Akamai People

Lisa Hunter

Director

As the Director of ISEE, Lisa oversees and actively participates in the development and implementation of ISEE programs, including the Akamai Workforce Initiative. Lisa has served as the Director of Akamai since inception, and has remained actively involved in developing, managing, and evaluating Akamai. She serves as the principal investigator on Akamai’s grants and contracts, through her position as ISEE Director at University of California, Santa Cruz. Lisa spends a lot of time fundraising, leading, and managing, but is still deeply involved in the curriculum, and works closely with Akamai interns every summer.

Jerome Shaw

Associate Director/Instructor/Advisor

Jerome is Associate Director for Research & Development with the Akamai Workforce Initiative. His multi-year involvement with the initiative includes leading the development of the ISEE-Akamai mentoring program, developing new tools for supporting and assessing student projects in the STEM workplace, serving as an instructor for both the Akamai PREP course and communication course. Jerome is Associate Professor Emeritus of the UCSC Department of Education and serves on ISEE’s faculty advisory committee.

Rafael Palomino

Program Manager

Rafael is the program manager for the Akamai Internship Program, overseeing program announcement, recruiting, evaluation, and providing support for the mentors, in addition to instructing the communications course. Rafael is also a core member of ISEE’s Professional Development Program instructional team, as a developer, instructor, and consultant. In addition to supporting programs, he is involved in other ISEE projects and initiatives, particularly those aimed at educational development for graduate students and post-docs at UC Santa Cruz. rpalomin@ucsc.edu

Nicole Mattacola

Program and Event Coordinator

Nicole coordinates all events big and small that support the programmatic goals of ISEE. She implements and synchronizes the logistics of the many program workshops, symposia, retreats, conferences, presentations, faculty meetings, and partnership activities both on and off campus, and provides event support. Nicole facilitates ISEE program application and selection processes, and serves as the point of contact with participants from registration through wrap-up. She provides the main administrative support for ISEE with scheduling meetings, processing travel reimbursements and assisting with procurement functions. Nicole works full-time for ISEE as a UCSC staff member.

Cynthia Nelly Carrion

Program Manager

Cynthia is an ISEE Program Manager and works on the team that runs the Akamai Internship Program. She was an instructor in the Akamai PREP course in 2017, as part of ISEE’s Professional Development Program (PDP), and will build on that experience to serve on the instructional team in coming Akamai programs. Cynthia is involved in managing Akamai in a range of ways, including application and selection, communication, and evaluation of program outcomes. In addition to Akamai, Cynthia is also the program manager for the Workshops for Engineering and Science Transfers (WEST) program at UC Santa Cruz and the new AstroTech Summer School, as well as being a supporting member of ISEE’s Professional Development Program team and other ISEE programs and intiatives.

Nicholas McConnell

Program Manager

Nicholas is one of the Akamai internship program’s communication course instructors, working with interns during the PREP course and through the summer. Nicholas also provides year-round support for ISEE’s Professional Development Program (PDP) and is a core member of ISEE’s instructional team. Additionally, he is developing resources for PDP participants and alumni across North America to collaborate, innovate, and apply ISEE’s approach to their long-term teaching endeavors. Nicholas draws from several years’ experience in astrophysics research to connect ISEE’s workforce development goals with the broader astronomy and physics communities, including large international research and instrumentation projects. He is a member of ISEE’s full-time staff and contributes to multiple initiatives to build an equitable STEM workforce.

Cindy Giebink

Information Technology & Management

Cindy Giebink works on ISEE’s information management systems, including websites, databases, and online applications. She is also involved in Akamai as a mentor, and has mentored a number of interns in software projects. Cindy works part-time as a contractor for ISEE. She lives on Maui where she works for the University of Hawai‘i Institute for Astronomy where she writes software for instrument control and database development.

Tamara Ball

Research Associate

Tamara Ball is a Research Associate at ISEE, and uses her doctoral degree in science education to ground ISEE’s programs and projects in the learning sciences. She plays an active role in disseminating ISEE’s work through publications and contributes to grant writing. Tamara works part-time for ISEE and also works on the Sustainable Engineering and Ecological Design (SEED) collaborative in the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC. Tamara has been closely involved in analyzing and disseminating the Akamai internship program outcomes.

Mike Nassir

Akamai Communication Course Instructor

Mike Nassir has been involved with the Akamai internship program since 2009, serving as an instructor for the communication course. He currently assists with the mid-point check-ins, site visits, and final symposia coaching. He is an Instructor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.

David Harrington

Akamai Instructor

Dave Harrington has been with Akamai for many years, serving primarily as one of the lead instructors for the PREP course. He also helps to recruit the projects from mentors before the program begins, participates on the selection committee, and leads one of the inquiry activities during the PREP course. He is now the Polarimetry Scientist at the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.

Stacey Sueoka

Akamai Instructor

Stacey Sueoka has been involved with the Akamai Program since 2016. She is a former Akamai alumni from Kauai who now works as an optical systems engineer for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. She has primarily served as an instructor for the PREP course and has also supported the mid-point check-ins and final symposia coaching.