Establishing a Women’s Mentorship Network in a STEM Learning Community

Melissa Dagley is the Executive Director of Initiatives in STEM (iSTEM) at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Dagley serves as Director and Co-PI of the NSF-funded STEP 1a and 1b programs ”EXCEL:UCF-STEP Pathways to STEM: From Promise to Prominence” and ”Convincing OutstandingMath-Potential Admits to Succeed in STEM (COMPASS)”. She is currently a Co-PI for the Girls EXCELling in Math and Science (GEMS) and WISE@UCF industry funded women’s mentoring initiatives. Through iSTEM Dr. Dagley works to promote and enhance collaborative efforts on STEM education and research by bringing together colleges, centers, and institutes on campus, as well as other stakeholders with similar interest in STEM initiatives. Her research interests lie in the areas of student access to education, sense of community, retention, first-year experience, living-learning communities, and persistence to graduation for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs.