Counselor education master’s students volunteering at Save My Starving Children.
Twenty master’s students from the Department of Educational Psychology’s counselor education program took time away from their studies to volunteer with Feed My Starving Children on February 24.
The event was organized by the counselor education graduate student representative group which is overseen by Assistant Teaching Professor Marguerite Ohrtman.
Thanks to all the counselor education volunteers who represented counselor education and the Department of Educational Psychology in our community!
Five master’s students in the Department of Educational Psychology’s counselor education program have been recognized for their contributions to the program and potential to make a difference in the field of counseling.
Meagan Kluver and Nou Ting Lor were recognized with $1,500 Sunny Hansen BORN FREE awards which are given to graduate students working in the field of career development through the counselor education/counseling and student personnel psychology program.
Katherine Nguyen and Tony Mills each received $2,000 Kay Herting Wahl Memorial Fellowships which are given to graduate students studying counselor education/counseling and student personnel psychology who are planning to become licensed K-12 school counselors.
V.N. Vimal Rao, PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology’s quantitative methods in education program, has been given an honorable mention by the Consortium for the Advancement of Statistics Education (CAUSE) for his interpretation of its January 2022 cartoon, drawn by British cartoonist John Landers.
Each month CAUSE releases a new cartoon, and statistics students to suggest statistical captions. The caption contest is offered as a fun way to get students thinking independently about statistical concepts.
CAUSE describes its January 2022 cartoon as featuring, “children playing on a jungle-gym with a flagpole and some birds in a tree in the background. The flagpole and the top of the jungle gym appear to form the axes of a scatterplot where the birds are the points with male (red) cardinals in a downward pattern and female (brown) cardinals in an upward pattern.”
According to CAUSE, Rao’s caption to the cartoon, “Regression trees aren’t just for the birds,” discusses how relationships between variables might be expressed and communicated by classification and regression tree models.
Alexandria Robers—MA in special education with an emphasis in applied behavior analysis (ABA) graduate and PhD candidate in school psychology, both in the Department of Educational Psychology—has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Social Justice Contributions to Behavioral School Psychology Recognitionpresented by the Behavioral School Psychology Interest Group (BSPIG) of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP).
According to NASP, Robers was selected for her “impressive contributions to the field…. [and] mark on behavioral school psychology by approaching…work through a lens of social justice.”
In her recommendation letter, Rober’s doctoral advisor, Dr. Faith Miller shared, “At the center of all of her [Rober’s] work across research, practice, and service is a deep sense of cultural humility and advocacy for minoritized learners. She is an inspiration and embodies excellence and resilience. I am both humbled and honored to have the privilege to work with her.”
Robers will receive her award during the next NASP BSPIG virtual meeting on February 15.
Congratulations to Alexandria Robers on this well-deserved honor!
Emma Shanahan, doctoral student in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program, has been recognized with the College of Education and Human Development’s Anderson Dyslexia Identification and Intervention Fellowship.
Shanahan is receiving this fellowship for her long-term commitment to improve instruction for students who experience characteristics of dyslexia and to support educators of students who struggle with learning to read.
Shawn Girtler, a PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program, has been awarded a spring 2021 Council of Graduate Students (COGS) research grant for her research on “Using Behavior Skills Training to Promote Caregivers’ Generalized Skill Instruction with Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disorders.”
During her 18-week study, Girtler will use the funding to compensate, often underpaid, direct support staff for their time. In addition for the first time on-record, individuals with intellectual and developmental disorders will be compensated for their time as research participants.
The new minor gives undergraduate students hands-on research experience with faculty and a better understanding of how people think, learn, and grow.
In spring of 2022, the Department of Educational Psychology is launching a new educational psychology research minor for undergraduate students. The minor was designed for students majoring in educational psychology-related areas (e.g., education, psychology, or social sciences) who are interested in gaining research experience. Future educators looking to improve the effectiveness of their teaching through better understanding of evidence-based practices may also be interested in declaring the new minor. All University of Minnesota undergraduates may apply.
Kathy Seifert, director of undergraduate studies
“We are excited to introduce research to the next generation of educational psychologists,” says Kathy Seifert, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Educational Psychology, lecturer, and coordinator for the new minor.
According to Seifert, “Our goal is for students to complete the minor and be ready for what’s next—whether that’s including real-world research experience on their graduate school or job applications; using scientifically proven methods in their teaching; or just having a better understanding of how humans think, learn, and grow.”
