Aprile D. Benner, Ph.D.
Dr. Benner received her Ph.D. in Education from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA in 2007 and is currently a full professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Her substantive research interests center on the development of low-income and race/ethnic minority youth, investigating how social contexts influence school transition experiences and developmental competencies during adolescence.
Juliana Boteon de Siqueira, M.A.
Juliana received her Master’s in Human Development and Psychology. She is highly engaged in fostering education with a thesis written about metacognition to support school teachers to leverage student’s motivation and leadership, and volunteer work at the NGO Cidadão Pró-Mundo as an English teacher for low-income students in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has over 15 years of solid experience in different marketing areas from innovation, consumer research, brand strategy and media communication at multinational companies and is an expert in consumer understanding with deep experience in qualitative and quantitative studies and business acumen to develop strategic communication and innovation projects.
Kristina Brittenham, M.A.
Kristina received her Master’s in Human Development and Psychology. She received her B.A. in Political Science from Brown University, and her J.D. from Boston College Law School. In her legal career, Kristina worked in private practice, clerked for a federal district judge, and advocated for children in foster care, ensuring they received appropriate public benefits. She also helped to start a Montessori preschool. Kristina’s research interests include differences in children’s early childhood education experiences across socioeconomic groups, and effective mitigations against the risks associated with those differences.
Cristal L. Byrne, Ph.D.
Dr. Byrne received her Ph.D. in Education from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA in 2016. She is currently working in a clinical postdoc position as a psychological assistant at Pediatric Minds Medical Center, conducting neuropsychological, developmental, and academic assessments as well as play therapy with young children. Her program of research focuses on early life exposure to toxic stress and trauma and its impact on the development of the parent-child attachment relationship as well as how the development of secure attachment relationships with alternative attachment figures help to buffer the negative effects of early-life adversity. Her dissertation examines the formation of attachment relationships between maltreated infants/toddlers and their teachers in the context of a therapeutic childcare program and how teacher practices and the classroom environment promote secure teacher-child attachment relationships. Cristal received a Bachelor’s degree, double majoring in Psychology and Women’s Studies, from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2004. She received her Master’s degree in Education from UCLA in 2013.
Rebecca Cannara, M.A.
Rebecca received her Master’s in Education from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA in 2016. Her research interests include how intergroup relations and implicit bias relate to K-12 education. Rebecca has a B.A. in Anthropology from Reed College and has worked in social work and education for the past 20 years. She has worked with youth and families experiencing homelessness, co-developed a cooperative preschool and currently works in online learning at Agile Mind. Rebecca is the co-founder of CommunityIDEA.org, a program of the Universal Human Rights Initiative (uhri.ngo), where she brings facilitated intergroup dialogues to schools and their surrounding communities.
Nina C. Chien, Ph.D.
Dr. Chien is a Social Science Analyst at the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the Department of Health and Human Services. In her policy role, she focuses on child care subsidies, child care TRIM microsimulation, and early childhood analysis and research more broadly. Her substantive areas of interest include poverty and low SES; early childhood development, school readiness, family and child care contexts, and advanced quantitative methods.
Kirby A. Chow, Ph.D.
Dr. Chow is an Education Researcher at SRI International where she works in the Center for Learning and Development. Before joining SRI, she served as a Society for Research in Child Development Policy Fellow in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). Her research interests focus on the academic and social and emotional well-being of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, including children and youth experiencing homelessness. She received her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA in 2014.
Dr. Coddington is a Partner and Senior Researcher at Vital Research where she works on evaluations mostly in the education sector. Her projects cover a range of methods and content areas including professional development programs for early childhood education, the arts and education, and philanthropic efforts. She received her Ph.D. in education from UCLA in 2016.
Manpreet Dhillon Brar, Ph.D.
Dr. Dhillon Brar is a Senior Researcher at Vital Research where she focuses on building partnerships with organizations, leading design and implementation by establishing protocols, and methodology for research and evaluation projects, especially in social sciences. She was formerly an Assistant Professor of Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, in the division of Human Development and Psychology. She has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Education, both from UCLA. Her research focuses on understanding discrimination experiences and the psychosocial outcomes for marginalized people and their coping with such injustices, cutting across the intersections of race, class, gender, immigration status, sexuality, and other social identities. Manpreet is the co-founder of CommunityIDEA.org, a program of the Universal Human Rights Initiative (uhri.ngo), where she brings facilitated intergroup dialogues to schools and their surrounding communities. As a first generation immigrant, Manpreet has dedicated her time in the U.S. to working across issues of inequalities to eradicate prejudice and oppression to promote inclusion and acceptance. Manpreet uses the gender pronouns she, her, hers.
