GSERA’s 2025-2026 Executive Board Team:
President – Taylor Chelo, M.Ed., M.A.T.
Email: chelo.t@northeastern.edu
Taylor Chelo (she/her) heralds from northern Rhode Island, and previously served as GSERA’s Secretary for the 2024-2025 academic year. She is in her third year of Northeastern’s Ed.D. Program pursuing an Integrative Studies Concentration in Higher Education Administration/Innovative Teaching & Learning. Taylor’s action research focuses on the integration of the ePortfolio as a high-impact pedagogical practice to enhance integrated learning opportunities for undergraduate engineering students.
Prior to her time in higher education, she attended Quinnipiac University for her B.A. in English (2017) and M.A.T. in Elementary Education (2018) and taught fourth-grade for four years in a Title I public school in Connecticut. Half of her short career in elementary education was spent persevering through the COVID-19 pandemic, but Taylor saw this as an opportunity to utilize innovative eLearning tools to provide her students with engaging access to their education during this challenging time. In the midst of Taylor’s elementary education journey—and in light of her previous work alongside professors, academic affairs administrators, the University’s Vice President/Provost, and the Board of Trustees at her alma mater—she had an “itch” to explore the higher education world, which catalyzed her pursuit of her M.Ed. in Higher Education at Providence College from 2020-2022.
Ever since, Taylor has worked for Northeastern University’s College of Engineering on their Boston campus as an Senior Undergraduate Academic Advisor to over 300 undergraduate students across the bioengineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial engineering disciplines. Outside of her professional work and studies, you can find Taylor going for walks along the Ocean State shoreline, dabbling in her photography hobby-turned-side hustle, reading for pleasure, aimlessly perusing the aisles of TJMaxx & Marshalls, in the Starbucks drive-through, or spending time with family and friends.
Vice President – Jennifer Miller, M.A.
Email: miller.jenn@northeastern.edu
Jennifer Miller (she/her), an EdD student, is our Vice President, supporting member engagement within the organization. Her DiP’s goal is to highlight the causes of teacher demoralization and burnout due to factors, such as poor school and professional climate. She hopes that her research will one day assist in making the changes necessary to make teaching more sustainable and a better environment for all to succeed.
She started her career as an adjunct professor in both the English and Education departments at CUNY College of Staten Island in New York City. She has taught English Language Arts and Library Skills at a middle school in New York City and as Massachusetts English Language Arts high school teacher. She has experience engineering and piloting programs for mentoring, teacher preparation, educational technology support, social-emotional learning for the classroom, SEL school climate and classroom intervention, and leadership programs at the secondary and higher education levels. As an SEL specialist, she has written curriculum and trained other educators to improve classroom and school climate while working in EdTech as a learning specialist and proposal specialist. Jennifer received her BA and MA at CUNY College of Staten Island. Her other research interests include gamification, game-based learning, composition and rhetoric, literacy access points, participatory culture and effects on literacy development, artificial intelligence in K-12 and higher education, and educational technology best practices in the English Language Arts classroom. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Zach, and their two children.
Secretary – Amanda Thomas, M.A.T.
Email: thomas.aly@northeastern.edu
Alyssa Thomas (she/her) is a first-generation Indian-American and a born-and-raised New Yorker. Throughout her career, she has been interested in how students from marginalized communities experience education from youth to higher education. Alyssa pursued a B.A. in English with a minor in Creative Writing at SUNY Stony Brook University. While there, she began her career in education, holding a variety of roles in higher education through the Dean of Students Office, Academic Transfer and Advising, and Campus Residences. After leaving SBU, Alyssa began teaching middle school in the NYC Department of Education while pursuing her M.A.T., which she completed in 2021.
Currently, Alyssa is a 7th-year Humanities educator, ELA team lead, and Chair for her School Leadership Team. Alyssa is beginning her second year in the EdD program, in the Integrative Studies concentration. Her research focuses on the academic progress of students of color as they transition from middle school to high school. During her free time, Alyssa can most often be found wherever books are. She enjoys reading all kinds of literature, exploring new places and cultures with friends, wandering through museums, and entertaining various side quests along the way.
Treasurer – Randell Erving, Jr., M.A.
Email: erving.m@northeastern.edu
Randell Erving, Jr. (he/him) is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. After receiving his B.A. in Sociology at Marquette University he joined Teach for America and moved to Los Angeles to begin his career in education. Over the past two decades, Randell has served as a system leader and executive in preK-12 schools and higher education. Randell has presented at state and national conferences on Restorative Justice Practices, and he is an expert in social emotional learning (SEL). He currently works as an educational consultant, facilitating professional learning, providing coaching, and supporting youth serving organizations.
Passionate about community empowerment, Randell serves as a Mayor-appointed Commissioner for West Los Angeles on the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. Randell holds a master’s degree in education from Loyola Marymount University. In the Integrative Studies program as an EdD student, Randell’s research explores increasing educational equity by implementing solutions for job-embedded professional development for after school educators. In his free time, you can find Randell enjoying the sunshine at the beach, hiking, and hanging out with family and friends.
