Dr. Isi Ero-Tolliver is the Interim Dean of the School of Science at Hampton University. The School of Science is home to the departments of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Marine Science, Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science.
Dr. Ero-Tolliver earned her B.S in Biology at Jackson State University and then completed her M.S at Jackson State University while performing her thesis research in the Life Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She attained her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Biological Sciences and Science Education at Vanderbilt University. Afterwards, she continued at Vanderbilt University to complete her post-doctoral training in the Department of Medicine.
As an associate professor of biological sciences at Hampton University, she authored and co-authored papers in peer-reviewed Journals. Some of her publication history includes publications in science and education journals such as Journal of Biological Chemistry, Nature Chemical Biology, Journal of Cell Biology and Journal of Research in Science Education.
Dr. Ero-Tolliver’s current research focuses on best practices for exposure, recruitment and retention of under-represented minorities into the leaky pipeline of STEM by using model-based reasoning, CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences) authentic research experiences, and intentional mentorship. She has mentored high school and undergraduate student at the lab-bench using novel research as an engagement tool and these students have gone on to be successfully admitted to undergraduate and graduate schools, respectively. Being the benefactor of great mentorship, she is interested in how this process helps minority students attain and retain science identities.
Dr. Ero-Tolliver has received and managed grant funding totaling over $5 million dollars during her tenure at Hampton University. For these grants she served as the principal investigator (PI) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, Co-PI of the NSF (Course-based Undergraduate Research Network) CURENet2 Mobile and the Co-PI of the DoD Funded HU Center of STEM Excellence (CESE) Scholars(SSP) Program at Hampton University. She currently serves on the board of reviewers for the journal of education and urban society (EUS).