The Graduate Center for Research and Retention

The Graduate Center for Research and Retention is an innovative one-of-a-kind center that provides sustained one-on-one mentoring, guidance, and advising support to graduate students in all fields. The Center represents an integrated approach to retention, conducts research on time to degree, participates in national research initiatives in graduate education that ensure best practices, and implements programmatic interventions to enhance opportunities for graduate degree completion for all students, and especially for students from underrepresented groups. The Center director is a conflict resolution strategist, serving the needs of graduate students and graduate advising faculty at WMU.

Publication Highlight

Dr. Marianne Di Pierro

Dr. Marianne Di Pierro has been a member of the Graduate College for eight years, serving as Director of the Graduate Center for Research and Retention. The Center is an innovative one-of-a-kind retention entity. It provides sustained one-on-one mentoring, guidance, and advising support to graduate students in all fields, and it employs an integrated approach to retention.

Di Pierro conducts research on time to degree, participates in national research initiatives in graduate education that ensure best practices are deployed across the University, and implements programmatic interventions to enhance opportunities for graduate degree completion for all students, and especially those from underrepresented groups. She is also the Graduate College conflict resolution strategist, serving the needs of graduate students and graduate advising faculty at WMU.

Di Pierro holds the Ph.D. in English from the University of South Florida and is the recipient of the William G. Bentley Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate in her undergraduate class at the University of Maryland. She was elected by the national membership of the Modern Language Association to the Delegate Assembly for a three-year term as a special-interest delegate, representing independent scholars and professionals with alternative careers. She currently serves as advising editor to the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Higher Education Brief. Her research focus is concentrated in graduate education.

Recent Publications and Presentations

• Di Pierro, M. (2006, May). Strategies for doctoral student retention: Taking the roads less traveled. Paper presented at the Educational Policy Institute Retention 2006 International Conference on Student Retention, Las Vegas, NV.

• Di Pierro, M. (2007). Excellence in doctoral education: Defining best practices. College Student Journal, 2, 368–375.

• Di Pierro, M. (2007). Debriefing: An essential final step in doctoral education. Journal for Quality and Participation, American Society for Quality, 2, 14–16. Read the entire article in its original format in this .pdf file

• Di Pierro, M. (2010, January). Preparing for the oral defense of the dissertation. American Society for Quality, Higher Education Brief, 3(1).
  Read the article here: http://www.asq.org/edu/2010/01/career-development/preparing-for-the-oral-defense-of-a-dissertation.pdf

• Di Pierro, M. (2010, April). Health care education: Making a difference in the lives of graduate students. Journal for Quality and Participation, 33(1), 15–17.

• Di Pierro, M. (2010, May). Disambiguation: Through the looking glass—From debriefing to process improvement. Paper presented at the Eastern Michigan University Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) Academy Conference, May 17–18.
  

• Di Pierro, M. (2010, June). Doctoral process flowcharts: Charting for success. American Society for Quality (ASQ) Higher Education Brief. 3(4). [Read the article here]
  

• Di Pierro, M. (2010, November). Assessing doctoral student progression. Selected for presentation at the 18th National Quality Education Conference (NQEA) in Chicago, IL, November 7–9. 

• Di Pierro, M. (2010, Fall). The observation tower: Perspectives on the dissertation. QED News, American Society for Quality Education Division.
  Retrieved from http://asq.org/edu/2010/09/leadership/the-observation-tower-perspectives-on-the-dissertation-advising-model.pdf
  
  
• Di Pierro, M. (2011, January). Disambiguation: Through the looking glass—From debriefing to process improvement. Journal for Quality and Participation 33 (4) Read the entire article in its original format in this .pdf file
  
  
• Di Pierro, M. (2011, January).  Higher education: Caveat emptor.  American Society For Quality (ASQ) Education Division, Workforce Development Brief
  
  
• Di Pierro, M. (2011, January). Innovations for Navigating the Doctoral Dissertation. Journal of Faculty Development 25(1)
  
  
• Di Pierro, M. (2011, September). Personalizing academic misconduct: An approach for the graduate classroom. Journal of Faculty Development 25(3)

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Graduate Center for Research and Retention Staff

At the 2012 Fall Welcome Fair

Director, Graduate Center for Research and Retention 207 W-WAL 7-8249 marianne.dipierro@wmich.edu	Dr. Marianne Di Pierro currently directs the Graduate Center for Research and Retention at Western Michigan University. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in English Literature from Vermont College, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Florida. She was awarded the William G. Bentley Memorial Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement for her undergraduate work at the University of Maryland. Her research interests are in graduate education, particularly in the areas of doctoral retention and attrition. She participates in three national research projects in graduate education that examine best practices.
Haolai (Lincoln) Jiang Doctoral Associate 260 W-WAL 387-8253	Haolai (Lincoln) Jiang is a doctoral student with the Department of Statistics at Western Michigan University (WMU). He holds the Bachelor of Economics degree in statistics, conferred by Renmin University, China. He was also awarded a Master’s Degree in statistics from WMU.  Lincoln served as a teaching assistant with the Department of Statistics and later joined the Graduate Center for Research and Retention in 2009 as a consultant, providing one-on-one statistical consultation to WMU graduate students completing dissertation/thesis research. In addition to his consultation work, Lincoln teaches a variety of statistics seminars to graduate students: Overview of Statistical Concepts; Overview of SPSS; Overview of SAS.  His research interests are statistical computing and data visualization. He is a soccer fan of the Arsenal Soccer Club. Watching a live Arsenal’s match at Emirates Stadium in London, England, is one of his greatest desires. Lincoln is a doctoral associate to Dr. Marianne Di Pierro, Director, Graduate Center for Research and Retention.
Doctoral Associate	Jiangang Xia Doctoal Associate
	Baochun (JoJo) Zhou, a Doctoral Associate to Dr. Marianne Di Pierro, Director of Graduate Center for Research and Retention (GCRR), is a current doctoral student in Counselor Education and Supervision. Prior to joining GCRR, JoJo was a research assistant and a doctoral associate to the Unit Director of Counselor Education in the Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology. JoJo received her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from Governors State University (GSU), University Park, IL. She was awarded the Student of the Year in 2011 from the Counseling Department at GSU. JoJo has dedicated her career to the counseling profession and has been developing her research interests on multicultural and diversity issues, doctoral advisory relationships, and social justice advocacy. JoJo was born and grew up in China. When she’s not working, she likes to travel, hang out with friends, read fashion magazines, and figure out how many stamps she has collected.

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