Program Director – Criss Vo, M.A.
Email: vo.chr@northeastern.edu
Criss Vo (he/him) is a doctoral student in Education (EdD) at Northeastern University, where his research centers on integrating AI tools into college writing classes to enhance student writing and study skills. His journey in academia began at Golden West College (GWC) in California, where he earned an associate degree in English. Driven by a passion for English studies, Criss transferred to California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), completing both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees there. During his graduate program, he split his time between California and Paris, for he spent part of his graduate program abroad. His master’s thesis titled “Silence of the Women: Sensationalizing the Whitechapel Murders” explores the public’s shifting perceptions of Jack the Ripper and his murders in 1888 and how sensational journalism played a critical role in constructing and catapulting the Ripper’s fame/infamy into today’s popular culture while simultaneously erasing the lives of the five women victimized by his crimes.
Currently, Criss teaches college writing and literature courses at both GWC and Fullerton College. In his third year of teaching, he won the Part-Time Faculty of the Year Award (Academic Senate Award for Teaching Excellence) at GWC. Alongside his teaching, Criss has served in the Academic Senate at GWC and actively participates in various educational committees. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his partner Heidi, working out, reading novels, and leaving voice messages for Taylor Chelo.
Communications Director – Chung Xiong, M.A.
Email: xiong.chun@northeastern.edu
Chung Xiong (he/they) is a first-generation Hmong, queer American originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a doctoral student in the EdD program at Northeastern University. His research interests include entrepreneurship education pedagogy, exploring sense of belonging for first-generation Hmong graduate students and building social community spaces. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Physiology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities as a pre-med student before pivoting to higher education. He went on to earn his Master of Arts in Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) at the University of San Francisco (USFCA). His capstone assessed sense of belonging for first-generation Hmong graduate students across U.S. higher education institutions through a qualitative analysis of critical reflection focus groups.
He currently serves as the Assistant Director of Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University – Oakland, where he advises student organizations, develops entrepreneurship initiatives and drives students to engage with entrepreneurship mindset framework as life skills, whether they identify as an entrepreneur or not. Prior to this role, Chung was an academic advisor for Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) students within Khoury College at Northeastern University’s San Francisco and Silicon Valley campuses. In Spring 2025, Chung was presented with the Club Advisor of the Year Award by the Northeastern’s Center for Student Involvement-Oakland and Division of Student Life for his work advising three nominated and award-winning student groups.
In his free time, Chung enjoys dancing, movement and music. He performed one season with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx and has performed in many other projects at various venues in Minneapolis, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the last eight years. He is also a resident DJ at Hi Tops San Francisco, a gay/queer sports bar in the Castro District in San Francisco.
Past President – Sherri Wilcauskas, M.A.
Email: wilcauskas.s@northeastern.edu
Sherri Wilcauskas (she/her) is an Ed.D. student in the Integrative Studies concentration. She is currently conducting her dissertation-in-practice research around how to introduce and teach Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to educators so that it can better live up to its potential as an emancipatory design framework. She has more than 20 years’ experience in educational design, research, and service delivery, working at diverse settings including universities, museums, and equity leaders, such as Children’s Literacy Initiative and CAST. Sherri earned her A.B. (double major: English and Music) from Mount Holyoke College and her M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives north of Boston with her husband and a rescue dog and stays active in the North Shore community theatre and performing arts community. (If you’re local to the Boston campus, come check out Quannapowitt Players or Firebird Pops Orchestra!)
Sherri has been using her doctoral journey as a way to sunset a successful nonprofit career in grants management and fundraising and start her own business. She now works as a research and evaluation consultant specializing in inclusive educational design, implementation and improvement science, and professional learning and coaching models. Her company, Dandelion Education Services, will be launching its website later in 2025: until then, she can be reached on LinkedIn and by email.
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Andrew (Andy) Anderson – Assistant Academic Specialist & Lecturer
Email: and.anderson@northeastern.edu
Andy Anderson is an academic specialist in the Graduate School of Education. His professional focus is student-centered learning and 21st-century skills-based on deep learning competencies, shared leadership, continuous improvement, and professional learning communities.
Dr. Anderson is the principal of Barrington Middle School in Rhode Island, a high-performing school of 850 students and 90 staff, where he has partnered with NExT and the Highlander Institute to provide embedded training and coaching to all teachers on deep learning principles and the development of project-based learning opportunities. He was awarded a $200,000 competitive grant targeting student-centered learning and was involved in all aspects of a $64 million school construction project designed around deep learning principles. Throughout a given school year, Dr. Anderson’s middle School, Barrington Middle School, hosts nearly 100 visitors to see deep learning in action. He is a member of the New England League of Middle Schools and other professional organizations. He is also a National Institute for School Leaders (NISL) facilitator and has presented at National Conferences across the Country. He lives in Rhode Island and teaches online.
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