Our Team
Community-Oriented Digital Engagement Scholars is a collaboration between the Office of the Provost, the IRIS Center for Digital Humanities, and Student Opportunities for Academic Success (SOAR).
Director of CODES Program
Jessica DeSpain
Jessica DeSpain, PhD, is a professor of English and co-director of SIUE’s IRIS Center. She is the author of Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Reprinting and the Embodied Book. In many of her projects, she works with local citizens and middle and high school students to tell stories about their lives and communities using the medium of digital storytelling. She is the director of the CODES Program.
Director of Advising
Earleen Patterson
Earleen Patterson, PhD, is associate vice chancellor for Student Opportunities, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at SIUE. Patterson served SIUE since 1994 as director of Student Opportunities for Academic Results (SOAR). In this capacity, she has always taken a holistic approach to promoting the engagement, retention and graduation of underrepresented students, based on a foundation of research, leadership and vision.
Director of Technology
Margaret Smith
Margaret Smith, PhD, is a research assistant professor of digital humanities in the IRIS Center and a historian of medieval and early modern Ireland. She contributes to the Center’s projects in a number of capacities, including digital humanities teaching and training, project development, grant-writing, and community engagement.
Community Coordinator
Andrea Barajas
Andrea Barajas is the Community Coordinator for the CODES program at SIUE. As a proud first-generation Mexican American, she received her Associate of Arts from Southwestern Illinois College and her Bachelors in Animation from Webster University. From the lively nonprofit world of City Year Philadelphia—where she wore many hats under the AmeriCorps umbrella, blending creativity, operations, and social-emotional learning—she's returned to her home in the Midwest, bringing inclusive practices to lift others up and create meaningful connections through mentorship, education, and building vibrant communities.
Web Developer
Dan Schreiber
Dan Schreiber is the web developer for CODES, IRIS, and the Black Lit Network. He's had a long background in software, including work as a project manager for Spyglass Mosaic, the first commercially available web browser. He is delighted that he gets to support such vital programs and projects.
Technical Teaching Assistant
Kezia Miller
Kezia Miller is the CODES Technical Teaching Assistant in The IRIS Center. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, with minors in Creative Writing and Digital Humanities and Social Sciences. Currently, she’s curating The Frances Kezia Parkins Archive, a digital humanities project for her graduate exit project. The Parkins Archive endeavors to create a digital, critical edition of her great-grandmother’s manuscript and archival materials. With support from the Pacific County Historical Society and the local community of South Bend, Washington, the project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the historical, social, and cultural landscape rooted in Parkins’s texts to create a rich, useful, and accessible site for the expansion of textual recovery and scholarly editing practices.
CODES Ambassadors
TaKara Gilbert
TaKara Gilbert is a CODES Ambassador who organizes new scholar orientation and reception as well as conducts various volunteer opportunities related to recruitment and tabling. She also creates presentations for peer mentor labs for CODE 121. She is majoring in Speech and Language Pathology and Audiology with a minor in black studies. Her ultimate career goal is to be a speech and language pathologist with a specialization in autism spectrum disorder.
Payton Plummer
Payton Plummer is a member of the CODES 2028 cohort and currently serves as a CODES Ambassador, where she oversees CODES social media and contributes to website updates. She is pursuing a major in Business Administration with a minor in Political Science. She is driven by civic engagement and analytical insights, therefore she envisions a future in government or data analysis.
Keith Hawkins
Keith Hawkins is a member of the 2028 cohort where he currently serves as the event planning and recruitment ambassador. In his position he mainly organizes and runs the CODES student association and plans social events for the CODES program. Keith is majoring in criminal justice. He plans on attending law school when he finishes undergrad with his ultimate career goal of being a prosecutor and eventually opening up his own practice.
Affiliated Faculty
Maurina Aranda
Maurina Aranda, PhD, is an assistant professor of biological sciences and a first-generation college-going Latina from rural Michigan. She came to SIUE in 2019 and teaches biology and science education courses. Her research interests are largely focused in identifying ways to improve student knowledge of biology through creating inclusive spaces – both in and out of the classroom.
