Gisele Ragusa, Ph.D.

University of Southern California | Los Angeles, CA | 2017

Gisele Ragusa, Ph.D. Portrait Photo

The Presidential Award provides profound recognition of the importance of mentorship from early childhood to the professoriate, which is the span of mentorship that I have provided throughout my career. The award signifies that at the highest governmental level, STEM mentorship is of absolute importance. The award provides responsibilities for continued development of culture mentorship for diverse children, teachers, students, and academics that is reciprocal among mentors and mentees, and lifelong.

The official biography below was current at the time of the award. Awardees may choose to provide their latest biographical information on their profile page.

Mentoring Philosophy

Gisele Ragusa successfully impacts students, teachers and faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) mentoring. She considers affective factors such as student and faculty motivation, efficacy, and interest in STEM content, scholarship, majors, and careers when describing her mentoring strategies and approaches.

Mentoring Accomplishments

Dr. Ragusa’s mentoring accomplishments cluster into these areas: (1) inspiring STEM interest for elementary, middle, and high school students in under-resourced neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area; (2) mentoring preservice and in-service teachers in Los Angeles area schools and nationally; (3) demonstrating leadership in fostering a culture of mentoring in STEM education at the University of Southern California (USC); (4) mentoring community college and university undergraduate students into STEM professions and graduate programs; (5) mentoring graduate student and postdoctoral fellow placement into academic positions; and (6) peer mentoring of community college and university faculty for advancement.

During the course of her career, Dr. Ragusa has mentored 457 pre-service teachers, 73 STEM pre-service teachers, and 357 in-service STEM teachers. She has mentored 11 doctoral students, seven postdoctoral researchers, 13 community college faculty members and 103 university faculty members. In addition, her outreach has influenced more than 3000 Pre-K-12 students, more than 80 community college students, and more than 150 undergraduates.

Dr. Ragusa has a longstanding commitment to successfully mentoring non-traditional and underrepresented students and faculty in science and engineering across all age levels and in each STEM pathway. A list of her leadership activities are as follows:

  • Member, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce: STEM Hub
  • Advisory Member, USC Safe Communities Initiative
  • Chair, USC Provost’s Committee on Libraries and Information Services
  • Advisory Board, CEEMS Math Science Partnership: University of Cincinnati
  • Associate Editor, American Education Research Journal: Section on Teaching, Learning and Human Development