Elianny C. Edwards, Ph.D.
Dr. Edwards received her PhD in Human Development and Psychology from the UCLA School of Education & Information Studies. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology Department at the Boston College Lynch School of Education & Human Development. Her research interests include race and culture in schools, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and issues of school safety at the intersections of race, class, and gender. Dr. Edwards is a certified K-6 educator, and received her M.A in Education from UCLA SEIS and her B.A in Clinical Psychology and Child Development from Tufts University. Elianny uses the gender pronouns she, her, hers.
Cari Gillen-O’Neel, Ph.D.
Dr. Gillen-O’Neel is an Associate Professor at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN. Her research integrates theories and methods from developmental, social, and educational psychology in order to answer questions such as: How do children become aware of the stereotypes that affect their groups? How do academic stereotypes affect students’ performance in school? And, when faced with negative academic stereotypes, how do students maintain a sense of connection to school?
Cari has a B.A. in Psychology from Scripps College in Claremont, California, and a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UCLA. In addition, she has a Professional Clear Multiple Subject CLAD Teaching Credential from UCLA Education Extension, Urban Intern Teacher Preparation Program.
Macalester webpage: http://www.macalester.edu/academics/psychology/facultystaff/carigillenoneel/
Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PRR-ZSgAAAAJ&hl=en
Academia.edu page: http://macalester.academia.edu/CariGillenONeel
Katherine M. Griffin, Ph.D.
Dr. Griffin received her Ph.D. in Education, Human Development and Psychology in 2019. One line of her research explores how children develop social identities, such as race, ethnicity, and social class in contexts such as at school and in the home. Much of her research in this area focuses on social class, and mitigating the development of class-based prejudice in middle childhood. The other aspect of Kate’s program of research focuses on understanding the experiences of children and families living in poverty, with the goal of providing services and policies that will better serve their needs. With generous funding from the SPSSI Applied Social Issues Internship, Kate is currently conducting a year-long a community-based study, in partnership with a local non-profit, which examines the role of stigmatization in families’ experiences of benefit receipt from both non-profit and government organizations. For more on her publications and presentations please visit: https://ucla.academia.edu/KatherineGriffin
Kate received her B.A. in Psychology with a concentration in Peace and Conflict Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA in 2008 and her M.A. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2014.
Taylor Hazelbaker, Ph.D.
Dr. Hazelbaker is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. Her program of research examines social identity development in middle childhood. Here, she is interested in (a) the social groups that children identify with including race, ethnicity, nationality, religion and social class, (b) the meaning and importance that children ascribe to their group membership, and (c) how their identification relates to their attitudes about their own and other social groups. Related to this, her second area of research explores how children’s proximal contexts (e.g., school, home) shape their understanding of social groups. In particular, she examine the influence of parent and teacher socialization practices. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Elementary Education from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2015 and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2021. Taylor uses the gender pronouns she, her, hers.
Nora Hunter, M.A.
Nora received her Master’s in Human Development and Psychology. After receiving her B.A. in Musical Theater from UCLA, she obtained both an English and Multiple Subjects teaching credential from National University. During her time as a teacher, she focused on developing strategies to incorporate theater into the elementary curriculum. Her research interests include the effect of arts integration on social development in young children and adolescents.
Virginia Huynh, Ph.D.
Dr. Huynh is a Professor at California State University at Northridge in Northridge, CA. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at UCLA in 2011. Her research focuses on understanding social and cultural factors, such as discrimination and ethnic socialization, that influence the academic, psychological, and physical well being of ethnic minority and immigrant children and adolescents.
Yu Jie Hsiao, M.A.
