Bachelor’s Program Faculty & Staff
Mary R. Rose, PhD
Program Director
Mary Rose received an A.B. in Psychology from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Duke University. Formerly a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, she is currently Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches courses on social science and law as well as social psychology and research methods. Her research examines lay participation in the legal system and perceptions of justice, and she has written on a variety of topics including the effects of jury selection practices on jury representativeness and citizens’ views of justice, jury trial innovations, civil damage awards, the death penalty, and public views of court practices. She is also an investigator on the landmark study of decision making among 50 deliberating juries from Pima County, Arizona. She has served on the editorial boards of Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Society Review, Criminology, Social Psychology Quarterly, and Law & Human Behavior and is a former trustee of the Law & Society Association. Her research has been cited in numerous court cases, including three U.S. Supreme Court cases: Miller-el v. Dretke(Breyer, J., concurring); Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker and Ramos v. Louisiana. In 2022, she was named Director of the Human Dimensions of Organizations (HDO) Program, where she oversees both the BA and MA degree plans.
Email: mrose@austin.utexas.edu
Jason Gentry
Senior Academic Advisor
Jason is an award-winning academic advisor with 23 years of experience at UT Austin. He didn’t graduate from UT but “got here as fast as he could.” With degrees in History and English, he truly believes in the lifelong benefits of a Liberal Arts education. He will candidly, carefully, and honestly help you navigate the complexities of UT Austin and the HDO major. In his free time, he likes to cook for family and friends, play bass in a rock and roll band, and is still surfing and skating all around the world. Two bits of advice to HDO majors – include your UTEID in all email correspondence and take your foreign language sooner rather than later.
Aina Ongcheap
Academic Advisor
Aina joined UT Austin in Fall 2018 to study the History of Science as an undergraduate student. That semester, she became the student worker for the history advising office, where she worked for the entirety of her undergraduate years. She is originally from San Antonio, Texas. After graduating from UT Austin with her BA in History in Spring 2022, she began work as an Associate Advisor for the HDO Advising Office. She enjoys taking care of her pet tortoise, Snappy, watching and doing glassblowing, and creating ceramics.
Laura Hernandez-Ehrisman, PhD
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Dr. Hernández-Ehrisman teaches HDO core courses as well as an HDO topics course. In the last twenty years, she has taught a wide range of courses that integrate history, sociology, literature, and ethnic studies. Her training is in American Studies, and her research focus is the history and culture of South Texas. Her book Inventing the Fiesta City: Heritage and Carnival in San Antonio, explored issues of gender, race, and public memory in the city’s biggest annual festival. She has also curated historical exhibits for the Museo del Westside in San Antonio and the University of Texas at Austin.
Matt Kammer-Kerwick, PhD
Lecturer
Matt Kammer-Kerwick, PhD, is an NSF-funded Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Business Research, IC2 Institute. He is the principal investigator of the study Disrupting Exploitation and Trafficking in Labor Supply Networks: Convergence of Behavioral and Decision Science to Design Interventions, which examines the use of multi-actor stochastic models, reinforcement learning algorithms, and agent-based simulation models to assess and develop disruptive interventions for illicit supply chains. He is also Lead Scientist at the Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (IDVSA) in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Current projects include the development and application of operations research models and data analytic methods toward solutions for social, environmental, and economic justice problems; assessing the scope and prevalence of human trafficking in the State of Texas; and assessing the perceptions and prevalence of interpersonal violence at institutes of higher learning within the UT System. Prior to his role at the IC2 Institute, he was a research consultant to industry for over 20 years and was President and Founder of Visionary Research, Inc. He has a PhD in Management Science and Information Systems from The University of Texas at Austin and previous degrees in Physics and Systems Engineering.
Email: mattkk@ic2.utexas.edu
Amy Nathan Wright, PhD
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Dr. Wright has spent the last 15 years teaching a wide range of courses, all of which are grounded in her interdisciplinary training in American Studies and rooted in issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, despite ranging from literature and rhetoric and writing courses to history, sociology, and courses focused on American comedy and on her specialization, the Black Freedom Struggle. As a UT alumna, she is thrilled to be on the 40 acres in HDO. She recently designed HDO 330: Cultural Competence in Organizations and regularly teaches both HDO 350: Identities in Organizations and HDO 379: Applying Human Dimensions of Organizations. Her research as a revisionist civil rights scholar is focused on both historical and contemporary iterations of the Poor People’s Campaign, a national, multi-racial, anti-poverty social movement first organized by Dr. King, which she’s written widely about, most recently in her upcoming book, The Dream Deferred: Race, Poverty, and the Poor People’s Campaign.
Email: anathanwright@utexas.edu
Kim Pernell, PhD
Assistant Professor
Kim Pernell is an economic and organizational sociologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. Her research examines the causes and consequences of risky, ineffective, and socially harmful organizational behavior, with an emphasis on dynamics in banking and finance. She studies these issues from multiple vantage points, using multiple methods. She teaches HDO 310: Researching People-Centered Problems.
Education: PhD, Sociology, Harvard University
Tracy Wuster, PhD
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Dr. Wuster teaches a variety of classes in HDO: HDO301–Introduction to the Human Dimensions of Organizations; HDO 330–Creativity and Innovation in Organizations; and HDO379–Applying the Human Dimensions of Organizations. His background is in interdisciplinary approaches to history, American Studies, and literature, and he focused on American humor and Mark Twain in his research. He is the Executive Director of the American Humor Studies Association. He has taught about American history, American literature, humor, and–for more than a decade–he taught business writing, public speaking, ethics, design, and career development in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT. His current academic interest is in teaching creativity and collaboration.
Email: wustert@utexas.edu