Washington Consortium for Undergraduate Research & Equity (WA CURE)

The Washington Consortium for Undergraduate Research Experiences (WA CURE) is a statewide consortium operating across the 34 community and technical colleges in Washington State (WA) under the leadership of the WA State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and Green River College (GRC), Yakima Valley College (YVC), and Edmonds College (EC).

 

We offer annual professional devleopment opportunities for individual faculty and college teams to develop course based undergraduate research experiences and increase access to them across the college as a core student success strategy.

Our Approach

Our design strategy integrates undergraduate research within a regular course format called Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). CUREs are considered high-impact practices for student success and provide community and technical colleges (CTCs) with the ability to overcome many of the institutional and structural barriers to implementing undergraduate research at primarily undergraduate and under-resourced colleges.

WA CURE is also a research project exploring how Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences affect faculty teaching practices, improve overall student outcomes, and create institutional change within community colleges. These research questions center on individual faculty development in broader systemic transformation, examining the connections between classroom innovation, student achievement, and institutional success.

Meet our Team 

We have 44 faculty leaders from 25 different colleges who have stepped up to engage in this systemic change effort and offer their insight into the design of a consortium that serves all our colleges, faculty, and students and their diverse needs. 

Program Coordinator:

Katie M. Bryant, Bellevue College

Steering Committee: 

• Wendy Rockhill, Seattle Central College
• Irene Shaver, SBCTC
• Val Sundby, SBCTC
• Kyle Hammon, Adjunct Professor
• Robin Datta, Edmonds College
• Ann Murkowski, North Seattle College

Regional Coordinators: 

• Matthew Loeser, Yakima Valley College
• Jennifer Liou, Pierce CC
• Travis Kibota, Clark College
• Anita Harker, Whatcom CC

Community of Practice Facilitators: 

• Shannon Newman, Green River College
• Jacqueline Gapinski, Bellevue College
• Suki Smaglik, Yakima Valley College
• Roberto Anitori, Clark College
• Kimberly McClure, Lake Washington Institute of Technology

Institutional Action Leads: 

• Terrah Goeden, Clark College
• Patricia Atkinson, Clark College
• Sidnee-Marie Dunn, South Puget Sound CC
• Claudia Arends, Grays Harbor College
• Colleen Sheridan, Highline College
• Elena Garrison, South Puget Sound CC
• Scott Robertson, Olympic College
• Henry Olson, South Seattle College
• Timothy Ewing, Bellingham Technical College
• Azizeh Frajallah, Cascadia College
• Josh Searle, Everett College
• Armin Seidl, North Seattle College
• Paul Mattson, Peninsula College
• Kevin Michael Overa, Shoreline CC
• Kristen Hoffbuhr, Skagit Valley College
• Lauren Maniatis, Whatcom CC
• Celeste Lonson, Bellevue College
• Chitra Solomonson, Green River College
• Narayani Choudhury, Lake Washington Technical College
• Nazanin Ruppender, Seattle Central College
• Dori Miller, Big Bend CC
• Sandya Kesoju, Columbia Basin College
• Sara Egbert, Walla Walla CC
• Waleed Muhammad, Wenatchee Valley CC
• Holly Ferguson, Yakima Valley CC
• Michael Rodriquez, Lake Washington Technical College
• Janae Carrothers, Spokane Falls CC

The National Science Foundation funds this work (NSF IUSE 2336652) and it is a 5-year project (2024-2029) to expand undergraduate research opportunities across Washington's 34 Community and Technical Colleges