Tomoe Kanaya

ResearcHER Program Facilitator

Tomoe Kanaya, Ph.D has over 20 years of experience as a researcher, educator, and data scientist within academic, non-profit, and industry settings. She specializes in longitudinal methodology, including the incorporation of AI/ML models to development assessments and analytic strategies that measure growth and change across the lifespan in an equitable and responsible manner. She has served as Program Lead for the ResearcHERS program since 2022.

YJ Kim

ResearcHER Program Facilitator

YJ Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she leads the PLAI (Playful Learning and Assessment for Impact) lab. Previously she was the founder and director of MIT Playful Journey Lab where she led an interdisciplinary team of game designers, developers, and researchers to create playful assessment tools for K12 education. Her work centers on the topic of innovative assessment and re-imaging what and how we measure learning across formal and informal contexts. YJ’s work on playful assessment merges a principled assessment design framework with justice-oriented design practices in playful learning environments. Central to her work is close collaboration with practitioners, as she empowers teachers to utilize playful and authentic assessment tools that align with their values and address the challenges specific to their contexts. YJ earned her PhD in Instructional Systems Design from Florida State University and holds a B.S. in Educational Technology from Ewha Womans University.

Bharati B. Belwalkar

ResearcHER Program Co-Lead

Bharati B. Belwalkar is a senior Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Researcher at American Institutes for Research (AIR). Her career highlights consist of leading several pivotal projects at AIR, including assessment development, large-scale practice/job analyses, and multi-phase artificial intelligence and data science projects.

Dr. Belwalkar’s research interests revolve around the intersection of workforce assessment/development and technology. An active contributor to the I-O community, she has over 30 conference proceedings and publications to her credit, notable among those are in peer-reviewed outlets such as Journal of Personality Assessment, Personnel Psychology, The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist (TIP), and The Cambridge Handbook of Technology and Employee Behavior.

Dr. Belwalkar has a decade-long experience conducting basic and applied research, leading small-to-medium projects, and publishing academic/applied research. Her work has been recognized by the International Personnel Assessment Council (IPAC) with the 2024 Innovations in Assessment award. She is also a 2025 William T. Grant Advanced Quantitative and Computational (AQC) Scholar. She has earned a master’s degree in I/O psychology from Florida Institute of Technology and her doctorate in the same discipline from Louisiana Tech University.

Serena Miller

ResearcHER Program Co-Lead

Dr. Serena Miller is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University in the College of Communication Arts & Sciences, former Methodology Associate Editor for Review of Communication Research, and a former Associate Editor for Journalism Studies. She previously worked as faculty member at Arizona State University and Bloomsburg University. Miller specializes in the study of research practice including the mapping and dissecting of a diverse range of theories, methods, and approaches with the intention of making the practice of scholarship more accessible. Her general research interests center on evaluating best practices in theory building; scale development and validation; and alternative journalistic practice. Miller identifies as a concept explicator and theory builder because she enjoys targeting models and concepts in need of conceptual and empirical specification and clarification. Miller teaches scale development and validation; mixed methods; graduate studies; survey research; content analysis; theory building; storytelling; and visual, data, and digital communication.

Doris Zahner

Mentoring Program Co-Lead

Doris Zahner, PhD is the Chief Academic Officer at CAE, where she provides thought leadership and oversees all research and development studies pertaining to CAE’s performance-based assessments.

Dr. Zahner holds a PhD in cognitive psychology and an MS in applied statistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition to her responsibilities at CAE, Dr. Zahner is an adjunct associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, as well as New York University, where she teaches statistics courses to undergraduate and graduate students in the social sciences and public policy.

Kristen Smith Herrick

Mentoring Program Co-Lead

Dr. Kristen Smith Herrick is a Senior Learning Scientist at ETS where she designs and iterates AI learning solutions. Her PhD is in Assessment & Measurement and her published research areas include implementation fidelity, ethical reasoning assessments, and assessment for learning improvement. In her work, she leverages evidence-based practices, learning science design principles, and assessment for learning to innovate solutions and maximize learning for all users. She applies usercentric methodologies that align with high standards of educational excellence and learning best practices. As a first-generation college graduate, she benefitted immensely from mentorship and is excited to help connect others with valuable mentorship opportunities.

Cicek Svensson

Networking Program Co-Lead

Cicek Svensson is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with over 17 years of experience in the assessment industry. Cicek is Senior Account Manager at Caveon, where she manages strategic partnerships and supports clients. With professional experience spanning Europe, the U.S., and the Baltic region, Cicek brings a global perspective to her work. She is multilingual and has lived and worked in Sweden, Turkey, and the United States.

Lissette Tolentino

Networking Program Co-Lead

As the Associate Director and Assistant Scholar in Institutional Assessment at the University of Florida, Dr. Lissette Tolentino provides leadership and support for enhancing higher education assessments through psychometric methods and theories. She serves as an adviser on matters related to assessment practices and oversees all research studies related to institutional assessment. Dr. Tolentino holds a PhD in research and evaluation methodology, with her research focusing on the accuracy and fairness of educational assessments. She has spearheaded projects that have led to institution-wide changes in how assessment reports are evaluated and co-led the creation and execution of a faculty-focused assessment workshop.

In addition to her role at the University of Florida, Dr. Tolentino is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE), the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME).