The Graduate Student Experience: Redesigning Graduate School so Every Student can Flourish and Finish, was held March 25-27, in Asheville, North Carolina, and centered on the needs of graduate students under a threefold aim “to reduce graduate student withdrawals and separations, enhance student experience and wellbeing, and strengthen post-graduate outcomes.” Hundreds of attendees gathered for meaningful reflection, discussion and a call to action to improve higher education’s approach to graduate student education.

In the roundtable session, “Understanding the First-Generation Graduate School Experience,” the ������Ƶ team first shared data from a survey they conducted to gather graduate student perspectives on their academic experiences. Brown, assistant director of first-generation student support services, led a discussion with participants to identify crucial information needed from students and campus constituents to better provide comprehensive and holistic institutional support for first-generation graduate students. Participants discussed topics such as how academic programs and campus characteristics factor into fostering belonging among first-generation graduate students and how institutions can better facilitate the shift from undergraduate to graduate experiences for first-generation students.

is a nationally-recognized nonprofit organization that partners “with colleges, universities, philanthropic organizations, educators, and other entities to increase institutional responsibility for improving outcomes associated with teaching, learning, retention, and completion.”

Laosebikan-Buggs is the director of inclusive excellence for graduate and professional education, Overman is ssistant provost for scholarship and creative activity; Gutmann and Gnep are graduate apprentices and Master’s of Higher Education program students, and Free is executive director of the Center for Access and Success.

The studies focused on differences in neural activity and cognitive performance between older and younger adults when they create and retrieve associations in memory. Co-authors on the papers included Ryan Monkman ’22 and several graduate student, staff and faculty collaborators from Penn State University. The research was funded by Overman’s 2016 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which was ������Ƶ’s first award from the NIH.

Associative memory refers to the ability to link individual pieces of information together. For example, associating a specific name with a specific face or a medication dose with a time of day. Overman and her collaborators have been investigating how aging affects the cognitive and neural mechanisms of associative memory in order to determine how to improve memory performance. A consistent theme emerging from these studies is that age differences in associative memory are influenced by the way in which information is presented to older adults. This suggests that it may be possible to assist older adults’ memory by finding simple, yet powerful presentation strategies.

The recent findings are part of Overman’s systematic program of research on human memory processes. Overman’s scholarly work has been repeatedly funded by the NIH, as well as by the National Science Foundation and the Colonial Academic Alliance.

“External grant funding is essential to supporting ������Ƶ’s student-centered mission because it increases student access to being mentored in undergraduate research. For students with high financial need, external grant funding removes the barrier of being forced to choose between participating in the high-impact experience of research and earning pay at a job. Additionally, external funding supports professional conference presentations and summer research experiences,” Overman said.

As a teacher-scholar-mentor and principal investigator of ������Ƶ’s , Overman is dedicated to mentoring undergraduate students in conducting scientific research that advances the understanding of how the brain and cognition work. Overman’s mentoring of undergraduates in her lab fosters students’ sense of belonging, which she describes in a publication that was cited in “Relationship-Rich Education” by Peter Felten and Leo Lambert.

Overman’s recent articles are in the journals Brain Research, Memory, and Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition:

• Ricupero, S., Carpenter, C., Steinkrauss, A.C., Gerver, C.R., Chamberlain, J.D., Monkman, R.G., Overman, A.A., & Dennis, N.A. (in press). Brain Research.
• Carpenter, C.M., Webb, C. E., Overman, A. A., & Dennis, N. A. (in press). Memory.
• Dennis, N.A., Overman, A.A., Carpenter, C.M., & Gerver, C.R. (2022). Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 29(3), 500-525.

Amy Overman, assistant dean of ������Ƶ College, the College of Arts and Sciences and professor in the Psychology Department and Neuroscience Program, was recently appointed to serve on the Symposium Committee for the 2023 meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS).

