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About the URP

Our Staff

Janice DeCosmo

Janice DeCosmo

Director, Undergraduate Research Program; Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs
jdecosmo@u.washington.edu

Janice is also an affiliate faculty member in the UW's department of Earth and Space Sciences, having earned a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences in 1991 specializing in atmosphere-ocean interaction. She has taught science at all grade levels from kindergarten through university, and more recently has focused on helping university faculty find ways to include undergraduates in their research and to integrate research into their teaching. Janice became director of URP in 2000. She is the campus representative and an elected councilor for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), and an elected member of the board of governors of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). Her UW responsibilities include oversight of the Mary Gates Endowment for Students and providing leadership to the Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity.
Jennifer Harris

Jennifer Harris

Associate Director, Undergraduate Research Program
genoveva@u.washington.edu

Jennifer received her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the UW College of Education in 2004. Her dissertation research was on the history of community participation in urban school reform in Seattle during the civil rights era. Jennifer joined URP in autumn of 2005 and her prior professional positions have focused on access, retention, and assessment issues along various levels of the educational continuum-including work with McNair Scholars and Early Identification Program students at the UW.
Tracy Nyerges

Tracy Nyerges

Special Programs Coordinator and Adviser, Undergraduate Research Program
tnyerges@u.washington.edu

Tracy joined URP in 2007 with over 5 years of professional academic experience at multiple universities. She has helped to coordinate nationally funded Psychology research projects for The University of Missouri, The University of Pittsburgh, and The University of Vermont. She is now a proud UW Husky dedicated to promoting undergraduate research opportunities and advising special programs students. Tracy received her Master of Social Work degree at the UW with a concentration in direct practice in medical settings and is also a Per Diem Medical Social Worker.

Lauren Brohawn

Lauren Brohawn

Program Coordinator & Adviser, Undergraduate Research Program
brohal@u.washington.edu

Biography coming soon.

Jacob Deppen

Graduate Staff Assistant, Undergraduate Research Program
jdeppen@u.washington.edu

Jacob is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology (Archaeology) at the UW. His current research interest is in understanding how human societies both shape and are shaped by material culture and the built environment. He is particularly interested in Native maize agriculturalists in the Ohio River Valley circa A.D. 1000-1500. Jacob received a B.A. in Anthropology from The Ohio State University in 2008 and an M.A. in Anthropology from the UW in 2010. In his spare time, he can be found celebrating all things Buckeye.

Alexa Erdogan

Undergraduate Staff Assistant, Undergraduate Research Program
alexae6@u.washington.edu

Alexa Erdogan is a junior interested in studying Neurobiology with the intention of pursuing a career in medicine and/or research. Outside of URP duties, she is actively involved with groups on campus, such as the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). When she manages to find some free time, it is happily spent on a couple rounds of tennis, a bit of time sketching, and a perpetual fascination with and exploration of foreign cultures and languages.

Alex Catchings

Undergraduate Research Leader (URL) Coordinator, Undergraduate Research Program
acatch1@u.washington.edu

Alex Catchings is a senior in the English department. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. track in African American literature and humor theory. Alex comes to the EXPD team with experience as a sound and audio technician, corporate real estate pawn, and as program coordinator for UW Professional and Continuing Education's midwifery and nurse practitioner programs. He has roots in Mississippi and the Philippines and visits both often, despite being born on a nuclear test site in Nevada and living in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade.