Leadership

Dr. Gnezda has over a decade of experience teaching introductory courses in chemistry, science and allied science. Through her interactions with students in these courses, and her appointment as lab coordinator, she is positioned within the university to meet and recruit students who are entering STEM fields, and may iterested in participating in the IN LSAMP program. In the past, as the Ball State LSAMP Indiana coordinator, and through her interaction with the Multicultural Center at Ball State, she has increased awareness of the LSAMP program on campus and facilitated students participation in the program. She has been involved with freshmen orientation programs like EXCEL, for incoming freshmen, and Explore BSU day, aimed at recruiting students from underrepresented groups among visiting high school students. She is whole heartedly committed to the goals of the program and hopes to achieve the goals of this grant by helping students thrive in college using the additional resources that the grant will provide.

Dr. Konkle is both an alumna of and an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Ball State University. A Fort Wayne, Indiana native, she worked as a Medicinal Chemist in the pharmaceutical industry prior to attending graduate school. Dr. Konkle received her PhD from Vanderbilt University and Medical Center in 2008. Dr. Konkle started her faculty career at Eastern Illinois University in 2010 and then returned to Ball State University in 2017. Dr. Konkle has mentored more than 40 collegiate students (including several INLSAMP students) in the Konkle Laboratory. Dr. Konkle lives with her husband and son in Muncie, Indiana.

Dr. Patricia Lang received her Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry in l987 from Miami University. She joined the Ball State Chemistry Department immediately after. She became the first tenured woman in that department and earned rank of Professor. Lang served as Department Chair for six years and Associate Dean of the Honors College for two. An active researcher, Lang has numerous publications and presentations. She has mentored over 70 students in the use of infrared spectroscopic techniques for the analysis of materials, many of whom were Louis Stokes Scholars. Lang is proud to have received the University Diversity Award in Fall 2019. She was the Ball State Director for the NSF LSAMP program for eight years. She co-authored the most recent Indiana LSAMP grant, and although recently retired, Lang still works with the members of the leadership team to increase the number of underrepresented students in the sciences.