Tonisha B. Lane
Current HALE PhD candidate, Tonisha B. Lane has joined the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education this summer as a Consultant. Ms. Tonisha B. Lane is a Ph.D. candidate in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) program at Michigan State University (MSU) and a King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellow. Her dissertation research focuses on promising practices in supporting academically underprepared, students of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Specifically, she is conducting a case study on a postsecondary STEM enrichment program that has successfully retained and graduated students transitioning from historically underserved secondary schools. She first became interested in the research process during her participation in the 2004 Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate (McNair) program cohort at MSU. Her research project was a quantitative study on the psychological effects of domestic violence on the relationships of mothers and children under the supervision of Dr. Alytia Levendosky.
Tonisha’s participation in McNair facilitated several other opportunities including representing MSU at the 2004 National McNair Research conference in Delavan, WI; earning an exemplary service award for civic engagement; and traveling to Jamaica for a service-focused Alternative Spring Break that involved making school repairs and engaging with school-age children. While pursuing her Master’s degree, Tonisha completed two TRIO-based internship programs in Upward Bound and Student Support Services (SSS). In Upward Bound, she provided recommendations for establishing a peer mentoring program. In SSS, she worked with staff to redesign the curriculum and evaluation process for the first-year seminar.
Following the completion of her Master’s degree in Student Affairs Administration, Tonisha joined the SSS staff at MSU as an academic specialist where she was responsible for teaching, advising, and programming for more than 250 students. In 2010, she returned to graduate school to pursue her doctoral studies using what she learned from McNair to navigate the application process and later to design her dissertation project. She attributes her success in graduate school to the many lessons she learned and network she built of supportive, caring adults such as her program coordinator, Dr. Nettavia Curry, during her time in McNair. Ms. Lane is working in the Immediate Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs.
Congratulations Tonisha!