Emily Bellinger recently earned her BS in psychology at the UMN. She has taken two of the core classes included in the new minor and is currently conducting research with Educational Psychology faculty.
“Being involved in research has been one of the most beneficial and influential experiences during undergrad. I have not only had the opportunity to explore my interests in a capacity that helps to develop my knowledge and skills. But I have also had the chance to meet and connect with many amazing professionals in the field,” Bellinger says.
The Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota is consistently ranked among the top graduate programs in the country and was ranked number ten in 2021 which Seifert says is an advantage of the program.*
“Our faculty are some of the leading researchers in educational psychology. All of our minor students will have the opportunity to work with them on innovative and relevant research projects before they even complete their undergraduate degree.”
Department of Educational Psychology MA and PhD students across our five programs have been awarded scholarships and fellowships to pursue their graduate studies during the 2021-22 academic year. Congratulations to all of our deserving recipients!
Russell W. Burris Memorial Fellowship in Educational Psychology
Alexandria Robers, school psychology
The Russell W. Burris Memorial Fellowship was established in memory of Russell Burris, professor emeritus of educational psychology. Dr. Burris studied what and how we learn, in particular “expertness,” focusing on areas that included trial advocacy, clinical medicine, and art history.
José Palma, a recent graduate of the quantitative methods in education program in the Department of Educational Psychology, has earned a post-doc role at the University of Texas in Austin.
Dr. Palma successfully defended his dissertation “Modeling Response Processes in Early Literacy Measures,” on September 16, 2021.
According to an announcement on UT – Austin’s website, Dr. Palma’s research focuses on developing fair and valid testing practices in the assessment of diverse and vulnerable populations. This work has included research on the assessment of English language learners and students with disabilities, the role and application of multilevel measurement and educational disparities, the measurement of social-emotional learning and youth development, and in understanding the psychometric properties of tests and items.
The program is sponsored by the UMN Department of Psychology and the College of Liberal Arts with support from ICD and the Department of Educational Psychology in the College of Education and Human Development.
The Diversity in Psychology Program is designed for individuals who are historically under-represented in psychology graduate programs and who are interested in learning about graduate training in psychology, developmental psychology, and educational/school psychology at the University of Minnesota.
The program will feature a coordinated set of formal and informal experiences designed to familiarize participants with strategies for constructing successful graduate school applications, and to provide them with the opportunity to learn more about the experience of graduate education in UMN psychology departments.
To be eligible to apply, individuals must:
be enrolled in a college or university as a junior or senior, or have graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Individuals currently enrolled in a terminal master’s-level graduate program in psychology are also eligible. Students currently attending the University of Minnesota are eligible to apply;
identify as a member of groups underrepresented in graduate training in psychology, including ethnic and racial minority groups, low-income backgrounds, persons with a disability, LGBTQ+, military veterans, and first-generation college students or graduates. Please note that international students are not eligible to apply.
This year’s Diversity in Psychology Program will be held virtually and participants will not incur any transportation or lodging costs.
Individuals must also meet one of the following criteria:
be committed to pursuing doctoral training in either developmental psychology or educational/school psychology OR
be committed to pursuing doctoral training in psychology in one of our programs of research: Clinical Science and Psychopathology; Counseling Psychology; Cognitive and Brain Sciences; Industrial/Organizational Psychology; Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavior Genetics; Quantitative Psychology/Psychometric Methods; or Social Psychology.
Dr. Wackerle-Hollman, principal investigator on the project, and her team plan to develop a new tablet-based measure in English and Spanishto monitor language and literacy progress in preschoolers with disabilities or at risk for later language difficulties. CASA is one of only 22 projects nationwide awarded this funding.
Michael Rodriguez, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, Campbell Leadership Chair in Education and Human Development, and professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s quantitative methods in education (QME) program, will serve as co-principal investigator on the project. The CASA team also includes Carlos Chavez and Alejandra Miranda, doctoral students in the QME program, and Dr. Lillian Duran, alumni of the Department of Educational Psychology, now associate dean for academic affairs and an associate professor at the University of Oregon.
Dr. Wackerle-Hollman shared her hopes for the CASA project.
“We are excited to receive funding to work on this important project that will support preschoolers in Spanish and English in ways that are contextually relevant, culturally attuned, and promote and empower bilingualism as an asset in early development.”
