Diana C. Outlaw is the program manager of the (TPR)^2 project, a co-PI on the RISING Project: Rural Low-Income Student Investigations Network Groups, an S-STEM Research Hub, and an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Mississippi State University. Her biology research career over the last 25 years has focused on the evolutionary history of New and Old World birds and on diversification in avian malaria parasites. Her interest in education began as a personal journey, trying to navigate the world of Special Education in order to help her daughter, now 15. As she became acutely aware of the inequity in educational resources between students with and without disabilities, her biology research began to focus on training university students with disabilities in both field and laboratory techniques. Since switching to education research, Dr. Outlaw has focused on achievement gaps for rural secondary and higher ed students. She joined the (TPR)^2 project in September 2021 and is working on a number of projects involving rural education.