CURRICULUM VITAE

Undergraduate:         Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Program:                    Psychology and English

Degree:                       B.A., with high distinction and with honors, May 1999

Specialized Training: Center for Courage and Renewal - Foundations of the Courage and Renewal Approach, Coaches Training Institute Co-Active Coach Training Program

APPLIED EXPERIENCE

Independent Program Evaluation, Research, and Communications Consultant, 2014-present.

Planning, managing, and conducting research and evaluation studies for University, non-profit, and for-profit work teams engaged in grant-funded and privately funded projects; assessing and facilitating intra-group communication and functioning; and aiding teams in building team communication and capacity. Methodologies include surveys, interviews, focus groups, group facilitation, structured meetings. Currently the External Evaluator of record for five National Science Foundation CSforAll Research Practice Partnership (RPP) grants.

Assistant Research Professor, Center for Science and Math Education, Loyola University Chicago, 2010-2022.

Planning, managing, and conducting research and evaluation within a multidisciplinary Center that combines efforts of scientists, educators, and researchers. Duties include proposal writing; budgeting; designing, conducting, and writing qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation studies; supervising and mentoring graduate student research assistants and project coordinators. Methodologies employed include field observations, individual interviewing, focus groups, and surveys.

Senior Researcher for the PRAIRIE group, University of Illinois Chicago, 2009-2010.

Managing and conducting research projects for program evaluation group that contracts with institutions including universities and public schools. Duties include proposal writing; budgeting; designing, conducting, and writing qualitative and quantitative evaluation studies. Methodologies employed include field observations, individual interviewing, focus groups, and surveys.

Research Specialist for the PRAIRIE group, University of Illinois Chicago, 2007-2009.

Managing and conducting research projects for program evaluation group that contracts with institutions including universities and public schools. Duties include proposal writing; budgeting; designing, conducting, and writing qualitative and quantitative evaluation studies. Methodologies employed include field observations, individual interviewing, focus groups, and surveys.

Senior Study Director for Calder LaTour Inc., 2005-2007.

Directing all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research studies and strategy development within numerous industries including healthcare, manufacturing, and municipalities, duties included business development, study design, supervision of field services, execution of research methodology, data analysis, report writing, presentations, and client management. Methodologies employed included focus groups, individual interviewing, telephone surveys, web surveys, and conjoint analysis.

Evaluation Specialist for Chicago Public Schools Office of Mathematics and Science, 2003-2005.

Duties included design and execution of evaluation plans for programmatic elements of the Office of Mathematics and Science employing design, implementation, and outcome evaluation methodologies, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis methodologies.  Quantitative analysis included the manipulation of large nested data sets through relational and traditional databases.  Duties also included data presentation and the facilitation of practical data usage throughout OMS and CPS.

Evaluation and Policy Researcher for Teachers Academy for Mathematics and Science, 2001-2003.

Within the policy and planning division of an education nonprofit funded by the state of Illinois, duties included data analysis, synthesis, and presentation; policy literature tracking; quantitative and qualitative program evaluation; creation of instruments for evaluation purposes; and the manipulation of large nested data sets through relational and traditional databases. 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Instructor, Northwestern University Feinburg School of Medicine, Department of Clinical Psychology, 2013.

Instructor for Advanced Social Psychology, a required course for all doctoral candidates in the Clinical Psychology program. Duties included course construction; imparting information pertaining to the theory, methodology, and application of social psychological principles.

Instructor, Northeastern Illinois University, Department of Psychology, 2008.

Instructor for Psychology 375, “Cognitive Psychology.” Topics covered included information processing, language acquisition, long- and short-term memory, and perception.

Instructor, Loyola University Chicago, School of Professional Studies, 2004-2005.

Instructor for Psychology 360, “Consumer Psychology,” Psychology 261 “Social Psychology,” and Psychology 275 “Personality Psychology” for program aimed at adult learners. Duties included course construction; overseeing students in conducting research projects; imparting information pertaining to the theory, methodology, and application of social psychological principles.