Yu Jie received her Master’s in Human Development and Psychology. Her research interests focus on social justice, particularly Asian children from low socioeconomic backgrounds and racial issues. She also pays close attention to how teachers and educational systems impact students’ learning motivation, self-confidence, and academic development. Prior to attending UCLA, Yu Jie taught elementary school students for four years in Taiwan. She received her MEd in Education Innovation and Evaluation from the National Taipei University of Education, and B.A. in Education, with a minor in Counseling from the National Taipei University of Education in Taiwan. Yu Jie uses the gender pronouns she, her, hers.
Guadalupe Lopez Hernandez, Ph.D.
Dr. Lopez Hernandez is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago in Chicago, IL. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Northern Illinois University and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2022. Her research focuses on the social belonging of Latinx immigrant-origin adolescents in the context of families, schools, and communities. Her current scholarship qualitatively explores how threats to belonging (e.g., xenophobia) impact adolescents’ social-emotional development and inclusion in suburban contexts.
Paul Luelmo, Ph.D.
Dr. Luelmo received his Ph.D. in Education from UCLA in 2018 is now an Assistant Professor in the department of Special Education at San Diego State University. His research focuses on the effects of teachers’ and parents’ involvement in the education of minority children living in poverty. Additional research interests include immigration, school reform, and special education law and policy.
Paul received his B.A. in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006. He received a teaching credential from San Diego State University in 2009, and was a special education teacher in an inner-city charter middle school in Los Angeles. He received his M.A. in Special Education from California State University, Los Angeles in 2013.
Lindsey Nenadal, Ph.D.
Dr. Nenadal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child Development at California State University, Chico. Her research focuses on teachers’ beliefs about and biases based on social class; curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation focused on social issues; and the effects of poverty on children’s school readiness. She has a B.A. in Liberal Studies and a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from California State University, Chico and taught elementary school in Huntington Park and Los Angeles. She received her M.A. (2015) and Ph.D. (2018) in Education with an emphasis in Human Development and Psychology from UCLA.
Victoria C. Rodriguez-Operana, Ph.D.
Dr. Rodriguez-Operana is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the Research and Equity Scholarship Institute on Student Trajectories in Education (RES-ISTE) at San Diego State University. She also teaches courses in Education Studies and Human Developmental Sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). With nearly a decade of research experience in education, psychology, and human development, and publications in the Journal of Early Adolescence, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Asian American Journal of Psychology, Dr. Rodriguez-Operana’s research broadly examines how social identities and relationships within proximal contexts (e.g., family, school) influence the developmental outcomes (e.g., academic, psychological adjustment) of students of color. Her mixed-methods dissertation examined how family, peer, and school-based relationshipsshape the academic achievement and psychological adjustment of Filipino American adolescents, an understudied segment of the Asian American and Pacific Islander population. In her current position as a postdoctoral research fellow, she collaborates with fellow UCLA alumna Felisha Herrera Villarreal, Ph.D. on two projects funded by the National Science Foundation (ED-SYSTEMS: DUE-1644990; HSI-STEM: DUE-1832528) to examine the experiences of underrepresented racial minorities majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), specifically those who attended community colleges and Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Dr. Rodriguez-Operana has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Human Development and Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Connie S. Tan, Ph.D.
Dr. Tan received her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA in 2012 and is currently a Senior Research Analyst at AAPI Data. She formerly served as the Evaluation Director for Education Insights Center at California State University, Sacramento. Her substantive research interests include low-income and immigrant youth development, family contexts, school success, as well as postsecondary and career readiness.
Remi Torres, Ph.D.
Dr. Torres is a former preschool teacher who received her Ph.D. in Education from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA in 2022. Currently, she is the Director of Content Research and Evaluation at Sesame Workshop, where she conducts formative and summative research on Sesame Street content. Her research interests include cross-cultural explorations of social and emotional development and educational media and digital experiences for children. Dr. Torres uses the gender pronouns she, her, hers. LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/remi-torres
Elizabeth S. White, Ph.D.
Dr. White received her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA 2012 and is currently an Associate Professor in the College of Education, School of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University. Dr. White’s research focuses on children’s civic engagement and developing sense of social responsibility; subjective experiences of poverty; ideas about wealth, poverty, and economic stratification; and, teachers’ strategies to promote positive interactions in diverse classroom contexts.
Before coming to UCLA, Dr. White taught pre-kindergarten and fifth grade in Atlanta, GA.