Sonia J. Toson, JD, MBA, CDP,                                                                       Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer
 Kennesaw State University

Sonia J. Toson serves as the Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Director of Diversity Relations for the Michael J. Coles College of Business. She holds a faculty appointment as a tenured Associate Professor of Law in the School of Accountancy and her teaching areas include the Legal Environment of Business, Negotiation Theory, Strategy, and Practice, and Employment Law. She is a proud graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she earned her B.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures. She received both her Juris Doctorate and her Master of Business Administration from American University in Washington, DC. Dr. Toson has been a licensed attorney in the State of Georgia since 2001. Before beginning a career in academia, she spent 8 years in private practice specializing in Entrepreneurship Law, Real Estate, and Construction Law. Her research interests include the intersection between the law and social entrepreneurship/corporate social responsibility, social responsibility and the legal environment of sports, and pedagogical aspects of the study of law and negotiation.

CHARMAINE E. TROY, PH.D.
Associate Director of First-Generation Student Initiatives
First-Generation Student Initiatives
Georgia Institute of Technology

Charmaine Troy Ph.D. currently serves as the Associate Director of First-Generation Student Initiatives at Georgia Tech. In this role, she is focused on the access, equity, and success of first-generation students. She leads the university’s work in supporting the co-curricular success of first-generation college students and overseeing the planning, development and implementation of programming for first-generation students. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she served as Assistant Dean for First-Generation Student Success at Virginia Tech.

She is co-editor of the books Developing and Implementing Promising Practices and Programs for First-Generation Students and Graduate Education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): A Student Perspective. She is co-author of the book chapter “Mentoring Experiences of Graduate Students in HBCU Professional Programs.” Dr. Troy earned a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master in Public Administration from North Carolina Central University, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Higher Education from Morgan State University.

Román Liera, PH.D.
Assistant Professor of Higher Education                                        Montclair State University                                                                        IGEN Workshop Moderator

Román Liera (PhD, University of Southern California) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership. He designed his research program to study how college and university practices and policies perpetuate racial inequity and how faculty and administrators can transform such practices and policies to advance racial equity. His current projects focus on understanding the faculty job market and faculty hiring as racialized structures. One project investigates the experiences of doctoral Students of Color in the faculty job market, specifically during COVID-19. Another project examines faculty hiring as a process to create a more racially equitable campus culture. His research appears in the Journal of Higher Education, American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, among others.

alphabetically by first name

Anant Girdhar

Assistant Instructor / Graduate Student - Georgia Institute of Technology

Anant is a PhD student at the Georgia Institute of Technology studying Aerospace Engineering. He currently serves as the Assistant Instructor for GT6000 after having served as a Group Leader since Fall 2017. In his current role, he assists the Instructor of Record with Group Leader training, keeping the course content updated, ensuring smooth logistical functioning of the course, and analyzing trends from student feedback and surveys. Additionally, he enjoys teaching and has completed the Tech to Teaching certificate offered by Georgia Tech.

Brittani Hill

Marketing and Communications Manager - Georgia Institute of Technology

Brittani Hill is a digital marketing and communications professional with over six years of experiential marketing experience across various industries. She excels in creating and implementing results-oriented strategies. Brittani received her Bachelor's in Communication Arts and Public Relations from Georgia Southern University. She joined Georgia Tech in 2022.

Dr. Bill Black

Associate Professor, MAcc Program Faculty Coordinator - University of North Georgia

Bill Black teaches accounting theory, financial analysis, fraud examination, cost analysis, and accounting technology in the Masters of Accountancy (MAcc) program at UNG, and manages the academic aspects of the program. The UNG MAcc program has roots in successful programs taught at other institutions (Case Western, Illinois, Emory, Georgia State, and others) but implements several innovative enhancements to meet the needs of our students and employers in our service area. All our MAcc faculty have extensive business experience - Bill has more than 30 years service in litigation and business valuation engagements, financial analysis and management consulting projects, and information systems. He teaches MAcc courses with substantial emphasis on current developments, and utilizes business connections to bring real-world challenges into the classroom for student enlightenment.

