Equity in Early Learning Lab (EEL)
Current EEL Lab Members
Jordy Berne is a PhD student in economics at the Univeristy of Michigan and an Institute of Education Sciences Predoctoral Fellow. His research interests include child development, economic mobility, and the economics of education. He’s particularly interested in these areas as they relate to families with low incomes and their children and public policy. Before beginning his graduate studies, Jordy earned a BBA in economics from the University of Georgia and worked as an analyst for three years at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Jordy is an avid UGA football fan and loves to travel with friends and family.
Eleanor Martin is a doctoral candidate in Educational Policy, Leadership, and Innovation at the University of Michigan School of Education. She received her B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University and spent two years teaching kindergarten at a public school in Detroit before coming to U of M. Her current research interests include interventions in the zero-to-three space that support child development, particularly for disadvantaged children. In the EEL lab, Eleanor analyzes administrative datasets from the Boston prekindergarten program to examine programmatic questions and she also is working with Dr. Weiland and Dr. Lindsay Page of the University of Pittsburgh on a mixed-methods randomized control trial of a text-based mentoring intervention for new mothers created and delivered by the non-profit organization NurturePA in Pittsburgh, PA. Her dissertation research focuses on this RCT and is funded in part by a grant from the Office of Planning Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children & Families as part of their Behavioral Intervention Scholars program.
Tiffany Wu is a doctoral student in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology (CPEP) at the University of Michigan and is pursuing a dual Master’s degree in Statistics. She is interested in exploring the role of executive functioning and social-emotional development on student achievement, as well as the use of quantitative methods in measuring the impact of interventions. She hopes to apply her research to help inform the development of more successful and cost-effective education programs, especially for students from families with low incomes. Tiffany received a B.S. in secondary education from Northwestern University and a M.A. in psychology from the University of Chicago. She worked as a public high school teacher in Chicago and then as a research analyst for an education non-profit prior to coming to Michigan.
Emily Yerington is a doctoral student in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology (CPEP) at the University of Michigan. She is interested in the impact of school curricula on children's executive functioning skills, emotional regulation, and academic achievement. She hopes her research will provide more clarity on the long-term impacts of curricular choices for publicly funded early childhood programs. Emily received her B.A. in Public Policy from the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy, her M.A.T. in early childhood education and Montessori credential from Chaminade University of Honolulu and her M.Ed. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She worked as a preschool teacher in a public Montessori school and as a study coordinator investigating executive functioning from birth to age three prior to coming to Michigan.
Past EEL Lab Members
Shana E. Rochester earned her Ph.D. in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology (affectionately known as CPEP) at the University of Michigan (UM) in 2018. Her research, supported by the Ford Foundation, focuses on how schools and family-based educational programs can support the language and literacy development of prekindergarten through third grade learners. She is particularly interested in supporting children of color and children from low-income communities. Her work investigates the multiple contexts in which development takes place (e.g., home, school, community) and explores how children’s cultural knowledge and out-of-school experiences can be leveraged in ways that improve their learning. In the EEL Lab, Shana leads work on school climate and school context measures. Shana holds a M.A. in educational studies from UM and a B.A. in psychology from Spelman College. After graduating from UM, Dr. Rochester won an AACTE Holmes Postdoctoral Fellowship in Education and Human Development at Boston University.
Anna Shapiro earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Leadership, and Innovation at the University of Michigan School of Education and was an IES Predoctoral Fellow in causal inference in education policy research. Her research interests include universal preschool programs, special education policies that impact young children, issues in special education measurement in 2020, and the effects of early intervention for children with or at risk for developing disabilities. In the EEL lab, Anna works on the Sustaining the Boost project, an evaluation of Boston Public School’s preschool program, and on an evaluation of the Food for Thought Program with Dr. Diana Leyva of Davidson College and Dr. Weiland. She holds a B.A. in French and Educational Studies from Emory University and an A.M. in Urban Education Policy from Brown University. Before coming to Michigan, she worked as a data coordinator at the District of Columbia Public School district. After graduation, she joined the University of Virginia as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
Gloria Yeomans-Maldonado was an Institute of Education Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow with the Ford School’s Education Policy Initiative from 2018-2020. Her research interests include early childhood, child development, and the contextual factors that accompany these experiences (i.e., the home, the community, and the classroom), especially for Latino families and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Gloria is also interested in how advances in quantitative methodology can be applied to better understand these experiences. Prior to coming to Ann Arbor, she served as the Senior Research Fellow for Strive Partnership where she also worked with the Cincinnati Public Schools’ Performance and Accountability team on various projects that spanned PK-12. She was also part of the evaluation team of a quality preschool expansion program in Cincinnati. Gloria graduated with a BA in Economics and Math from the University of Arizona; an MS in Economics from Louisiana State University; and a PhD in Quantitative Research, Evaluation, and Measurement from Ohio State University. After leaving Michigan, she joined the Children's Learning Institute at UT Health as a faculty member.
