About

Jeanne Sinclair is assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She completed her PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Language and Literacies Education and she holds an MA in Bicultural and Bilingual Education from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Prior to entering academia, she was a bilingual (Spanish-English) elementary teacher in central Texas. Her research focuses on educational equity including inclusive and culturally responsive assessment, theoretical issues in language and literacy development, and teachers’ professional learning.

Dr. Tianshuang Han is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Francis Xavier University and a researcher in the Psychology and Law Laboratory at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She earned her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Memorial University. Her research tests psychological theories, such as persuasion, social influence, and misinformation, within criminal justice and other applied social contexts. Her work has examined the impact of misinformation strategies (e.g., false balance), the reliability and validity of police interview techniques, and legal decision-making and misperceptions in justice settings. She is particularly interested in how people understand facts and scientific evidence through a social psychological lens. Using rigorous research design and quantitative methods, she aims to strengthen psychological science and contribute to more informed public discourse.

Jessica Worden is the director of programs and student services in Evergreen School Division, where she supports literacy, inclusion, and student achievement. She earned a BEd and BSc in mathematics from the University of Winnipeg and a PBDE in inclusive special education. Jessica started her career teaching high school math and science before becoming a student services teacher. Her curiosity and constant “why” questions led her to complete an MEd in social foundations of education at the University of Manitoba. Jessica’s professional interests are in student inclusion and equity, effective instruction and intervention, and instructional leadership. Growing up as the daughter of a parent with dyslexia gave Jessica a personal connection to literacy and compassion for students with learning challenges. She continues to advocate for research-based approaches that help all students succeed. At home, she enjoys spending time with her children, especially when they convince her to read “just one more page.”

Hyunah Kim is an experienced researcher with over a decade of expertise in educational measurement and language assessment. As a senior researcher at the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), a large-scale testing agency in the provincial government of Ontario, Canada, she leads research initiatives to advance its assessment programs and related policies aimed at improving student learning outcomes. In addition to her work at EQAO, Hyunah teaches graduate-level courses at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and provides consulting expertise to international testing and research organizations. She holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology and Education from OISE, with her research focusing on equity in education, particularly for linguistically and culturally diverse students, through the lens of educational measurement and language assessment.

Jodi Nickel is a professor in the Department of Education at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. She began her career as a grade 1 and 2 teacher and now helps to prepare prospective teachers for evidence-based reading and writing instruction. Jodi is a trustee for the Kids Literacy Collective and created MRU Reads, an open access website to support teacher candidates’ literacy tutoring in schools. Her research interests include scholarship of teaching and learning focused upon teacher reflection and learning through literacy tutoring, the emergence of professional identity, and teacher leadership.

Joanne is a Program Development Specialist with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Raised and educated in Newfoundland and Labrador, Joanne completed both her Bachelor of Education and Master of Education in Teaching and Learning at Memorial University. During her 25 year career she has held many teaching positions in the system ranging from kindergarten to elementary. In 2018, Joanne accepted a leadership position with the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District as a K-6 Program Specialist, where she worked to create and facilitate professional learning opportunities for teachers and schools. In 2022, Joanne was seconded to the Department of Education to lead the Ministry’s work in English Language Arts renewal for K-6. Joanne is leading the development and implementation of the new, evidence-based, Kindergarten English Language Arts curriculum with a vision to revise all the primary and elementary ELA curricula. Joanne is dedicated to introducing and improving programs that strengthen the literacy skills of our learners, while guiding and supporting educators with the use of evidence-based practices.

Tracy Critch holds a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Education (Curriculum, Teaching and Learning) from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She is currently writing her thesis for a second Master of Education in Reading Development and Instruction, with research focusing on the leadership experiences of school-based reading specialists in Newfoundland and Labrador. She has over 25 years of teaching experience, is currently a school-based reading specialist, and is the president of the NLTA Special Interest Council for Reading Specialists. She is passionate about improving reading instruction in our province through access to PL and educational research. Her current projects include working with teams exploring human cognitive architecture in teacher education and professional learning, teacher self-efficacy regarding structured literacy and the implementation of new curriculum, and exploring teacher growth and their evolving orientation to literacy development and instruction through narrative sharing.

Leslie Redmond’s research investigates the psycholinguistic and cognitive processes that underpin reading development and skills across the lifespan. She is particularly interested in the roles of morphological awareness and syntactic awareness in both first and second language reading — exploring how sensitivity to word structure and grammatical form supports literacy at different stages of development and across linguistic contexts.

A central thread of her work concerns the measurement of these constructs and understanding the complex relationships between them through statistical modelling. This empirical foundation informs her applied work, which examines the development and evaluation of evidence-based training programs targeting the component skills of reading.

Dr. Joelle Rodway is Associate Professor of Leadership and Education and currently serves as Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Education at Ontario Tech University. Her research focuses on understanding and cultivating relational ecosystems that support professional learning as a strategy for whole-system educational change. Dr. Rodway leads the Networks for Educational Transformation (NET) Lab, where she and her collaborators study how knowledge moves through professional networks and how networked forms of learning can support sustainable improvement across schools and systems. Her work frequently draws on social network analysis and knowledge mobilization research to better understand how professional relationships contribute to system capacity building and leadership development.