Dr. Sara Rimm-Kaufman conducts research on classroom social processes and their influence on children’s social and academic growth in the early years of school. Her research is interdisciplinary, drawing from the fields of psychology and education. Sara trained as a developmental psychologist and received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1996. She has been at the University of Virginia since that point, first in the role of post-doctoral fellow and now as an Associate Professor. Currently, she is the Director of the Educational Psychology-Applied Developmental Science Program She teaches courses on Learning and Development, Classroom Social Issues, and Social Development. For fun, Sara enjoys spending time with her family and running.

Dr. Robert Berry is an Assistant Professor at the Curry School of Education with an appointment in Curriculum Instruction and Special Education. A former mathematics teacher, he teaches elementary and special education mathematics methods courses in the teacher education program at the University of Virginia. Additionally, he teaches graduate level mathematics education course and courses for in-service teachers seeking a mathematics specialist endorsement. His research focuses on equity issues in mathematics education and pre-and in-service teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching. Berry has extensive experience in classroom observation and has collaborated with other researchers to revise observations instruments to examine mathematics teaching quality. He has authored and co-authored 28 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and refereed proceeding. His articles have appeared in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Mathematics Educator, Journal of African American Studies, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, and others. Berry serves as chair of Teaching Children Mathematics journal editorial panel and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Educational Foundations and Urban Review.

Dr. Tim Curby received his PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education in May 2008. He is now an assistant professor of applied developmental psychology at George Mason University. Tim’s work focuses on the effects of the classroom environment on children’s behavior and development. Specifically, he focuses on the interactions that teachers have with children as a mechanism for children’s learning. Tim is also interested in developing and understanding observational measures of the classroom environment. You can now reach Tim at tcurby (at) gmu (dot) edu.

Dr. Shannon B. Wanless is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology in Education at the University of Pittsburgh (swanless@pitt.edu). Her research focuses on the most effective ways to measure and influence social-emotional and self-regulatory development of children in classroom contexts. Specifically, she has worked on cross-cultural measurement development as a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan and has investigated predictors of the implementation of interventions to support social-emotional and self-regulatory skills. Dr. Wanless collaborates with the Social Development Lab on research examining predictors of fidelity of implementation of the Responsive Classroom Approach using mixed methods and longitudinal analyses.

Nancy Peterson is a visiting scholar from Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, where she is a professor of teacher education. She earned her Ed.D. in curriculum & instruction at the University of Virginia’s Curry School in 1998. Her interest in preliminary findings of the Responsive Classroom Efficacy Study prompted her to join the Social Development Lab for her sabbatical year. The Social Development Lab is very excited to have Nancy as part of the team this year. During her time with us, Nancy will focus on translating our research to useful information for practitioners.

Photo of Sara Rimm-Kaufman and Tim Curby courtesy of Dan Addison, UVa Public Affairs.