People

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 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.

Austin’s primary responsibility is managing the Akamai Workforce Initiative program.  As the program manager, he is an instructor in the annual ISEE-Akamai Mentor Workshop, a co-lead instructor for the internship’s PREP course that kicks off the summer program, a co-lead instructor for the internship’s communication course, and responsible for overseeing many of the smaller details throughout the program.  Austin is also an instructor for ISEE’s Professional Development Program and is involved in some of ISEE’s other projects and initiatives.  Austin is an Akamai alumnus from 2009, works full time for ISEE and is based in Hawai‘i, where he is from.

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.

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.

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 Hawaii at Manoa.

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 Hawaii Institute for Astronomy where she writes software for instrument control and database development.