Instructor, Loyola University Chicago, Department of Psychology, 2002-2003.

Instructor for Psychology 321, “Lab in Social Psychology,” a social psychology-focused research methods course. Duties include course construction for an undergraduate class in research methodology as applied to social psychological principles; overseeing students in conducting research projects; imparting information pertaining to the ethics, methodology, procedure, and write-up of psychological research.

ACADEMIC RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research assistant to Dr. Victor Ottati, Loyola University Chicago, Department of Psychology, August 1999-2003.

Duties included conceiving, writing, executing, and analyzing research projects, supervising undergraduate assistants, and assisting Dr. Ottati with manuscript preparation.

Schreyer Honor College senior thesis under supervision of Dr. Melvin Mark, Penn State University, Department of Psychology, August 1998-May 1999.

Collaboration on an alternative approach to terror management theory.  Duties include theory generation, cooperation with professor and graduate students, obtaining experiment approval, generation of materials, subject recruitment, experiment execution, data entry, data analysis, experimental write-up for possible collaborative publication.

Research assistant to Dr. Melvin Mark, Penn State University, Department of Psychology, October 1997-May 1998.

Assisted as team member in study concerning the effects of optimism and pessimism on individual’s self-esteem.  Duties included weekly theoretical meetings, subject telephone recruitment, experiment execution, data coding, data entry.  Manuscript now under review for publication by Kristen Eyssell, psychology department graduate student.

Research assistant to Dr. Melvin Mark, Penn State University, Department of Psychology, August 1997-October 1997.

Independently assisted in study concerning terror management theory.  Duties included material preparation, subject recruitment, experiment execution, theoretical evaluation, data coding, data entry, statistical analysis using SPSS.

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

Deiger, M. & Rosato, J. (2022). Evaluating Research Practice Partnerships (RPP): What Factors Inspire Engagement with Partnership and Research Activities? Presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association.

Lange, K. E., Deiger, M., Bourque, M., Tingley, P., Peters, E., Jordan, L. E., & Giaquinto, A. (2020). The Collaborative Development of Active Learning at Loyola University Chicago as Part of the SEMINAL Network. PRIMUS, 1-24.

Jacobi, J. A., Stults, S. E., Shefner, R., Lange, K. E., Abraham, N. S., & Deiger, M. (2019). Connected through Content: Chicago Teachers Partner with Loyola University to Build a Math and Science Learning Community. Learning Professional, 40(3).

Wenzel, S., Deiger, M., Leverett, J., & Mine, N. (2015). High School Science Teachers’ Enactment of Instructional Leadership for School Improvement. Presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the National Association of Research for Science Teaching.

Shefner. R. & Deiger, M. (2014). Changes in Teacher Practice and Student Outcomes in a Middle Grades Science Teacher Professional Development Program. Presented at the 2014 Focus on Illinois Education Symposium.

Deiger, M., Wenzel, S., Leverett, J., & Talbot, M. (2013). Leadership Development in Theory and Practice: Evaluating the Leadership Strand of a Transformation Teacher Institutes Program for High Schools. Presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association.

Leverett, J., & Deiger, M. (2013) Diffusion of Treatment: Preliminary Mapping of the Cohort-level, Extra-program Impact of CTTI(Chicago Teacher Transformation Institutes), a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Professional Development Program. Presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association.

Deiger, M., Wenzel, S., & Slavsky, D. (2013, January). The Structure and Function of Trust in a University Mathematics and Science Professional Development Program. Presented at the 2013 Hawaii International Conference on Education.

Deiger, M. & Wenzel, S. (2012). Factors That Support Success in Eighth-Grade Algebra: Evaluation Findings Put Into Practice. Presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.

Mazboudi, M., Goldwasser, M., Deiger, M., & Fendt, C. (2008). Sharing the Load: Team Writing in Qualitative Research. Presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association.

