Dr. Maurer holds both the M.A. and the Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University. Her teaching areas focus on Western and Eastern Europe, women and international politics, democratization, and international conflict. Her political science research focuses on Spanish politics since the transition to democracy. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Otterbein University in Spanish. She holds a Certificate of International Relations from the University of Dijon, France. Her grants include a National Science Foundation ADVANCE IT-Catalyst Award project studying and promoting best university practices for the advancement of women faculty members in STEM.
Before joining LU, she served as Dean and Chief Research Officer of the College of Graduate and Professional Studies at Indiana State University and Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Chair of the Political Science Department at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas Christian University. Before joining Lamar University in 2008, she worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Tuberculosis Research of University of Illinois at Chicago. She teaches Organic Chemistry at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research grants include an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund award studying metal-organic frameworks and a Welch Foundation research grant studying metal-catalyzed coupling reactions. She has published over twenty peer-reviewed journal articles and had numerous presentations at national and regional conferences. Dr. Lei is a recipient of the 2014 Lamar University Merit Award, the 2016 Lamar Faculty Mentor Award, and the 2020 Lamar Honors Professor of the Year Award. Before joining the Dean’s office, Dr. Lei served as the Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Lamar University.
Dr. Alm holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Iowa State University. Before coming to Lamar University in 2017 to chair the Department of Mathematics, he taught mathematics for nine years at Illinois College, the oldest institution of higher education in the state. He served as Director of the Quality Enhancement Plan from 2018 to 2022, when he moved to the Dean's office. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles, and has a knack for finding finite representations of small relation algebras, a useful skill in everyday life. Dr. Alm believes that the sum-product phenomenon in prime fields holds the key to unlocking the Flexible Atom Conjecture, which he hopes to prove one day. He enjoys playing the ukulele, much to the consternation of his daughters.