Tasha Zephirin, is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She is the executive assistant for the National Association of Multicultural Program Advocates (NAMEPA) Inc., co-coordinator of the Global Engineering Education Collaboratory (GEEC) research group, and has also served as the Graduate Student Representative on the Purdue Engineering Advisory Council.

Tasha has lived in both the U.S. and Caribbean, growing up primarily in Barbados. She developed an interest in engineering education research while pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech. This interest was developed through research and teaching experiences in their engineering education department and leadership roles in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) at the Chapter, Regional, and National levels. While at Purdue she has participated in the National Science Foundation sponsored Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship in Magnetic and Nanostructured Materials (IGERT-MNM) program - a collaborative effort with Cornell University and Norfolk State University.

Her research interests include exploring the role of noncurricular engineering education initiatives in the engineering experience - especially within and across cultural boundaries. Her current research focuses in initiatives designed to address diversity, inclusion, and equity goals. Through this research, she aims to inform the development and evaluation of engineering education initiatives in a variety of contexts.

She has previously worked with the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) as a Head Counselor and Co-Summer Program Coordinator for MEP programs (Summer 2013) and as a Graduate Assistant in 2014. As a Graduate Assistant, she held both leading and supporting roles in the design and implementation of services for pre-collegiate and collegiate students as well as facilitating additional advisory support for Presidents of student organizations that have a focus within underrepresented student populations (AISES, MAES, NSBE, SHPE). She has also helped further engineering education research efforts within MEP programming and co-authored conference proceedings with MEP staff.