BHEW Membership

The members of BHEW include national experts in higher education policy, labor economics, university administration, graduate education, diversity in science and engineering, and science and engineering human resources.

Membership Roster

Ronald Ehrenberg, PhD, Chair	Irving M. Ives Professor Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics, Cornell University
Burt Barnow, PhD	Associate Director Institute for Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Donald L. Bitzer, PhD	Distinguished University Research Professor Computer Science Department, North Carolina State University
Carlos G. Gutierrez, PhD	Professor of Chemistry Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University
Donald Johnson, PhD	Vice President (retired) Product and Process Technology, Grain Processing Corporation
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, PhD	Vice Chancellor of Graduate Studies and Dean Graduate Division, University of California, Los Angeles
Michael Nettles, PhD	Edmund W. Gordon Chair for Policy Evaluation and Research Educational Testing Service
Debra Stewart, PhD	President The Council of Graduate Schools
Tadataka Yamada, MD	Chairman Research and Development, GlaxoSmithKline

Member Biographies

RONALD EHRENBERG, Ph.D., CHAIR, is the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. Dr. Ehrenberg received his B.A. in mathematics from Harpur College (SUNY Binghamton) in 1966 and a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University in 1970. From July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1998, he served as Cornell's Vice President for Academic Programs, Planning and Budgeting. A member of the Cornell faculty for 27 years, Dr. Ehrenberg has authored or co-authored over 120 papers and books. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a past president of the Society of Labor Economists. Dr. Ehrenberg has previously served on the Committee on Dimensions, Causes, and Implications of Trends in Early Career Events for Life Scientists and the Committee on Methods for Forecasting Demand and Supply of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers. He is a member of the PGA Oversight Committee and previously served on the OSEP Advisory Committee.

BURT BARNOW, Ph.D., is associate director for research and principal research scientist at the Institute for Policy Studies of the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Barnow received a B.S. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His work focuses on the operation of labor markets and evaluating social programs, and his current research includes an evaluation of the welfare-to-work program, an evaluation of training programs to train US workers for jobs currently filled with foreign workers who come to the United States on an H-1B visa, and an evaluation of New Hampshire’s welfare reforms. Dr. Barnow also teaches program evaluation in the Institute’s graduate public policy program and labor economics in the Department of Economics. Before coming to Johns Hopkins, he was vice president of a consulting firm in the Washington, D.C area. Dr. Barnow served nine years in the Department of Labor, most recently as director of the Office of Research and Evaluation for the Employment and Training Administration. Dr. Barnow recently co-chaired the Committee on Workforce Needs in Information Technology.

DONALD L. BITZER, Ph.D., is Distinguished University Research Professor in the Computer Science Department at North Carolina State University where he has been since 1989. He earned a B.S. (1955), M.S. (1956), and Ph.D. (1960) in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he was a professor of electrical and computer engineering from 1960 to 1989. Dr. Bitzer’s work has involved the application of signal processing and coding theory to a variety of systems such as radar and computer software and hardware. Large educational computer systems such as “PLATO” and “NovaNet” resulted directly from this research and led to the development of “intelligent” modems for telephone and cable systems as well as plasma display panels for television. More recently Dr. Bitzer has focused his research on the investigation of genomic signaling and coding controls in the translation process of protein production. He has been granted numerous patents in electronics and communication. Dr. Bitzer is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the American Society for Engineering Education; he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Association for Development of Computer Based Instructional Systems, and the International Engineering Consortium. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and has published extensively. Dr. Bitzer has served on numerous Academy advisory and study committees.

CARLOS G. GUTIERREZ, Ph.D., is professor of chemistry and biochemistry at California State University-Los Angeles. He received a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 1975. Dr. Gutierrez was a visiting scholar at the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. At California State University-Los Angeles, he has served as director of the Access to Research Careers program since 1978, the Minority Student Training for Biomedical Research program since 1992, the Los Angeles Bridges to the Future program from 1993-97, and the Los Angeles Biomedical Sciences program from 1980-83. Dr. Gutierrez has been a member of the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council of the NIH since 1995 and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel since 1996. Additionally, he has served as vice-chair of the NRC’s Committee on the Feasibility of a National Scholars Program and was on the California State University Systemwide Task Force on the Status of Women Faculty and Students in the Sciences.

DONALD JOHNSON, Ph.D., is recently retired as Vice President and Director of Research and Development for the Grain Processing Corporation. He received his Sc.D. in chemical engineering from Washington University in 1966. Dr. Johnson held several positions at A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company. He is a past member of the Advisory Council, College of Applied Science, at Miami University, and the Departmental Visiting Committee of the Botany Department at the University of Texas-Austin. Dr. Johnson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 and serves on their membership policy committee. Dr. Johnson recently served as a member of the Committee on Bio-based Industrial Products: National Research and Commercialization Priorities.

CLAUDIA MITCHELL-KERNAN, Ph.D., is Vice Chancellor of Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and is also currently serving as Interim Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs. She received B.A. and M.A. degrees from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Mitchell-Kernan has previously served as Director of the Center for African-American Studies. She is an anthropologist and has a joint academic appointment in the Departments of Anthropology and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences. Prior to joining UCLA, she was a faculty member at Harvard University.

MICHAEL NETTLES, Ph.D., is the Edmund W. Gordon Chair for Policy Evaluation and Research at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, NJ. He received his Ph.D. in Higher Education from Iowa State University. Dr. Nettles’s past positions include: professor of education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Vice President for Assessment for the University of Tennessee System, Knoxville; Senior Research Scientist at ETS; and Assistant Director for Academic Affairs at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Nashville. He chairs the Social Justice Action Committee of the American Educational Research Association and previously served as Vice Chairman on the National Assessment Governing Board, chair of the College Board Research and Development Committee of the College Board of Trustees, and as the first executive director of the Fredrick D. Patterson Research Institute of the United Negro College Fund. Dr. Nettles is a prominent national policy researcher on educational assessment, student performance and achievement, educational equity, and higher education finance policy.

DEBRA STEWART, Ph.D., is President of the Council of Graduate Schools. Dr. Stewart received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in political science. Until July 2000, she was Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Graduate School at North Carolina State University and also held an academic appointment as Professor of Political Science and Public Administration. Dr. Stewart had served as Interim Chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She also served as Chair of the Council on Research Policy and Graduate Education, Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), and Board of Directors of Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Dr. Stewart was recently elected Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing Service. She was a member of the NRC Committee on the Assessment of the Research Doctorate.

TADATAKA YAMADA, M.D., is Chairman, Research and Development, GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Yamada is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in history. He earned his MD degree from New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Yamada previously served as Chairman, Research and Development of Pharmaceuticals, SmithKline Beecham; as a Non-Executive member of the Board of Directors then as President, SmithKline Beecham Healthcare Services. Dr. Yamada was formerly Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and Physician-in-Chief of the University of Michigan Medical Center. Dr. Yamada is a Councilor of the Association of American Physicians, past President of the American Gastroenterological Association, Master of the American College of Physicians and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a member at large of the National Board of Medical Examiners. He serves on the Board of Directors of diaDexus and is a Trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.