People

Dr. Lorna Quandt is the director of Action and Brain Lab at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. She serves as Co-Director of the VL2 Research Center alongside Melissa Malzkuhn. Dr. Quandt is an Associate Professor in the Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) program and is also the Science Director of the Motion Light Lab. Dr. Quandt founded the Action & Brain lab in early 2016. Before that, Dr. Quandt obtained her BA in Psychology from Haverford College and a PhD in Psychology, specializing in Brain & Cognitive Sciences, from Temple University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, working with Dr. Anjan Chatterjee. Her research examines how knowledge of sign language changes perception, particularly visuospatial processing. Dr. Quandt is also pursuing the development of research-based educational technology to create new ways to learn signed languages in virtual reality.

You can view her CV here, and access a list of her publications on PubMed or Google Scholar.

She can be contacted at lorna.quandt at gallaudet.edu.

Dr. Lee Kezar is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Action and Brain Lab at Gallaudet University, where he studies how artificially intelligent (AI) language models can better incorporate sign languages. On the NSF-funded BRIDGE Project, Dr. Kezar is focused on building AI-based learning tools for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in undergraduate STEM classrooms. Dr. Kezar earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California in 2025. His doctoral work primarily concerned how insights from ASL phonology can help AI models recognize, understand, and produce isolated signs, especially those that do not appear frequently in the model's training data. Click here to learn more about Dr. Kezar's research agenda and publications. See also his CV and Google Scholar. Dr. Kezar may be contacted at lee.kezar at gallaudet.edu.

Meghan McGarry is a postdoctoral researcher in the Action and Brain Lab. She conducts research as part of her NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship award, focusing on EEG research exploring how sign iconicity and embodied cognition can work together to facilitate ASL acquisition with the goal of ultimately supporting caregiver ASL learning. Originally from Portland Oregon, Meghan received her Ph.D. from San Diego State University and the UC San Diego's Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders (JDP-LCD). Outside of the lab she enjoys running and has an Instagram account purely dedicated to the amount of sewing/embroidery she does.

Melody Schwenk is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Educational Neuroscience at Gallaudet University. Her research explores spatial cognition and psycholinguistics, with a focus on how the acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL) impacts spatial perspective-taking and neural plasticity. With a strong background in psychology and Deaf education, she holds degrees from Stony Brook University, Columbia University, and Hunter College. A recipient of the NIH F31 NRSA award, Melody is dedicated to studying the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support language development in both hearing and deaf populations. Outside of her academic pursuits, Melody enjoys spending time with her four dogs and engaging in creative activities, such as crochet, puzzles, and origami.

Joseph Palagano is a trilingual fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Educational Neuroscience program and a fifth-year research assistant for the Visual Language and Visual Learning Center (VL2) at Gallaudet University. His research agenda centers on neural and behavioral analyses of experience-dependent neuroplasticity, with an emphasis on the underlying neurobiology of language, learning, and social interaction. Specifically, he is pursuing novel understandings of the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support communication, behavioral coordination, and shared understanding (alignment) in the deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-disabled, deaf+, and DeafBlind communities. He and his team's prior work integrates neuroimaging/psychometric data (e.g., dual-EEG hyperscanning, fNIRS, and eye-tracking), emerging technologies (e.g., AI/ML-driven modeling, XR, wearable sensors, haptic devices, and motion capture), and HCI methods to investigate how language manifests in and across human brains and behaviors. His work aims to advance basic and translational projects aimed at expanding access to optimal learning and the Cognitive Sciences for deaf, deaf+, hard-of-hearing, and DeafBlind communities.