Amanda Weissman is a doctoral candidate in Quantitative Research Methods of Education and is pursuing a dual Master's degree in Statistics. She is interested in the use of quantitative methods to evaluate P-12 education policies, particularly as they affect marginalized student populations. With interests in domestic and international education policy, she focuses on policies affecting early childhood learners, immigrants, dual-language learners, and underrepresented student populations in STEM as well as indigenous students in Latin America. In the EEL Lab, Amanda leads analysis of P-3 parent surveys and contributes to video-based observational coding of P-3 classroom instruction. A former high school math teacher from North Carolina, she received a B.S. in Mathematics with Teaching Licensure from Elon University and a M.Ed. in International Education Policy and Management with a focus on Latin America from Vanderbilt University. She is also an IES Predoctoral Fellow at UM.
Haidan Liu is a doctoral student at East China Normal University and was a visiting scholar at University of Michigan School of Education (in 2020). She received B.S. and Masters degrees in Early Childhood Education from Beijing Normal University. Prior to coming to ECNU, she was an early childhood educator working with children ages 3-6 years old in public school in Xi’an for five years. In her experiences as an educator, she found her interest in ECE quality, especially in curriculum, instruction, and teacher professional development. Her current research is a mixed-methods randomized control trial of a curriculum-based coaching intervention to improve instructional quality in language and literacy activities, including video-based observational coding of instructional strategies, narrative description of the intervention process, and evaluation of the program. She joined the EEL lab mainly to learn more about causal inference and data analysis.
Julia Lindsey earned her PhD in Literacy, Language, and Culture in Educational Studies in 2021. She is interested in early literacy development, curriculum, and instruction. In particular, Julia is interested in research on realistic, high-quality teaching practices and materials that directly impact reading outcomes of historically underserved student populations and support students’ love for reading. Her dissertation work focused on developing and evaluating two projects for diverse urban populations: a text-based reading intervention for first-grade students and a culturally responsive summer literacy program for early elementary schoolers. Julia received a B.S. in Psychology from Davidson College and a M.A.T. from Relay Graduate School of Education (New York, NY). A former early elementary school teacher, she has continued to teach, now at the undergraduate level, supporting future elementary school teachers in literacy instruction.
Lillie Moffett earned her PhD in Combined Program in Education & Psychology in 2021. She is interested in early education interventions, specifically programs that target executive functioning development and math learning in the transition from preschool to Kindergarten. At UM, she was an NSF Fellow, as well as an IES predoctoral fellow in the causal inference in education training program at U of M. In 2019, she also won a Head Start Research Grant ($25K) to support her dissertation work. In the EEL Lab, Lillie led analysis of P-3 teacher surveys and video-based observational coding of P-3 classroom instruction. She received a B.A in Cognitive Science & Psychology from the University of Southern California in 2016. After graduation, Lillie began an SRCD State Policy Fellowship with the California Department of Education.
Kehui Zhang is a PhD student in the Combined Program in Education & Psychology program. She received a masters degree in the Educational Studies program at the University of Michigan and she received her B.S. degree in Environmental Engineering from Penn State University. She discovered her passion in early childhood education while teaching preschool students Chinese at her part-time job. In the EEL Lab, Kehui conducts video-based observational coding of P-3 classroom instruction. Kehui is interested in ECE quality and how it varies across cultures.
Paola Guerrero was a doctoral student in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan working with Dr. Christina Weiland. Her research focuses on how the quality of classrooms in low-income contexts promotes gains in higher-order thinking skills, language, and math. She is interested in (a) measurement and methods to understand the social processes shaping early development (b) change mechanisms in early childhood education quality in developing countries, and (c) effective interventions to reduce inequities in the access to high quality early childhood education services. Paola hopes to inform scalable early childhood education programs for communities at risk. Paola received a B.A. in psychology from Universidad del Valle (Colombia) and a M.Sc. in psychology from the Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia). She is a 2018 APPAM Equity and Diversity Fellow and co-chair of the Latinx Students Psychological Association (LSPA) at the University of Michigan. She is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University.
