Meet the Team

Rod Lewis, Haas Center director, received his Ph.D in political science with a doctoral minor in methods (econometrics) from The Florida State University in 2006, and joined the Center shortly thereafter. He served as Director of Research for Kile Consulting, a Tallahassee based firm, as a Leroy Collins fellow in the Department of Political Science and successively as a research associate in the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences during his graduate career at FSU. Before returning as the Haas Center director, he was President of Discover Analytics, Inc. He has participated in numerous local, regional, and state-wide projects with the Center including industry cluster analyses, workforce competency studies, and economic impact analyses. He maintains an active research agenda in his home discipline of political science and routinely collaborates with colleagues on experimental and empirical research in political psychology, political behavior, and representation.

Aaron Schmerbeck, Haas Center economist, is expected to receive his Ph.D in Economics from Florida State University in 2012. He received a MS in Economics from Florida State University in 2007 and a BS in Economics and Mathematics from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. At Florida State University, he was a research fellow and taught undergraduate Economics classes. Prior to employment at the Haas Center, Aaron was an economist in the Multifamily Modeling and Research Group at Freddie Mac.

Angela Sanders received a BS in History from the University of Montevallo in 2005. Before joining the Haas Center team as research coordinator, Angela worked in the customer service industry as an agent supervisor for Convergent USA. At the Haas Center, Angela provides support for the research team and supervises the survey research lab.

Sarah joined the Haas Center team in January 2012. She is a recent graduate of the University of West Florida’s Psychology Master of Arts program with a concentration in Industrial-Organizational Psychology (IO). She received her bachelor’s degree from High Point University in 2010 with concentrations in Psychology and Business Administration. She is currently serving on the American Society for Training and Development board as the vice president of administration.

Neil Vaughan recieved his MA in Psychology with a focus in Industrial-Organizational Psychology (IO) from the University of West Florida in 2012. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Florida in 2009. Prior work includes serving as an assistant consultant on UWF’s Strategic Academic Visioning Committee, where he helped structure the future educational goals and objectives of the University of West Florida. He has also co-conducted research assessing the psychometric properties of nationally-used education surveys, which have appeared in nationally circulated research journals, such as Research in Higher Education. He has also dedicated considerable time to epidemiology research, and in 2008, Neil was invited to present findings addressing the difficulties associated with assessing quality of care for children with special health care needs at the National Mother Child Health Bureau conference in Atlanta, GA. Neil keeps an active interest in research and plans to dedicate his pursuits to conducting applied research for public and private organizations.

Hi Tran is currently pursuing a MS in Computer Science at the University of West Florida. He completed a BS/BA in Management Information Systems at the University of West Florida in 2010. Prior to joining the Haas Center team, Hi was a software tester for Studer Group, and a software systems analyst for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Martin is responsible for creating and maintaining the Haas Center website in addition to providing IT assistance. He will earn a BS in Information Technology with a focus in Digital Enterprise in December 2012 from the University of West Florida. Martin is also completing two minors in Marketing and E-Business. Martin has held numerous leadership roles at the University of West Florida in the Lambda Beta Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, Sport Management Club, and UWF student government.

Vadim is currently pursuing a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and expected to graduate in May, 2013. Presently, he is developing a brand new mobile application for the Haas Center. When finished, his app will run on various types of mobile platforms. Prior to getting on board with Haas Center Vad completed eight month co-op with the CHELCO (local power utility company) and spent nearly five years working for the Department of Defense.

John Filleau is a student, former enlisted military, and future engineer. He is responsible for application development and IT assistance at the Haas Center. He will receive his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of West Florida in May, 2013. He is also the President of the UWF Emerald Coast Student Chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). John initially received his computer and network administration training while on a six-year tour in the Air Force, and he attributes the majority of his current success to the leadership he had as a young airman. His current ambition is to pursue a Ph.D in machine learning, which he will start in Fall 2013.