Stephanie Batson
Stephanie Batson is an instructor in the department of applied communication studies where she teaches public relations and general communication courses. She received a BS in communication from SIU Carbondale and an MS in organizational communication from North Carolina State University. She recently came from non-profit work where she advocated for low-income and vulnerable adults while utilizing her strengths in public relations.
Kristine Hildebrandt
Kristine Hildebrandt, PhD, is a professor and department chair of English. She is the co-founder and former co-director of SIUE’s IRIS Center. Dr. Hildebrandt is a linguist by training, who specializes in documenting, describing, and preserving language materials from under-documented and under-resourced languages. Dr. Hildebrandt mentors student interns as they learn about building digital archives. Dr. Hildebrandt has also worked with students to gather and analyze qualitative data on community issues, such as access to affordable high-speed internet and colonial extractive practices connected to botanical gardens and herbaria.
Bryan Jack
Bryan Jack, PhD, specializes in African American history. His primary areas of interest are the American South as a region, racial segregation in the Midwest, and the intersection between History and popular culture, especially as it relates to race. He has published two books: Southern History on Screen: Race and Rights 1976-2016 and The Saint Louis African American Community and the Exodusters. Bryan and his wife Jenny live in the city of St. Louis. He enjoys traveling, playing golf, seeing live music, and watching the St. Louis Cardinals.
Adriana Martinez
Adriana Martinez, PhD, is a Full Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Geography & GIS and the Department of Environmental Science. She studies the human impacts on rivers in addition to her efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in STEM disciplines. Her current work uses a combination of field work, drone imagery, and computer modeling to examine the impacts of border militarization on the Rio Grande along the Texas-Mexico border. She is also currently the PI on the NSF S-STEM Watershed Scholar program that funds low-income graduate students studying a variety of aspects around water and watersheds.
Jacqueline Shea
Jacqueline Shea PhD, is a scholar, educator, and poet with degrees in Comparative Culture and Language, Spanish, and Sustainability Studies. As a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow, she currently works with the CODES program at SIUE while conducting interdisciplinary research in environmental, literary, and language studies. In her free time, she loves to write, try new veggie recipes, and spend time in gardens.
Babak M. Khoshroo
Babak M. Khoshroo, PhD, is an instructor at the Philosophy Department, where he teaches Reasoning and Argumentation and Engineering Ethics. He completed his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma, with a specialization in aesthetics. With a master’s degree in Computer Engineering and one in Data Science and Analytics, his research work has recently focused on ethical and aesthetic issues in artificial intelligence. He is interested in teaching interdisciplinary courses that explore the new challenges emerging technologies pose for our personal and social lives.
Chad Huddleston
Chad Huddleston, PhD, is an instructor of anthropology. He has been at SIUE since 2007 and his research and classes focus on climate change, the meaning of landscapes and place, ideas of sacredness, domestic terrorism and extremism, and disasters and those that prepare for them. The main theme in Dr. Huddleston’s work is understanding how people interrelate with the world around them. As an activist anthropologist, he is interested in teaching students how to apply research to social justice issues.
Lora Del Rio
Lora Del Rio, MSLIS, serves as Director for Research, Teaching, & Learning, Humanities Librarian, and Professor at Lovejoy Library. With over twenty years of experience across seven academic and government libraries, she brings a deep commitment to inclusive, user-centered librarianship. A curious traveler, Lora delights in discovering the unique stories and everyday wonders found in libraries and grocery stores around the world. Her advocacy work centers on inspiring a love of libraries in others through every interaction. After all, like Arthur the Aardvark says, “Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card!”
