STEM@SVSU Staff

The Director of STEM@SVSU is to connect K-12 educators, parents and students with university programs and area businesses in the STEM fields. Specifically, I align and support STEM initiatives and camps at Saginaw Valley State University, including the Chief Science Officers program, the annual STEM educator dinner, Hour of Code events, and many more! I also work to connect SVSU faculty, staff, and students with volunteer STEM opportunities throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region.

The STEM Mobile Lab Coordinator works to schedule, create, and lead STEM programming on the Mobile Lab at school sites or research locations for K-6th grade students in the Great Lakes Bay Region and beyond.

Stephanie Brouet is a Professor of Chemistry at Saginaw Valley State University and the lead coordinator of the Dow Corning Foundation/SVSU STEM Community Partnership. The program is designed to have a widespread impact to create positive perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of STEM. Participating teachers attend a summer workshop and develop an inquiry-based project for their school, with support from SVSU Faculty and Regional STEM professionals. Dr. Brouet holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and has worked in the pharmaceutical and oil & gas industries before joining SVSU.

My role is director of the SVSU Regional Mathematics and Science Center. Our Center offers professional development and student enrichment activities. In addition, we house a resource clearinghouse with materials that may be checked out at no cost.

Dr. Muraleedharan collaborates with local industrial partners on undergraduate capstone projects to provide students the opportunity to conduct research and hands-on real-world experience to become world-class engineers of tomorrow. She is also the faculty advisor of the Saginaw Valley State University Society of Women Engineers (SWE), which focuses on inspiring and empowering young women engineers. SVSU SWE promotes and volunteers for many outreach activities to encourage and engage local middle, and high school students in the field of STEM.

Poonam Dharam (Ph.D.) is an associate professor of Computer Science and Information Systems at Saginaw Valley State University. She is also the faculty advisor of the Girls Who Code (GWC) club, which is a FREE after-school program for 5th-8th grade students. In the GWC club, students work in teams to design and build a Computer Science Impact Project that solves real-world problems they care about through code.