CNS is the leading scholarly organization in the field of cognitive neuroscience, which is “aimed at investigating the psychological, computational and neuroscientific bases of cognition,” with over 2,000 members worldwide.

The Symposium Committee will help to set the conference program for the 30th Anniversary Meeting of CNS, which is scheduled for March 25-28, 2023, in San Francisco. Other members of the committee include distinguished researchers from institutions such as the University of Lausanne, the University of Illinois, Vanderbilt University and the Max Planck Institute.

The new grant, titled “Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the benefits of unitization on associative memory in young and older adults” is a collaborative project with Professor Nancy Dennis of Penn State University. ������Ƶ’s portion of the research funding is $50,309 and the total award amount is $508,243.

Overman has an extensive track record of obtaining external funding. In addition to this recent award, she is currently the principal investigator on a $413,993 grant from NIH and a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and has previously been principal investigator or project director on grants from Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Colonial Academic Alliance. Additionally, Overman was principal investigator on ������Ƶ’s first-ever research grant from NIH in 2016, and she has served as a grant reviewer for both NIH and NSF, evaluating the scientific merit of other researchers’ funding proposals. To date, she is the only ������Ƶ faculty member ever to have served on a scientific review panel for NIH. Altogether, Overman has secured nearly $1 milllion in grant funding from federal agencies and foundations while a faculty member at ������Ƶ.

In her current role as assistant dean, Overman uses her grants experience to provide research development assistance to the institution, with the goal of enhancing the student experience. She partners with faculty and staff across the University in seeking and securing external funding to support cross-disciplinary projects, particularly those focused on equity, inclusion, and diversity, in alignment with ������Ƶ’s strategic plan.

Overman, who is a professor in the Psychology Department and Neuroscience Program, and assistant dean of ������Ƶ College, the College of Arts and Sciences, has led the NC ACE Women’s Network as State Chair since 2021. She was one of the small group of women who initiated the network starting in 2016 and has been a member of the organization’s executive board since its official establishment in 2018.

“If you were here last year for my closing remarks, you heard me share my goals for the network for this year, and I’m delighted to say that we met all of them,” Overman stated in her remarks. These included:

• Building the network’s professional development programming;
• Identifying four new presidential sponsors for the network: Dr. Connie Book, President of ������Ƶ; Dr. Kelli Brown, Chancellor of Western Carolina University; Dr. Karrie Dixon, Chancellor of Elizabeth City State University, and Dr. Pamela Senegal, President of Piedmont Community College;
• Expanding the network’s executive board and the representation of different higher education sectors on the board; and
• Growing the number and diversity of member institutions, with a 73% increase in membership this year compared to last year.

The network’s annual conference was held virtually this year, and was attended by over 260 women representing public and private universities and community colleges across North Carolina. The program featured professional development sessions led by distinguished speakers including Suzanne Walsh, president of Bennett College, and Marilyn Wells, chancellor of Penn State Brandywine. The keynote address was given by Leah Cox, vice chancellor for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a presidents’ panel included Nancy Cable, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Kandi Deitemeyer, president of Central Piedmont Community College, and Paulette Dillard, president of Shaw University.

In addition to providing opening remarks, Overman led the conference’s networking lunch, and closed out the day’s events by presenting the NC ACE Women’s Network Trailblazer Award to her predecessor Gloria Thomas, who was state chair of the NC ACE Women’s Network from 2018-2021. “Gloria has dedicated over 20 years to supporting women’s leadership in higher education,” Overman said, noting Thomas’s service as the Director of Carolina Women’s Center at UNC Chapel Hill, executive director of the Center for the Education of Women (CEW) at the University of Michigan, and as the associate director at the national office of the American Council on Education (ACE). Thomas is currently the president of HERS, the national organization for women’s leadership development in higher education.

The North Carolina ACE Women’s Network is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is affiliated with the American Council on Education’s national system of women’s networks. More information on the organization can be found on their website, .