Dr. Marc Ebelhar

Graduate Student Success Specialist - Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Marc Ebelhar serves as Graduate Student Success Specialist in the Office of Graduate Education at Georgia Tech and is the Instructor of Record for GT6000. Marc has close to 20 years of experience as a higher education professional with a primary focus in graduate education, students in transition, LGBTQIA allyship, and university housing. Marc earned a bachelor of arts in economics and political science from Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY, a master of education in higher education and student affairs from the University of South Carolina, and a doctorate in student affairs leadership from the University of Georgia. Outside of work Marc enjoys playing board games, is a Memphis Grizzlies basketball fanatic, and loves to explore Buford Highway with his partner Christina.

Mark Forehand

Senior Assistant Dean GEM - Kennesaw State University

Mark has worked at KSU since 2014 in a variety of positions. He has worked in his current position in the Graduate College since 2019.

Dr. Nadine Kabengi

Associate Dean, The Graduate School & Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences - Georgia State University

IGEN Workshop Moderator

Nadine Kabengi is Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Georgia State and Associate Professor with a joint appointment with the Department of Geosciences and the Department of Chemistry. Her scholarly work investigates the fate and transport of contaminants in soils and water systems across multiple scales and applications. Her expertise lies in the application and construction of flow microcalorimeters techniques and instrumentations for measuring the energetics and thermodynamic properties of various chemical surface reactions. She is a trained facilitator of the Inclusive Graduate Education Network (NSF-IGEN) workshops on equity minded holistic application reviews and has delivered these workshops at institutions across the nation, and various colleges and departments at Georgia State. She is the faculty advisor of STEMulate, an all-inclusive STEM campus organization that serves to increase diversity and inclusivity in all STEM fields. Dr. Kabengi teaches an honors seminar class that examines the lack of representation in the sciences and empowers students through guided readings and class discussions to seek and persist in their disciplines. She is the 2022 recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Diversity Award for her commitment to diversity throughout her research, teaching and service activities.

Nazanin Tork

Associate Director Graduate Admissions & Recruitment - Georgia Institute of Technology

Nazanin Tork is the Associate Director of Graduate Admissions & Recruitment at Georgia Tech. In this role, she leads and coordinates graduate admissions and recruitment across the Institute's six colleges, including online and on-campus programs. Nazanin is focused on supporting social mobility by advocating for equal access and creating a diverse and welcoming campus community for students, faculty, and staff. Her experiences have ranged from working with international government agencies and universities, U.S. Federal TRIO programs, women’s colleges, and historically black colleges and universities. Prior to her position at Georgia Tech, she served in leadership roles at public and private universities as well as an international portfolio company. Nazanin attended the University of Cincinnati, earning a BA in Psychology and an MA in Cultural Anthropology.

Dr. Román Liera

Assistant Professor at Montclair State University

Román Liera (PhD, University of Southern California) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership. He designed his research program to study how college and university practices and policies perpetuate racial inequity and how faculty and administrators can transform such practices and policies to advance racial equity. His current projects focus on understanding the faculty job market and faculty hiring as racialized structures. One project investigates the experiences of doctoral Students of Color in the faculty job market, specifically during COVID-19. Another project examines faculty hiring as a process to create a more racially equitable campus culture. His research appears in the Journal of Higher Education, American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, among others.

Susan Belmonte

Assistant Director, Pre-Graduate Advising, Georgia Institute of Technology

Susan Belmonte, M.Ed., has degrees in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Special Education and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Teaching and Learning. She taught high school Latin for 17 years before starting at Georgia Tech in 2012. Susan is a two-time Fulbright Scholar (2002, Italy; 2016, Germany) has traveled extensively, and continuously seeks to improve professionally and personally. She has completed Georgia Tech's Inclusive Leaders Academy (2021), was a member of Tech’s first Change Maker cohort (2022), and has is completing professional coaching training.

Dr. Wendy Walker

Associate Dean - University of North Georgia

Dr. Walker is the Associate Dean for Faculty and Graduate Programs and a Professor of Management at the Mike Cottrell College of Business at the University of North Georgia. She teaches courses in human resources, management, organizational behavior, and leadership. Dr. Walker’s research covers a variety of topics, including leadership, newcomer socialization, and management pedagogy. In her previous career, she worked as a market research manager for new products at Procter & Gamble. Dr. Walker received her Ph.D. in Management from Georgia Tech.