Christina Daniel graduated from UM in 2021 with a major in Neuroscience and a minor in Music at the University of Michigan. She joined the EEL lab in 2018 as a sophomore. She has always had a strong interest in interacting with and studying behavioral aspects of children. In the lab, she coded videotapes of classroom instruction from preschool to second grade using an intensive measure focused on children's individual experiences. She is pursuing a graduate degree in Occupational Therapy and continuing her work with EEL as she does so.
Sophia Dara joined the lab as an undergraduate junior at UM where she is pursuing a BA in Public Policy at UM and minors in Education for Empowerment: Advancing Equity through Education Policy and Spanish. Her areas of interest include child welfare policy, early childhood education, and poverty studies. In the future, Sophia hopes to earn her MPP and continue to research social policy interventions that can better the wellbeing of low-income children and families.
Luna Terauchi earned a masters at UM in Educational Leadership and Policy. During her time at UM, she worked as a kindergarten teacher in Southwest Detroit where she was inspired by her students' love for learning and support for one another. Grounded in their collective love, she decided to pursue her master’s to uncover the mechanics of the inequitable system in order to revolutionize her classroom practices and beyond. She hopes to pursue work in education policy research that analyzes the interconnected networks of successful organizing that amplify grassroots movements within the education system. Luna contributed to research efforts to support the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood during the COVID-19 crisis.
Nichole Yang earned her masters degree in Educational Studies in the New Media and New Literacies thread in 2019. Nichole received a B.S. in Psychology from San José State University. Prior to coming to Michigan, she was an early childhood educator for five years, working with children from infants to prekindergarten. In her experiences as an educator, she noticed very early on that children demonstrate readiness and need for more cognitive challenges in their early learning environments. She is curious about how relationships in home and classroom contexts impact infant and preschoolers’ early word-learning skills, executive functioning, and their literacy skills and conceptual knowledge in subsequent years. In particular, she is interested in learning more about evaluation of preschool program quality and issues in equity and access that impact teaching and learning. In EEL Lab, Nichole worked on a project examining policies across states regarding third grade reading laws.
Rachel Kushner is a senior pursuing a major in Psychology and a minor in Community Action and Social Change at the University of Michigan. Her studies focus on early childhood development and she has supplemented her classroom education with experience as a babysitter and teacher’s assistant at Towsley Children’s House for over 2 years. She is interested in strategies to mitigate social biases formed in early childhood, the impact of stories on children’s prosocial behavior, and the quality and benefits of various curricular approaches for preschool-aged children, especially in under-resourced communities. Rachel aims to earn a PhD in the future and is excited to work with the EEL lab to gain research experience and mentorship through the Center for Human Growth and Development Summer Fellowship Program.
Madeline Carter completed an undergraduate degree in public policy in the Ford School with a focus on K-12 education and economic inequality in 2019. She became interested in inequitable learning opportunities due to her experience growing up in a rural area. Madeline has tutored 1st and 3rd graders through America Reads, taught English as a second language courses as a summer camp counselor, and worked for an education-technology nonprofit dedicated to closing the K-3 literacy gap. In the EEL lab, Madeline researched Michigan's transitional kindergarten program. After graduation, she joined Child Trends in Washington DC as a research assistant.
Margaret Michalowski joined EEL Lab in her freshman year in 2018. She intends to major in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics and Psychology. She has tutored 6- to 17-year-olds in Boston Public School elementary schools, independent private schools, and suburban public schools, as well as worked at a summer camp. She chose EEL Lab because she enjoys working with children and is interest in education policy. In the future, she plans to go to law school and is interested in working at the intersection of education policy and law.
Sarah Niemann joined EEL lab as a freshman in 2019 She plans to study International Studies and Spanish at the School of Literature Science and the Arts. In the future, she hopes to apply for law school on the pre-law track and to pursue a career in education policy. She was very interested in working on Boston P-3 research in the EEL Lab because of her previous experience working in a dual language immersion preschool program. She is originally from Grand Rapids, MI.
Mallak Ali Anani a Master of Public Policy candidate at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She earned her B.A. in English and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan and went on to teach high school English Writing in Detroit thereafter before returning to UofM for her MPP. Her policy interests focus on education and social policy more broadly. She is especially interested in literacy access, attainment, and development and literacy's role in establishing a person's ability to exercise their constitutional rights. She hopes to attend law school after earning her MPP.
Ava Slusne joined the EEL lab as a freshman in the LSA at University of Michigan and intends to earn a degree in Biology with a minor in Gender and Health. She developed her love of learning about women and children while working on various service projects in Vero Beach, FL and her hometown of Bluffton, SC. Her participation in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program has led her to the EEL lab where she is excited to learn more about maternal and infant health. She hopes to follow a pre-med track and eventually go to medical school.