
Kelly Schrum (Project Co-Director) is a historian and a professor of higher education at George Mason University. Schrum’s research and teaching focus on the history of higher education, scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), digital humanities, online learning, and scholarly digital storytelling. Schrum has directed dozens of digital humanities projects with funding from federal and state agencies and foundations and is the former director of educational projects at RRCHNM. Schrum is co-editor for Teaching & Learning Inquiry.
Nate Sleeter (Project Co-Director) is the Director of Educational Projects at RRCHNM at George Mason University. His research and publications focus on teaching and learning history with an emphasis on teaching history as a thinking skill. He has taught many seminars and courses for educators in person and online with a focus on teaching history and historical thinking. Sleeter earned his PhD in history at George Mason University with a focus on educational history.


Chase J. Catalano (Higher Education Pedagogy Facilitator) is an assistant professor of higher education at Virginia Tech. Catalano is a trans scholar whose research addresses topics of trans(*)ness, social justice, queerness, and higher education administrator education and praxis. He is a co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice and Advising and Supporting in Student Affairs and has published recent articles in Equity & Excellence in Education, Transgender Studies Quarterly (TSQ), and the Journal for Diversity in Higher Education. Catalano’s research focuses on facilitators of LGBTQ+ social justice educational interventions, the history of higher education, and pedagogical approaches for teaching higher education law.
Erin Fay (Project Administrator) is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in higher education at George Mason University. Her research interests include critical pedagogy and ethnographic and participatory inquiry, investigating how belonging, self-efficacy, and agency are experienced by historically underserved students in higher education spaces.


Susan Grunder (Project Manager)is a full-time doctoral student in the Higher Education program at George Mason. Susan’s research interests include student affairs, student engagement, spirituality and religious identity, student activism and institutions with religious affiliations.
Sophia Abbot (Project Assistant) is a doctoral candidate in higher education at George Mason University. She is a former research assistant to Dr. Schrum on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) about integrating digital technology and authentic assessment in history of higher education classes. Her research interests center on SoTL, faculty development, feminist and socially just pedagogies, and pedagogical co-creation and partnership between students and instructors.

Jomayra Jasso (Project Research Assistant) is an undergraduate research assistant pursuing a bachelor’s degree in anthropology after earning an associate’s degree through an early college high school program. Her interests include human lifestyles, traditions, and social cultures.


Madeleine Duvall (Project Research Assistant) is an undergraduate working towards a bachelor’s in art history and plans to pursue a master’s after graduation. Her interests include ancient Egyptian studies, classical art, and art nouveau architecture.
Josey Ribeiro-Mills (Project Research Assistant) is an undergraduate working towards a bachelor’s degree in English. His interests include reading and creative writing.
Expectations:
Read full expectations for NEH summer institutes, including information on eligibility and applying, participant acceptance, principles of civility, participant stipends and attendance, and participant evaluations here.