Members of Overman’s research laboratory, the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Aging (CNMA) Lab this Spring included Olivia DiGiovanni ’24 (Odyssey Scholar), Lindy Feintuch ’24 (Lumen Scholar, Honors Fellow), Brandon Fowlin ’24 (Odyssey Scholar), Paige Goldberg ’24, Pierce Johnson ’22 (������Ƶ College Fellow, Rawls Scholar, Provost’s Fellow), Alejandro Mejia ’24 (Odyssey Scholar), Ryan Monkman ’22 (Watts Scholar), Demaya Starkes ’23, and Madison Tarkenton ’23 (������Ƶ Engagement Scholar).

All nine CNMA students attended the biennial Cognitive Aging Conference, which was held in Atlanta, GA, from April 7-10, 2022. Pierce Johnson ’22 presented a poster titled “Change detection and impression updating in associative memory for face-adjective pairs” (co-authored by Overman and collaborators Joseph Stephens of NC A&T State University and Chris Wahlheim of UNC Greensboro).

Four CNMA students (Johnson, Monkman, Starkes, and Tarkenton) also attended the Cognitive Neuroscience Society annual meeting which was held in San Francisco, CA from April 23-26, 2022. Ryan Monkman ’22 presented a poster titled “Neural distinctiveness and reinstatement in a unitization-promoting paradigm” (co-authored by Overman and collaborators Nancy Dennis, Catherine Carpenter, Sarah Ricupero, and Ashley Steinkrauss of Penn State University), and Madison Tarkenton ’23 presented a poster titled “Examining age differences in
specificity and integration of neural representations for initial and modified associations” (co-authored with Overman, Monkman, Starkes, and DiGiovanni, and Joseph Stephens, Chris Rogers, Lyric Thompson, and Avery-Woods-Gresham of NC A&T State University).

Both conferences are the premier scientific meetings worldwide in their respective areas of focus, and Overman’s students enjoyed networking with other leading scientists and their students, federal program officers, and CNMA lab alumni such as Dr. Ursula Saelzler ’13, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego, and Jordyn Cowan ’21, who is currently a research assistant at Brandeis University.

Overman’s research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Her students, who come from diverse backgrounds, are also supported by a variety of prestigious scholarship and fellowship programs at ������Ƶ. More than 85% of Overman’s previous mentored research students have gone on to graduate programs and/or jobs in neuroscience, psychology, and other health science-related fields, and she has published on .

The article, “Neutrality and the Rules of Evidence,” highlights the many ways in which apparently neutral evidence rules can be influenced by cognitive biases, particularly when applied in a court of law. These biases can have a significant impact, even working to undermine fair outcomes, particularly with regard to racial inequalities in the criminal justice system.

The Criminal Law Bulletin focuses on “criminal law, criminal procedure, criminal and forensic scientific evidence, or the legal and ethical issues that affect how justice system professionals perform their tasks in policing, crime labs, the courts and in corrections.” The journal’s review process is conducted by faculty members rather than law school students, as is the case for most law journals. It is widely read by both scholars and practitioners in the field of criminal justice.

Overman’s service on the Executive Board of the statewide ACE Women’s Network is a continuation of her long-standing commitment to the advancement of women. In 2016, she co-founded the ������Ƶ Women’s Forum, the first group at ������Ƶ to bring together female-identified faculty and staff with the goals of fostering a supportive environment for women at ������Ƶ; promoting discussions and awareness around topics related to women’s lives; and identifying and supporting pathways for career advancement and professional development opportunities for women.

Overman has also served as an invited panelist at the annual meeting of the international organization Women in Cognitive Science (WiCS). She is also a committed mentor of women in academia, including undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty.

All higher education institutions in the state of North Carolina are eligible to join. For the 2021-2022 academic year, there are twenty-six institutional members representing HBCUs, community colleges, private and public institutions. The network offers programming throughout the year, as well as sessions for liaisons (Institutional Representatives) from each college or university, and an annual women’s leadership conference that this year will take place on June 3.

