Lawanda Cummings

Lawanda Cummings is a Professor at the College of Education & Human Development (CEHD) at Georgia State University, affiliated with the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence. Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Social Sciences Department at Paine College, and as a Visiting Scholar and Director of STEM Education Research at the University of the Virgin Islands. Her work focuses on community-based initiatives to support minority students in STEM and improve educational outcomes through culturally responsive mentoring and program evaluation.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Community Psychology, Georgia State University
• M.A. in Community Psychology, Georgia State University
• B.A. in Psychology, Georgia State University

Research interests include mentoring practices for African American girls, non-cognitive factors in STEM success, and program evaluation. She has led significant grants such as a $436,000 Americorp grant for the DREAMS mentoring initiative, an NSF grant for African American women in STEM, and a SAMHSA-funded HIV/HCV prevention program. Her work emphasizes community partnerships and urban educational equity.

Grants and achievements highlight her commitment to STEM inclusion and health education. She founded COMmunity-Metrics, LLC, a consultancy for program evaluation and educational research.

Labs/Teams: Alonzo A. Crim Center, DREAMS Mentoring Initiative, PC: IDEAL Grant Project, and the Florida-Caribbean Louis Stokes Regional Center for Excellence.