WaMPS Officers

President

Roy Salinas (he/him)

Roy is the President of WaMPS and oversees the various facets of WaMPS by acting as a liaison with student organizations, providing direction to the expansion of WaMPS, and aiding in the needs of the organization. He enjoys weight lifting, running, eating, and reading anything he can get his hands on. He is a fourth-year physics PhD candidate in experimental nuclear physics, and studies the structure of nuclei far from the valley of beta stability via gamma spectroscopy.

Secretary

Carissa Myers (she/her)

As the WaMPS secretary, Carissa keeps a record of all meetings, supports the internal documentation of the organization, and investigates how the mentoring programs are working. She is a fifth year graduate student, who enjoys kickboxing, working out, reading and traveling. Her research area is within physics education research, and she is investigating how and why self-efficacy, or one’s confidence in their abilities to execute a task changes over time. 

Mentoring Co-Chair

Joe Chung-Jung (he/his/hims)

Joe is one of the Mentoring Coordinators of WaMPS, and runs the mentoring programs for WaMPS during the summer, fall, and spring semesters. He is a second year experimental nuclear physics graduate student who is an advocate for mentoring of physics students, especially minority students. In his free time, Joe enjoys gardening, playing instruments, cross-country skiing, and traveling.

Undergraduate Liaison

 

 

Sara Sawford (she/her)

Sara is the Undergraduate Liaison for WaMPS and is responsible for communicating the wants and needs of the undergraduate students to WaMPS.  She is a second-year undergraduate student studying physics and mathematics with a research focus in high energy physics.  In her free time, Sara enjoys baking, gymnastics, and reading anything science fiction.

 

SL@MS Co-Prime Minister

Cami Monsalve Avendaño (she/her)

Cami is one of two Prime Ministers for WaMPS’s SL@MS (Science Learning at Michigan State) program, which provides a four-day summer camp for local middle school students. She is fifth-year graduate student doing research on how a bachelors granting institution improves based on suggestions by STEM Transfer students using Gloria Anzaldua’s work. For fun, and while working through her thesis, dark chocolate helps her a lot.

 

Website and Social Media Administrator 

Frank Dachille (he/Him)

Frank is the Website and Social Media Administrator for WaMPS and is responsible for maintaining the website and promoting events. He is a 2nd year grad student in physics education research focusing on designing a peer mentoring program for. In his free time, Frank enjoys exercise things like badminton, pickleball, running, and soccer in addition to baking, game nights, and discovering the optimal legume.

Vice President 

Georgia Votta (she/her)

Georgia is the Vice-President of WaMPS, and helps plan and execute different WaMPS events while providing extra support to the other officers. She enjoys baking, biking, exercising, and playing the trumpet in her free time. She is a third-year physics graduate student in experimental nuclear physics, and specifically studies the structure of nuclei near and beyond the neutron drip line.

Treasurer 

Bill Good (he/him) 

Bill is the Treasurer of WaMPS, and he manages the budget and provides reimbursements for WaMPS-related expenses. 

Mentoring Co-Chair

Yaz Ozbek (she/her/hers)

Yaz is one of the Mentoring Coordinators of WaMPS, and runs the mentoring programs for WaMPS during the summer, fall, and spring semesters. She is a 3rd year experimental condensed matter physics graduate student in Professor Zhang’s lab. She is passionate about the fair treatment of students and student workers, especially women and minority students. She is a union activist and promoter. She hopes to see progressive changes in student worker hours and compensation by the end of her PhD career. In her free time, Yaz likes to go to estate sales, paint, and cook. She also dabbles in chef knife sharpening and sewing. 

Undergraduate Mentoring Co-Chair

Alia Valentine

Alia is one of the Mentoring Coordinators of WaMPS, and runs the mentoring programs for WaMPS during the summer, fall, and spring semesters.

First-year Liaison

Danielle Seppala (she/Her)

Danielle is the first-year liaison officer for WaMPS and is responsible for facilitating communication between first year graduate students and WaMPS. She is a 1st year grad student with a research focus in high energy physics. Dani is a mom with 4 kids, 2 cats, and one day soon a pair of very large ponies( probably a clydesdale and a percheron because why should they match). She loves reading and spending time outside with her family. She is also a 8 year Navy veteran who spent 5 years in Japan and all 8 working on and around nuclear power plants including aircraft carriers and submarines. Dani loves coffee, tea, water and snacks so please stop by her office in BPS for a visit and some refreshments. 

 

SL@MS Co-Prime Minister

Finn Mayhew (he/him)

Finn is one of two Prime Ministers for WaMPS’s SL@MS (Science Learning at Michigan State) program, which provides a four-day summer camp for local middle school students. He’s a third-year graduate student, looking for beyond-the-standard-model impacts on neutrinos that are produced in our atmosphere and travel through the Earth to the IceCube detector.

Public Engagement Coordinator

Bryan Stanley (he/him)

Bryan is a Public Engagement coordinator for WaMPS. He organizes science engagement events, collaborating with community partners in developing public science programming. Bryan is a 4th-year physics graduate student passionate about public engagement and community building around science. He works in the Physics Education Research Lab, studying informal physics, which means physics learning that does not take place in a classroom setting (ex. demo shows, public talks, open houses, etc.)