Cara Margherio is the Assistant Director of the UW Center for Evaluation & Research for STEM Equity (CERSE). Cara manages the evaluation of several NSF- and NIH-funded projects, primarily working with national professional development programs for early-career academics from groups underrepresented in STEM. She is currently collaborating with colleagues at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to support and conduct research with NSF Revolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (RED) grant recipients to discover effective change practices. Cara is also currently serving as a Virtual Visiting Scholar of the ADVANCE Research and Coordination Network, conducting a meta-synthesis of research on mentoring for women faculty in STEM that centers the experiences of women of color. Her research is grounded in critical race and feminist theories, and her research interests include community cultural wealth, counterspaces, intersectionality, and institutional change. Cara earned a PhD and MA in Sociology at the University of Washington, and a BPhil in Sociology and BS in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.