Tom Keller (he/him)
CIMR Director
Tom is the Duncan and Cindy Campbell Professor for Children, Youth, and Families in the School of Social Work at Portland State University. He directs the Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring and is the Founding Director of the Center for Internship, Mentoring & Research (CIMR). Dr. Keller is the Principal Investigator of multiple CIMR programs that offer research training and internship experiences for students historically underrepresented in scientific and biomedical careers, including BUILD EXITO, U-RISE at PSU, College Access Program, PROA Pathways Project at PSU, and Bridges to Baccalaureate Metro PDX. His own research interests include the development and influence of youth mentoring relationships, social networks in youth mentoring interventions, evaluation of mentoring program innovations and enhancements, and the mentoring of undergraduates in science, biomedical, and health fields. In his eclectic educational journey, Tom earned a B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering, a Master of Public Administration, and a Ph.D. in Social Welfare.
Jen Lindwall (she/her)
CIMR Associate Director
Jen joined the PSU staff 9 years ago to work on the BUILD EXITO team as a research assistant and has been engaged in work on research training and internship programs at PSU ever since. Jen has a PhD in developmental psychology with a concentration in research methods for diversity and inclusion and her research focuses on educational equity in STEM learning contexts. Jen’s research investigates how university-level factors (such as research training programmatic affordances and supports) for STEM students and student-level factors (like self-perceptions of belongingness and abilities) shape students’ science identity construction and STEM participation trajectories. Prior to her time at PSU, Jen worked to provide training and technical assistance to mentoring programs seeking to translate research into practice for mentors and practitioners in a variety of schools and organizations in the Midwest. She lives in Portland with her partner, two teenagers, and goldendoodle Juniper.
Kay Logan (she/her)
CIMR Manager of Operations and Finance
Kay oversees the financial and operational aspects of CIMR, including processing of stipends and other forms of support to students in research and internship placements; managing budgets; assisting with data tracking and grant reporting. She joined CIMR as the Center’s first staff member in 2010. Before PSU, she worked at Education Northwest as part of the National Mentoring Center, serving youth mentoring programs across the country.
Cassandra Ramirez (they/she)
Student and Program Manager
Cassandra Ramirez is the CIMR Student and Program Manager. In this role they coordinate the BUILD EXITO program during it’s last year as well as supporting the other programs under CIMR (DREAM, PROA, and URISE) and beyond (Ignite). Their main goals are making sure the programs are working for the students, providing support to students in tandem with the CIMR team, getting programs set up in the CIMR infrastructure, sharing program coordination materials with programs, supporting program administration across CIMR programs, and more. They have lived in Portland most of their life, were recently learned she is neurodiverse (ADHD/Autism), and has one dog (Robin) and cat (Pepper).
Carlos Quatela (he/him)
Program Manager & Academic Advisor
Carlos Quatela is CIMR’s Academic Advisor and the Program manager for the PROA and IGNITE Programs. He supports students navigating the nuances of higher education.
Becky Miller (she/they)
Program Manager
Becky is a Research Assistant in the School of Social Work and a CIMR Program Manager of URISE Scholars working towards advanced degrees in the biomedical workforce. Working specifically on coping self-efficacy intervention research to support young people transitioning from foster care to independent living has given Becky a breadth of experience managing social science research projects, developing data collection protocols, analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, and testing innovative research methods. As a program manager, Becky thrives on supporting students in their research placements and helps people tap into their community resources and inherent personal knowledge to make sound decisions moving forward in their education.
Mae Culbertson (she/her)
Project Coordinator
Mae is a Project Coordinator for CIMR and the Events Team lead. The Events Team organizes the 3-day Summer Research Academy, the PSU Research Week Student Research Symposium, the Summer Research Symposium, and other CIMR events.
Caitlyn Beals
Project Manager
Caitlyn joined BUILD EXITO in 2016 as a Project Coordinator to support recruitment, mentoring, Pilot Projects, and reporting work. More recently, Caitlyn provided oversight and program management for URISE at PSU, and is now managing specific projects within CIMR as a project manager. She has an M.S. in Educational Leadership and Policy from PSU and a certificate in Project Management from PSU’s Center for Executive and Professional Education. Her expertise is strategy, administration, coordination, and implementing complex projects in a higher education setting.
Arjun Viray (they/them)
Communication Specialist
Arjun is the Communications Specialist for CIMR. From managing CIMR’s website to sending out newsletters, Arjun helps students, faculty, and staff in CIMR stay up to date on important information. Arjun also plays a big role in event planning for CIMR for events like Summer Research Symposium, Research Week, and more.