Our Team

We are working together with the goal of improving medical education and learning mindsets for future physicians.

AACOM

Mark R. Speicher

Patricia Delaney

Fang Jiang

Lynn Bragan

Director of Research, Grant PI
As senior vice president for medical education and research, leads AACOM’s efforts to determine the current state and future development of osteopathic medical education (OME). He directs AACOM’s medical education program activities, monitors developments affecting OME, evaluates educational programs that focus on developing the highest quality doctors, and works closely with AACOM’s member colleges to improve existing programs and propose new ones as needed.
Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations, Grant Officer
As senior vice president of finance and operations, has direct responsibility for leading and overseeing all aspects of AACOM’s financial, IT, and office management functions. She coordinates financial aspects of the Association’s overall strategic plan, as well as developing and implementing strategic financial and IT-focused plans. Delaney also leads AACOM’s annual financial audit process and serves as liaison to AACOM’s external auditors, as well as manages any other financial audits, reviews, and/or official inquiries from any state, federal, or local government agency.
Grant Officer
As vice president of finance, is responsible for AACOM’s overall financial activities, including daily financial operations, budgeting, financial reporting to the Board and Committees, investment assets, payroll and benefit administration, annual audits and tax filings. She collaborates with other leaders to provide financial insights and optimize the resources to advance AACOM’s strategic efforts.
Program Manager
As Program Manager for Medical Education, Lynn moves projects and events forward at AACOM. She has been at AACOM since 2016 and leads cross-functional teams across various colleges. In her spare time, she is doing her best to raise two teenagers (a son 16, and a daughter 18). She enjoys good food, good drinks, and good friends – especially all together. She was raised in Upstate New York (not far from Albany) and has now lived outside of Washington, DC for over 20 years. Lynn’s dream home has a sunrise or sunset view because she loves the quote “change upon change the sun is rising yet” by Arthur Pound.

Motivate Lab

Chris Hulleman

Yoi Tibbetts

Alliyah Francis

Lina Gin

Zachary Himmelberger

Kenn Barron

LaDonna Young

Lab Director & Associate Professor
Dr. Hulleman’s research explores how motivation and mindsets impact human development and growth, particularly in education. He collaborates with practitioners to develop and test changes in educational practice that support the motivation of students from historically marginalized and underserved backgrounds. In 2014-15, he was a fellow-in residence at the Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and from 2013-2018 he was a Fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Prior to his career in psychology, he spent six years as a teacher and coach in Iowa.
Research Director & Assistant Professor
As the Research Director of Motivate Lab and an assistant professor at University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. Yoi researches motivation and achievement with a focus on understanding how to help underrepresented students excel in higher education. His work focuses on promoting equity by developing, testing, and scaling interventions designed to support students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds (e.g., students of color, first generation students, women in STEM fields). More recently, his work has focused on leveraging the tenets of motivation science to construct more motivationally-supportive environments, particularly for students from traditionally underserved populations. Yoi's latest publications explicate what factors support student retention in STEM disciplines and biomedical fields specifically. Yoi works exclusively in research-practitioner partnerships and devote significant effort towards ensuring motivational principles are directly applied in real-world settings.
Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships & Equity Initiatives
LaDonna Young is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Equity Initiatives at Motivate Lab and a champion for educational equity and racial justice. With over twenty years of urban K-12 and higher education practitioner and administrative experience, LaDonna supports Motivate Lab by providing leadership and strategic vision for new partner relationships and equity-centered initiatives. Before joining Motivate Lab, LaDonna served as the founding Dean of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Mathematics at Southwest Tennessee Community College (Memphis, TN), which led to the creation of The Office of High Impact Practices and Innovation (HIPI) and the Gatekeeper Faculty Fellowship, which is a multi-year, faculty-driven initiative targeted at closing the equity gaps in the College's Top 12 Gatekeeper (Gateway) courses. As an Achieving the Dream Equity Coach, LaDonna enjoys coaching and challenging practitioners to interrogate and mitigate policies, practices, pedagogy, and systems that perpetuate (in)equity and opportunity gaps for historically marginalized, particularly Black and Brown students. LaDonna believes education is at its best when all of humanity is centered in educational practice. We all do better when we all do better.
LaDonna earned her Bachelor’s from Christian Brothers University and Masters of Arts in Teaching and her Ed. D. in Higher and Adult Education at the University of Memphis.
Project Manager
As the project manager for Resilient Mindsets in Medicine, Alliyah brings a comprehensive background leading large scale projects, curriculum design, secondary biology training, public policy and cross-functional teams to ensure success and achieve goals. She is experienced and well versed in data analytics, education, metacognition, organizational development and engagement acumen. I have developed and executed comprehensive educational plans in multicultural schools. Known to maximize performance by implementing appropriate standards through analysis of details to gain understanding of emerging best practices and legislation in various projects. Alliyah is a creative problem solver who excels at guiding projects through complex plans by identifying goals and monitoring outcomes.
Lead Product Manager
As Lead Product Manager, Lina designs captivating experiences that build meaningful connections between educators and their students. After 8 years of experience in cybersecurity and marketing/design, she spent two years producing bilingual STEAM curricula (i.e., Spanish/English) and testing different learning strategies as a 5th-grade teacher. As a first-generation college graduate, Lina has dedicated her career to creating equitable opportunities for all students.
Lead Data Science Manager
As a Lead Data Science Manager at Motivate Lab, He has extensive experience in developing statistical models in a wide range of educational and psychological settings. His research interests include cognition in people with Down syndrome and how neurotypical individuals can create more equitable social environments for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He earned his MA and PhD in cognitive psychology and developmental science from The University of Alabama and his BA in psychology from Rivier College.
Research Fellow, James Madison University
A Professor of Psychology at James Madison University (JMU) and Coordinator of JMU’s Motivation Research Institute. He also is a faculty fellow and member of Motivate Lab at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on motivation and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), and has appeared in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Educational Psychologist, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Teaching of Psychology, and New Directions for Teaching and Learning.
Kenn also routinely puts his knowledge of motivation and SoTL into practice teaching coursework in research methods, statistics, and psychology, and leading high impact practice initiatives like JMU's Psychology Learning Community (PLC). The PLC is designed for first year students who have an interest in pursuing a major in Psychology and a future research career in a Psychology-related field. Members live together in the same residence hall while completing a series of curricular and co curricular experiences designed specifically for them. Throughout his career, he has received numerous teaching, research, service, and advising awards. For example in 2012, he was named both a fellow of the American Psychological Association and one of Princeton Review’s Top 300 professors in America.