������Ƶ has been a significant supporter of the network. ������Ƶ has been the host for Executive Board planning retreats and President Connie Ledoux Book serves as a Presidential Sponsor for the network, along with Pamela Senegal, president of Piedmont Community College, Karrie Dixon, chancellor of Elizabeth City State University and Kelli Brown, chancellor of Western Carolina University.

The Institutional Representatives who serve as liaisons from ������Ƶ to the NC ACE Women’s Network are Gabie Smith, dean of ������Ƶ College, the College of Arts & Sciences and Janet Williams, vice president for Finance and Administration.

The North Carolina ACE Network of Women Leaders is a non-profit, volunteer organization that is a part of, and shares the purpose of the American Council on Education’s (ACE) leadership programs. The NC ACE Network seeks to develop programs that identify, develop, encourage, advance, link and support women in higher education careers in North Carolina. NC ACE Women’s Network vision is to move the needle for women in North Carolina higher education by helping to achieve parity for women in senior leadership roles at colleges and universities throughout the state.

Overman’s co-authors on the study included ������Ƶ alumna Mary Bernhardt ’17, now a doctoral student in Cognitive Neuroscience at Georgia Tech and Joseph Stephens of North Carolina A&T State University. ������Ƶ alumnae Ashley Howard ’18, Laura Bernstein ‘19 and Hannah Greenwood ‘20 also assisted with portions of the project.

Overman’s team conducted a series of experiments in which participants were asked to type examples of categories. For example, when prompted with “a part of a house:” a participant might respond “window.” A computer program randomly selected which of the participants’ responses would be counted as correct or incorrect, and gave either confirmatory feedback (e.g., “Correct! Window”) or corrective feedback with a different category member (e.g., “Incorrect. Door”). As an added detail, both types of feedback could be shown on the computer screen with either a yellow or blue font color.

After this learning phase, participants’ memory was tested, both for the category members and for the font colors in which they appeared. Interestingly, memory for the font colors was better when participants received corrective feedback than when they received confirmatory feedback.

“These results provide new evidence that part of how we remember ‘correct’ answers is to remember the event in which we received the correction,” Overman said. “This contradicts theories that propose we learn correct answers without involving episodic memories of the learning events.”

The findings also have implications for educational research and practice, by helping to explain why practice quizzes and tests that incorporate feedback are effective instructional tools.

The recent findings are part of Overman’s systematic program of research on human memory processes. As a teacher-scholar-mentor and principal investigator of ������Ƶ’s , Overman mentors undergraduate students in conducting scientific research that advances the understanding of how the brain and cognition work. Overman’s mentoring of undergraduates in her lab fosters students’ sense of belonging.

She describes some of her approaches in a that was cited in “Relationship-Rich Education” by Peter Felten and Leo Lambert. Overman’s scholarly work has been repeatedly funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as by the National Science Foundation and the Colonial Academic Alliance. In 2016, Overman became the first ������Ƶ faculty member to be awarded funding from the NIH and she serves as project director for ������Ƶ’s first funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Overman’s address was titled “Inclusion and Belongingness in Neuroscience.” It focused on the importance of working to increase the representation of diverse scientists in the field of neuroscience, as well as specific strategies that instructors can use to make neuroscience classrooms more inclusive and to foster a sense of belonging in the neuroscience field for all students, particularly those who have been historically excluded and continue to be underrepresented. The talk was attended by over 100 people.

The presentation drew on Overman’s personal experience as a neuroscience researcher and instructor, as well as her extensive experience with faculty development and inclusive excellence.

As assistant dean of ������Ƶ College, Overman partners with faculty and staff in seeking and securing external funding to support programs and initiatives that enhance inclusion, equity, and intercultural learning. She is also a former Associate Director of ������Ƶ’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, and has published scholarly articles on inclusive teaching methods and building belongingness through research mentoring.