The Lab for the Education and Advancement in Digital Research (LEADR) serves as an interdisciplinary space under the direction of Anthropology and History at Michigan State University.
LEADR is a collaborative space, where students can engage and learn in digital methodologies, utilizing various tools and devices to advance studies within digitization and the humanities.
2025-2026 Staff
Gillian Macdonald, Director
Gillian Macdonald is an early modern European historian. She specializes in political, migratory, and social history and has recently published on the interactions of spy networks during the Scottish Revolution and is continuing to work on her book manuscript and digital database project concerning the North Channel borderlands during the conflict. She holds a PhD in Transnational and Comparative History from Central Michigan University (CMU). She is member of Digital Humanities Core Faculty and did a postdoctoral study in Public History and Archives at the Clarke Historical Library. Email Gillian at macdo313 [at] msu [dot] edu.
Jarad Cornett, Graduate Assistant
Jarad Cornett (he/him) is a third year PhD student in the Department of Anthropology. Jarad’s work centers on Southeast Asia and explores issues relating to identity, conflict, and migration. His current work looks at Indonesia’s transmigration program and the relationship between space and identity.
Amber Walker, Graduate Assistant
Rylee LaLonde, Graduate Assistant
Bryttany Grimes, Graduate Assistant
Morgan Fox, Undergraduate Assistant (Data Science)
Max Levanduski, Undergraduate Assistant (Anthropology)
Alumni and Former Staff
DIRECTOR
A.L. McMichael (Director from 2019-2023)
Brandon Locke (Director from 2014-2019)
GRADUATE ASSISTANTS
Gabrielle Moran-O’Dell, Graduate Assistant (2025)
Scott Bullock, Graduate Assistant (2025)
Marissa Knaak, Graduate Assistant (2024-2025)
Kevin Cabrera, Graduate Assistant (2024)
Devashish Saurav, Graduate Assistant (2024)
Jada Gannaway, Graduate Assistant (2024)
Aubree Marshall, Graduate Assistant (2023-2024)
Ashley Cerku, Graduate Assistant (2023-2024)
Dani Willcutt, Graduate Assistant (2023-2024)
Daniel Fandino, Graduate Assistant (2017-2023)
Brian Geyer, Graduate Assistant (2014-2019, Spring 2023)
Chiadikaobi Gregory Okafor, Graduate Assistant (Spring 2023)
Heather Brothers, Lab Staff (Fall 2022)
Jennifer Andrella, Graduate Assistant (2017-2019, 2022)
Zachary Francis-Hapner, Graduate Assistant (2019-2022)
Marcela Omans McKeeby, Graduate Assistant (Fall 2022)
Dani Willcutt, Graduate Assistant (Summer 2020)
Grant Gliniecki, Graduate Assistant (2019-2020)
Jack Biggs, Graduate Assistant (2018-2019)
Alyssa Lopez, Graduate Assistant (2016-2017, 2018-2019)
Dawson McCall, Graduate Assistant (2016-2017, 2019)
Autumn Painter, Graduate Assistant (2016-2018)
Sara Bijani, Graduate Assistant (2015-2017)
Joey Bradshaw, Graduate Assistant (2016)
Jorge Felipe Gonzalez, Graduate Assistant (2015-2016)