Dena was a Research Associate in the Center for STEM Learning at CU Boulder. In her role, she was responsible for supporting and promoting campus-wide educational transformation efforts toward improving teaching quality by facilitating faculty working groups (aka Departmental Action Teams or DATs) as part of the Teaching Quality Framework Initiative (TQF).
Her research interests focus on using technological advancements such as social media in learning and knowledge sharing, diversity, inclusion, and equity in both higher education and the workplace. An important goal of her research is to contribute to the knowledge set of educational systems, as well as to provide suggestions to organizations on how to design and implement ethical, innovative, and effective teaching and learning practices to gain competitive and sustainable advantages.
Dena earned her B.S. in Engineering (2006) and her Master’s (2014) and Ph.D. (2018) in Educational Administration and Human Development from Texas A&M University.