Laura Fowler
Laura Fowler, Ph.D. received her doctorate in Public and American history from Loyola University Chicago. As an Associate Professor of History at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, she directs the post-baccalaureate certificate program in Museum Studies and teaches modern U.S. History, History of Illinois, urban history, and Museum Studies. She has published in the areas of museum pedagogy, museums in Illinois, and Illinois history, and has directed many student-led projects for exhibition development, collections management, and programming with area institutions. She has been recently been working on grants and projects that link digital humanities and public history, career development, and the application of humanities in tech.
Rachel Bradley
Dr. Rachel Bradley is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. After completing her PhD in social psychology at Saint Louis University in 2014, Dr. Bradley taught psychology for six years at University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Rachel’s research interests include exploring collective identity, specifically racial and sexual identity, colorism (skin tone bias), and scholarship of teaching and learning. Rachel’s teaching interests include research methods, social psychology, psychology of gender, multicultural psychology, and group dynamics. Rachel enjoys spending time with her dogs and husband as well as reading fiction novels.
Danielle Lee
Danielle N. Lee is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences. She joined SIUE in 2016 and teaches Introduction to Biology courses and Mammalogy. Her research examines the behavioral biology and natural history of small mammals across urban environmental gradients with local community stakeholders. She also focuses on fostering authentic science experiences for first-generation audiences via community science outreach activities, social media engagement, and pop culture connections.
Molly Kirby
Molly Kirby, PhD, is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department and a Research Team Lead for the CODES cohort of 2029. She primarily studies higher education, student perceptions, and emerging technologies. When she is not teaching, you can find her reading sci-fi or fantasy books, listening to different types of media (vinyl, tapes, CDs), or hanging out in nature.
CODES Fellows
Jennifer Yoder
Jen Yoder is an instructor in the English Language and Literature Department, where she teaches first-year writing courses, primarily for SIUE's non-native English speakers. Her dual MA degrees in English focus on Teaching of Writing and Teaching English as a Second Language, resulting in research interests in the use of generative AI in composition and language learning classrooms and well as, the globalization of the American university and how that impacts the ethical inclusion of international students on campus. In her free time, Jen enjoys cooking, biking, tending her house plants, and watching British crime shows and Kdramas.
Laura Soderberg
Laura Soderberg is an assistant professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She specializes in nineteenth-century comparative multiethnic literature. Her first book, Vicious Infants examines race and narratives of childhood, and her current project explores how Black and Native writers combine data and literary methods to use hostile records in creative ways.
Kevin Wamalwa
Kevin Wamalwa, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology. He earned a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and African Cultural Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on post-violence memory, land conflict, local epistemologies, and forms of reconciliation in East Africa. As a published Dr. Swahili and literary expert, Dr. Wamalwa is passionate about incorporating creative expression into his teaching to help students ethically and empathetically engage with stories of suffering and trauma in the community.
Aidan Ferguson
Aidan Ferguson obtained her BSW, MSW, and PhD from Florida State University. Additionally, she has an MS in GIS from FSU and an MS in Bioethics from Albany Medical College. She is an LCSW in the State of Florida and the State of Illinois. Prior to returning to school for her PhD she worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs providing crisis intervention, intensive case management, and medical social work at a VA Outpatient Clinic in Florida. Her current research interests include, understanding campus climate related to victimization and perpetration of sexual violence, sexual identify assertion related to development and testing of a tool she created called the Ferguson Sexual Identity Classification Instrument whose purpose is to provide better representation of nonmonosexual identities in research, and applied ethics education in social work. She developed and runs the Narcan Education and Access Program at SIUE whose purpose is education and overdose prevention on campus. In her off time she enjoys hanging out with her partner, and fellow social worker Aaron, and beagle named Russet “Tater” Potato.
Manuel Robles
Manuel Robles, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, specializing in modern Latin America, with a focus on Afro-Mexican and Afro-Latin American experiences. His research spans a variety of methodologies, and he is actively engaged in the fields of digital humanities and public history. He is the producer of Generaciones en Resistencia, a documentary that explores the roles and experiences of Afro-Mexican women in the Afro-Mexican movement. Through his work, he seeks to amplify the perspectives and contributions of historically overlooked communities.
