in Computing and Technology at UCLA. Her primary research activities involve working on the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research entitled the Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC) longitudinal survey project. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Higher Education in the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests are motivated by exploring how diversity, equity, and inclusion shape minoritized and marginalized students’ access and success in different higher education institutions. Specifically, she has investigated campus climates and racial microaggressions, educational and career pathways of domestic and international students of color at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and community colleges. As a scholar-activist, she continues to pursue efforts in researching, teaching, and mentoring to erode prejudice, create a local culture of inclusion and diversity, and foster a global change of higher education towards a more equitable, inclusive, and just system of learning and societal change. She tries to meditate every day. She loves watching documentaries about history, space, and cold cases.
Chantra Nhien (he/him/his) is an Assistant Project Scientist of Momentum: Accelerating Equity in Computing and Technology at UCLA. Prior to earning his Ph.D. in Higher Education & Organizational Change from UCLA, Dr. Nhien completed his B.S. in Biology from University of California Los Angeles and M.P.H. in Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences San Diego State University. Dr. Nhien recently completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Florida State University’s Center for Postsecondary Success where he used quantitative research designs to examine community college pathways to computing for women and other underrepresented groups. His current role on Momentum primarily includes collecting, analyzing, and visualizing enrollment and degree attainment. Additionally, his research focuses on investigating the college experiences of underrepresented groups within STEM fields with a particular focus on computing students and Southeast Asian students. Outside of academia, Chantra enjoys outdoor running and most recently completed the 2023 Chicago Marathon.
Catherine Jang (she/her/hers) is a Ph.D. student at UCLA’s Higher Education and Organizational Change program. She holds a Master of Arts degree in education from UCLA as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and mathematics from Harvey Mudd College. Catherine’s research interests are in diversifying the field of computing and improving the experiences of historically underserved students in the field. In particular, she is passionate about better understanding the intersectional experiences of women of color in computing and examining student transitions from undergraduate programs into both graduate programs and the tech industry.
Brian Le (he/him/his) is currently a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change (HEOC) program at UCLA. Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology & health from Iowa State University and a master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Marquette University. Prior to attending UCLA, Brian worked at Iowa State University for 4 years as a student’s program coordinator for the Science Bound program, a pre-college through college program focused on working with scholars from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue a degree in STEM. He has been a research affiliate on multiple NSF-funded projects surrounding equity in STEM. Brian’s research interests are college access, retention, marginalized students, community colleges, first-generation, STEM education, STEM identity development and engineering education.
Max Pereyra (he/him/his) is a Ph.D. student in the UCLA Higher Education and Organizational Change program. Additionally, he is earning a graduate certificate in advanced quantitative methodology in educational research. He earned his Master of Education at UCLA with a specialization in student affairs, as well as a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside. Prior to his work at Momentum, Max worked for three years as a graduate researcher at the UCLA CARE Program, providing gender-based violence prevention education to the UCLA community. Max’s research concerns college student development, examining how identities such as gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity shape college student experiences.
Katie Stormes (she/her/hers) is currently a Ph.D. student in the UCLA Higher Education and Organizational Change program. Katie also holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology from Humboldt State University. Prior to returning to school, she worked at California State University, Long Beach on the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative which serves to increase diversity and representation among women and underrepresented minority students in the biomedical and behavioral health-related fields. Katie is passionate about studying factors that facilitate or impede major persistence, retention, and graduation for women and minority students in STEM.
Paul Zhang is an undergraduate Computer Science major at UCLA, graduating in the spring of 2025. He is passionate about improving diversity and retention in computer science, engineering and technology. As a member of the Society of Women Engineers at UCLA, he works to promote change on policy and legislative issues. At Momentum, Paul has assisted the literature database project team by fact-checking papers and will continue aiding the team with data cleaning and survey analysis.
Dr. Jennifer Blaney 
Dr. Christopher Lynnly Hovey is a research scientist for the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), and a research associate in the Information Technology Education Contexts (ITEC) Lab within the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research investigates issues and solutions for systemic change to improve gender parity in undergraduate and graduate computing programs, and for identifying and promoting strategies to increase postsecondary educators’ adoption and sustained use of teaching practices that support inclusiveness, engagement, and retention. Representing the first BRAID-NCWIT research collaboration, Chris partnered with Kathleen Lehman and Tiffani Riggers-Piehl to explore the nexus between sociocultural and attitudinal phenomena and what pedagogical practices faculty use in their introductory computing classes, finding that systemic reform requires also addressing faculty beliefs about students, learning, and their peers. Chris earned a B.A. in sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a masters and PhD in sociology from Northeastern University in Boston.