 Goldwasser, M., Fendt, C., Mazboudi, M., Deiger, M., Harris, R., & Mosak, E. (2008). Contrary to Expectations: When Evaluators Have Bad News to Share. Presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association.

 Deiger, M., & Parks, C., (2007). Pursuing Your Passion: Unleashing the Leader Within. Workshop presented at the 2007 annual University of Illinois Chicago Women’s Leadership Symposium.

 Deiger, M., & Parks, C., (2006). Pursuing Your Passion: Unleashing the Leader Within. Workshop presented at the 2006 annual University of Illinois Chicago Women’s Leadership Symposium.

 Feranchak, B., Wenzel, S., Fendt, C., Hallman, S., Deiger, M., & LaForce, M. (2004).  Evaluating the Chicago Math and Science Initiative: Choices Made in Context to Increase Utilization.  Paper presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association.

Deiger, M. E., LaForce, M., & Feranchak, B. (2004).  High School Course Taking Patterns and their Subsequent Effect on Math Achievement.  Paper presented at the 2004 symposium of the Illinois Educational Research Council.

 Deiger, M. E., Ottati, V. C., & Bryant, F. B. (2003).  Political cognitive motivation scale.  Paper presented at the 2003 annual convention of the Midwestern Psychological Association.

Deiger. M. E.,  & Feranchak, B. (2003).  A quasi-experimental study of the impact of an intensive professional development initiative on student outcomes: One piece of the transfer puzzle.  Paper presented at the 2003 annual convention of the American Educational Research Association.

 Ottati, V. C., &  Deiger, M. (2002).  Visual cues and the candidate evaluation process.  In Ottati, V., Tindale, R. S., Edwards, J., Bryant, F. B., Heath, L., O’Connell, D., C., Suarez-Balcazar, Y., & Posavac, E. J. (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Politics.  New York, NY: Plenum Press.

 Ottati, V. C., Wyer, R. S., & Deiger, M. E. (2002).  The psychological determinants of candidate evaluation and voting preference. In Ottati, V., Tindale, R. S., Edwards, J., Bryant, F. B., Heath, L., O’Connell, D., C., Suarez-Balcazar, Y., & Posavac, E. J. (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Politics.  New York, NY: Plenum Press.

Deiger, M. E., & Ottati, V. C. (2002).  Multiple stereotype suppression: A condition of cognitive load?  Poster presented at the 2002 annual convention of the Midwestern Psychological Association.

Deiger, M. E., Spinos A. M., & Ottati, V. C. (2002).  Metaphor and persuasion: Examining the moderating role of effort.  Poster presented at the 2002 annual convention of the Midwestern Psychological Association.

Deiger, M. E., Spinos, A. M., & Ottati, V. C. (2002). Metaphor and persuasion: Examining the moderating role of effort.  Poster presented at the 14th annual convention of the American Psychological Society.

SPECIALIZED SKILLS

Quantitative Skills

Experience with univariate and multivariate statistical applications including linear regression, analysis of variance, log-linear regression, logistic regression, structural equation modeling, hierarchical linear modeling, factor analysis, meta analysis, conjoint analysis, and latent segment analysis.

Programming Skills

Extensive experience with SPSS windows and SPSS syntax; SAS; LISREL; HLM 5; Latent Gold.

Qualitative Skills

Experience coding written cognitive responses, survey construction, behavioral coding schemes, program evaluation methodology, interviewing methodology, focus group moderation, field observations.

Coaching and Mentoring

Completed a five-course Co-Active Coach Training Program with the Coaches Training Institute. Skills involve questioning techniques aimed at establishing goals, creating action plans, and facilitating growth and discovery.

EDUCATION

Graduate:

Program:

Degree:

Loyola University Chicago

Applied Social Psychology

MA, May 2002

Thesis Title: Multiple Stereotype Suppression

PhD, May 2005

Dissertation Title: The Effect of Service Learning on Cognitive Complexity