She will work with CASEE's Dr. Norman Fortenberry and staff on the initiative “Engineering Faculty as Agents of Academic Change,” assisting in the design and the development of two workshops having the shared, overarching goal of enabling and empowering participants to use research-based approaches to address pressing education issues, such as recruitment and retention and career awareness.

As a graduate fellow, Chavela will engage in the policy and cultural opportunities of Washington, DC, and will spend some of her time attending Congressional committee meetings and free public seminars at the National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, and other non-governmental organizations in the STEM education and research policy community. 

Chavela’s current research interests relate to the development of a Spanish-speaking community of engineering education research scholars and the diagnosis of faculty development practices at engineering degree-granting institutions in Mexico. She co-facilitated a workshop sponsored by the American Society for Engineering Education, the Journal of Engineering Education, and Mexico’s Asociación Nacional de Facultades y Escuelas de Ingeniería in 2009 titled “Building Capability and Communities in Engineering Education Research.”