Vimal Rao, PhD student in the quantitative methods in education program in the Department of Educational Psychology; Jeffrey Bye, lecturer in the psychological foundations of education program; and Sashank Varma, formerly a professor in the psychological foundations of education program now at Georgia Tech, have been awarded a Disciplinary Diversity & Integration Award by the Cognitive Science Society. The trio are receiving the honor for their paper, “Categorical perception of p-values.”
According to CSS, the Disciplinary Diversity & Integration Award recognizes the best cognitive science research in disciplines that have been traditionally under-represented at its annual conferences and journals. All submissions must include interdisciplinary perspectives and integrative approaches to understanding the human mind.
Rao first began researching while taking a psychological foundations of education seminar on mathematical cognition from Dr. Varma. He saw how research on how people represent and reason about number could inform current debates about the reproducibility of scientific experiments, and ultimately guide how we teach students about probability and statistical inference.
“I look forward to future research collaborations at the intersection of cognitive science and statistics education,” Rao says.
Gina Ristani, a first-year graduate student in the psychological foundations of education program in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) internship for summer 2021.
Ristani will be conducting a research project exploring cultural diversity awareness for gender, race, and ethnicity in science technology engineering and math (STEM). Her work will focus on faculty mentors and undergraduate engineering students in the ATP-Bio Engineering Research Center being led by faculty at the University of Minnesota.
Keisha Varma is Ristani’s adviser and an associate professor and program coordinator in the psychological foundations of education program. Dr. Varma says the project will provide critical information about STEM mentorship.
“Findings from Gina’s research will help advance the ways we support to mentors, so they can provide culturally responsive mentorship and create mentoring spaces and experiences that are equitable and inclusive.”
María Pabón Gautier (Photo courtesy of St. Olaf College.)
María Pabón Gautier has been named Vice President for Equity and Inclusion at St. Olaf College. Dr. Pabón Gautier graduated with a doctorate from Department of Educational Psychology’s psychological foundations of education program in 2010. She also was CEHD coordinator of undergraduate education and an instructor at the University of Minnesota from 2008 to 2018, teaching a Human Relations Workshop and Principles of Education and Psychological Measures to graduate students as well as an undergraduate course on Diversity in the Workplace.
Emily Unholz-Bowden, a PhD student in the special education program in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been awarded a Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Graduate Student Translational Research Grant to support her project, “An Investigation of Methods Toward Mitigating Resurgence and Renewal while Promoting the Persistence and Generalization of Alternative Behavior in a Human Operant Model and Clinical Demonstration.”
According to Unholz-Bowden, the overall goal of the research is to identify effective methods to reduce relapses of interfering behavior and to promote the persistence and generalization of alternative, prosocial responses with students with disabilities in a school setting.
Part one of the project will evaluate methods for mitigating relapse in a human operant study with undergraduate and graduate students engaging with a software program.
Part two will use the approach identified as effective in part one to evaluate the relapse of interfering behavior and the persistence and generalization of prosocial requests with students with disabilities in school.
The SEAB grant will help fund the implementation of the project.
Alisha Wackerle-Hollman, PhD, assistant research professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program, has been honored with the CEHD Excellence in Research Award. The award recognizes researchers for their significant contributions to scholarship in the field, at the national and international level and their active support of new researchers. Dr. Wackerle-Hollman received her award at the CEHD Spring Assembly on April 28.
Scott McConnell, PhD, professor of educational psychology and co-director of IGDILab with Dr. Wackerle-Hollman, shared the following at the CEHD Spring Assembly.
“Her [Dr. Wackerle-Hollman’s] accomplishments are so varied that it took three of us and colleagues from here and around the country to describe them. We could only mention some of those talents—her incredible combination of rigor and relevance, her devotion and support for colleagues at all levels, and her attention to new frontiers and content and methods. In short, we value her productivity and collegiality.”
Dr. Wackerle-Hollman’s research interests focus in two areas: parenting education and engagement (working with Northside Achievement Zone) and early childhood assessment, intervention, and data-based decision making for monolingual and bilingual children (serving as co-director of IGDILab). Learn more about her work.
Do received a University-wide 2021 President’s Student Leadership & Service Award (PSLSA) as well as a college-wide 2021 CEHD Outstanding Student Service Award. Both awards recognize Do for his accomplishments and contributions as a student leader at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and for his exceptional leadership and service to the University and the surrounding community.