Tomi Rajninger graduated from UCLA in June 2022 with a B.S in Statistics and a minor in Public Affairs. After working as one of Momentum’s Undergraduate Research Interns for three years while at UCLA, Tomi recently moved to Washington, D.C. to begin her career working in the intersection of statistics, data science, public policy, and social change. She will also continue working on Momentum’s early career paper team.
Daisy Ramirez is a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change program at UCLA where she also received a master’s degree. Prior to attending UCLA, Daisy studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara and received a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Her research interests center around community college students’ educational and occupational trajectories, pathways into graduate education, and Latinx student experiences.
Michelle Sendowski is a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change program. Michelle holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and American Studies from UC Berkeley, a master’s degree in urban education from UPenn, and a master’s degree in Higher Education and Organizational Change from UCLA. Previously, she worked in undergraduate admission at Stanford University and taught high school history in Philadelphia. Her research interests center around access and equity within computing, with an emphasis on the under-representation of women in tech.
Dr. Sarah L. Rodriguez
Dr. Jane Stout earned her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011. She has been studying diversity-related issues in science and technology for more than a decade, has published widely on the topic, and has received several grants and awards for her work. Dr. Stout has expertise in data science, statistics, and qualitative methods, which she uses in her consulting role for BRAID projects.
Sarayu Sundar is a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change (HEOC) program at UCLA. Sarayu holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of Houston. Prior to attending UCLA, Sarayu worked for six years in student affairs at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business. Her current research examines the role of cultural and gender identities in South Asian women’s college choice process.
Annie M. Wofford, Ph.D. (she/her), is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at Florida State University. Her research interests center on structural inequities within graduate education, and she focuses on the development of equity-minded structures of support in STEM students’ trajectories to and through graduate school. Wofford’s research about doctoral students’ mentoring practices has most recently been funded through a partnership with the 
Lecia Barker is a Senior Research Scientist for the National Center for Women & Information Technology and Associate Professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Lecia conducts research in attracting, retaining, and advancing groups underrepresented in professional computing careers. Her studies focus on the structures that shape individuals’ choices to pursue or avoid technical education and careers by understanding issues such as social climate, identity/belonging, faculty adoption of teaching and curricular practices, and sustainable organizational change. She also designs programmatic interventions to advance women’s meaningful participation in computing from secondary through graduate education.
Joy Gaston Gayles, Ph.D. is professor of higher education and senior advisor for the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the college of education at North Carolina State University. She is also president for the Association for the Student of Higher Education (ASHE). Her research focuses on access and success in post-secondary education for women and people of color in STEM fields as well as intercollegiate athletics. Recently, she co-edited a book volume entitled Advancing Higher Education Research on Undergraduate Women in STEM. She recently completed a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project on early-career faculty of color in engineering.
Dr. Allison Scott is the CEO of the Kapor Foundation, part of the Kapor Center family of organizations, aiming to increase racial diversity in tech and entrepreneurship. We believe that when the tech workforce and leadership reflects the diversity of the country, innovation will be strengthened and tech can be used to close longstanding gaps across sectors. At the Foundation, Dr. Scott leads efforts to: (a) conduct research on barriers and solutions to racial inequality in tech, and (b) operate programs and invest in pathways into the tech/entrepreneurship workforce, and (c) work in partnership with stakeholders to advocate for transformational change in policies and practices to expand racial equity in technology. Dr. Scott is currently a Principal Investigator on multiple national grants to expand equity in computer science education and increase participation of women of color across the computing pipeline and in her previous role as the Chief Research Officer, authored foundational research on disparities in tech and entrepreneurship, inequity in CS education, and interventions to improve STEM outcomes for students of color. Previous positions include: Chief Research Officer at the Kapor Center; Program Leader for the National Institutes of Health’s Enhancing the Diversity of the Biomedical Workforce Initiative; Director of Research and Evaluation for the Level Playing Field Institute, and Data Analyst for the Education Trust-West. Dr. Scott holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Hampton University.
Xueli Wang is the Barbara and Glenn Thompson Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research agenda centers on identifying factors and contexts that shape underserved students’ learning, experiences, and trajectories to success. Her scholarship has primarily advanced this area of focus through two interconnected strands: (1) students’ participation and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields; and (2) the access, progress, and development of students who begin postsecondary education at community colleges. A notable example of Dr. Wang’s work is 