To Loyola University Chicagos School of Education,

It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of character and promise on behalf of Dana Gramuglia.

Since Spring/Summer 2016, Dana has supported my 4:4 teaching workload as a Teaching Assistant. Dana has
diligently contributed to a number of projects that have enhanced my ability to provide transformative experiences
in my Engaged Learning courses.

Dana diligently works primarily to support my undergraduate Marketing Research courses. In Marketing Research,
80-120 students prepare survey and focus group data collection projects for community-based partners. Dana helps
to organize the students projects by providing detailed pre-testing feedback prior to fielding the projects. She works
through each survey, for example, to critique how simply a question is written, the likely reliability of the data
collected through the question, and how the question will interact in an online environment. This is detailed work
that requires a great deal of empathy to understand the undergraduate students perspectives as well as the needs of
the community partner for which the survey was written. I am confident that Danas contribution has led to higher
quality deliverables shared with the students clients.

Moreover, Dana shows her ability to understand the context of experiential learning through her contributions to my
research agenda. Dana has provided countless resources to me as part of a systematic review of the experiential
learning literature. Her review of the literature ranging from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to journals
unique to marketing education and Jesuit business education have framed three new research projects for successful
implementation. She has worked to build a database for the Department of Marketing to catalog all community
partners that have interacted within all Marketing courses. Most recently, Dana has completed the CITI Course
training in order to be added to an existing research project that explores students perspectives on co-curricular
programming. In the coming weeks, Dana will work side-by-side with me to facilitate in-depth interviews with
undergraduate students who have voluntarily participated in co-curricular programming. The data Dana collects will
be added to a long-term project that assess how our Quinlan Student Services programming meets the needs of our
students. Danas contribution is essential for the project to continue, and I look forward to seeing her work to
safeguard the participation of our latest interview informants.

It is important for me to also note that I rarely invite students to support my needs for a TA. However, Dana made
my choice to collaborate amongst my most significant decisions in this past academic year. Danas ability to
empathize with a diversity of students proved essential for her role. She has shown understanding about varied
perspectives. Her comfort with uncertainty (that comes with the start of any exploratory project) always guaranteed
me that Dana used a curious eye to assess the project at hand.

Having witnessed Danas quality contribution, I am assured that she possesses the necessary skills to effectively
work within the demands she will experience upon completion of graduate school. If you have any questions
regarding Dana, please do not hesitate to contact me. I was very fortunate to partner with such an enthusiastic and
hard-working young professional, dedicated to creating opportunities for our whole person education.

Many thanks for your consideration of Dana.

Stacy Neier Beran, PhD, MBA

Senior Lecturer
Department of Marketing
Quinlan School of Business
Loyola University Chicago
16 East Pearson, #428
Chicago, IL 60611
312.915.6581
sneier@luc.edu