Do is a 1.5 generation Vietnamese American and, as an undergrad, was a first-generation, commuter college student, which he says helps drive his passion for research and service.
“College is really hard. Especially when your social identities and experiences are mismatched or not valued in the same way as others within your campus-environment. Especially when, more often than not, cultural expectations and obligations need to take precedence over your schoolwork and academics. Especially when you do not have anyone in your family that has the expertise to help you navigate institutions of higher education.
My background informs the ways in which I think about these college-student experiences and, in particular, how to support students. I am here for the students who have to silently navigate school and family and cultural obligations. If you got to this part of my soapbox, I want to let you know that I acknowledge you and your presence. You exist. You are valued and appreciated. And you matter.”
In addition to his studies, Do serves in multiple leadership roles in the department, and University. He is active as a student representative of the Educational Psychology Student Diversity Group as well as the Educational Psychology Faculty Diversity Committee. Outside the department, Do served as a peer mentor with the Asian Pacific American Resource Center (APARC) on campus. APARC provides culturally relevant programming, a study and community space, and tutoring and support services for Asian, Asian American, and Native American Pacific Islander students on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus.
One of Do’s nominators provided the following in his recommendation letters for the PSLSA and CEHD Outstanding Student Service Award.
“As an instructor of Tai’s, I saw how driven he was as a researcher to better understand how to support marginalized students. As a member of the department community, I saw how involved Tai was in improving the climate. I would not have thought it possible that Tai could be any more impressive or impactful, but then I joined the Educational Psychology Faculty Diversity Committee. While Tai’s position is as a student representative to this committee, he is every bit of an engaged and active member of the committee as any faculty member… Whenever I hear about an important initiative or project in the department or CEHD at large, Tai is inevitably a driving force behind it.”
Using Minnesota Student Survey data, the researchers found changes in school start times have a “significant effect” on the amount of sleep and reported grade point averages of students.
“At a time when school budgets are tight, this is an inexpensive option to increase academic outcomes, as well as the physical and mental health of students, that’s fairly easy to implement,” Caésar, now a research scientist in the evaluation and assessment department at Bloomington Public Schools, told K-12Dive.
The project is part of the Minnesota Youth Development Research Group (MYDRG) which explores methodological and substantive challenges in youth development, relying on the tenets of positive psychology, ecological perspectives of youth development, and the translation of research to practice. MYDRG was initiated by Michael C. Rodriguez, interim dean in the College of Education and Human Development and professor of educational psychology, in 2007. The group consists of faculty members, graduate students, and researchers from different institutions in the U.S. and Canada.
Panayiota (Pani) Kendeou, Guy Bond Chair in Reading and professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s psychological foundations of education program, has been awarded the Distinguished McKnight University Professorship, which recognizes outstanding faculty members who have recently achieved full professor status. Kendeou’s cutting-edge research on the cognitive processes of reading comprehension advances our understanding of reading and transforms reading instruction in K-12 schools.
As a Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Kendeou will carry the title throughout her University career. She is one of seven University professors receiving the award in 2021. Department of Educational Psychology Professor and CEHD Associate Dean for Research Frank Symons earned the award previously.
Through this award, Kendeou is being recognized not only for her development of models that explain how students learn to read and read to learn but also for her use of these models to design innovative, educational technologies that are used at scale. The significance of her approach is in the integration of scientific advancements and technological innovations that improve reading and learning.
“Dr. Kendeou exemplifies scholarship at a research university with a land-grant mission,” said Department Chair Kristen McMaster, “She is conducting theoretically sound, methodologically rigorous research that is advancing current knowledge, and she is doing so in ways that are timely, relevant, and contribute directly to the education and learning of individuals in our schools and communities.”
According to JLS, DeLiema was recognized for providing multiple reviews for the journal that were thorough and timely; provided mentorship to authors; and reflected the core values and practices of the field. He is one of only eight reviewers to receive the honor for 2020.
Michael Rodriguez, interim dean of the College of Education and Human Development, says this recognition is well-deserved.
“This award acknowledges Dr. DeLiema’s generous and deeply pedagogical reviews, which promote the best in scholars seeking to disseminate their work and is consistent with what we see in his interactions with students and colleagues.”
