Dr. Claire Baker received her Ph.D. in the Educational Psychology – Learning and Development program. Claire is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Duke University in the Center for Child and Family Policy. During her time at UVa, she studied child development using an ecological systems approach to understand cultural, political, historical, and structural factors that influence educational systems. Her research interests focus on child rearing practices as well as environmental systems and their implications for the health and achievement of ethnic minority children. Currently, she is using the early childhood longitudinal study of kindergartners to investigate the relation between environmental risk, parental involvement and school performance among African American boys in kindergarten.

Dr. Laura Brock received her Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Risk and Prevention in the Education Sciences program after a four-year fellowship with the Institute of Education Sciences training program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Her research interests emphasize the development of executive function and classroom social processes. Laura is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at the College of Charleston. Laura can be contacted at brockll (at) cofc(dot) edu.

Dr. Lauren Decker received her PhD in the Interdisciplinary Risk and Prevention in the Education Sciences program from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education in May 2008. She is now a Researcher with Edvance Research Inc. which currently runs the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)– Southwest. Lauren currently conducts work on a variety of topics for REL Southwest and other clients, including issues related to district wide intervention systems and the alignment of college readiness standards in mathematics. Lauren can be contacted at ldecker (at) edvanceresearch (dot) com.

Dr. Lori Nathanson received her Phd in the Risk and Prevention Program in Education Sciences. She worked as a project coordinator for the Early Learning Study during her first years of graduate school. She has strong interests in educational measurement as well as the translation of research to policy.

Dr. Erin Ottmar received her Ph.D. in is the Educational Psychology: Applied Developmental Science program. Her research interests emphasize the importance of mathematics instructional quality, teacher knowledge, and self-efficacy beliefs in the mathematics classroom. Erin is now a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Richmond. Erin currently is developing and piloting a middle/high school algebra intervention, Pushing Symbols, which uses an Ipad application to teach and transform the structure of algebra through perceptual movement. In addition, she is mentoring undergraduate students who are interested in educational and psychological research. Erin can be contacted at erin.ottmar (at) richmond (dot) edu.

Dr. Christine Patton is a postdoctoral research associate working on the Math Learning Study. Christine conducts fieldwork and oversees the reliability efforts for a measure of observed engagement in math. Her research interests include implementation fidelity, exploring the role of educational contexts on students’ psychosocial development, and qualitative methodology. Christine received her PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Virginia and her MA in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology from Boston College. Outside of work, she enjoys volunteering with the Junior League, trying new recipes, and spending time with her husband.

Dr. Temple Walkowiak is an assistant professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Elementary Education at NC State University. Prior to her studies at UVA, Temple worked as a middle school mathematics teacher, mathematics specialist, and assistant principal. Her research interests include teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, children’s development of mathematical concepts during upper elementary and middle school, and professional development models that deepen teachers’ conceptual understandings of mathematics.

Dr. Michelle Yoon received her Ph.D. in the Educational Psychology – Learning and Development program. Michelle is Research Faculty in Medical Education at the UVa Medical School. Some of her academic interest areas include obesity and temperament as developmental risk factors, and how students learn math and science. Prior to coming to the Ph.D. program, Michelle was a college career counselor, and high school counselor. Outside of school, Michelle swims regularly, and loves scrabble and word puzzles, gardening, playing the piano, baking and knitting.

Photos of Laura Brock, Christine Patton and Michelle Yoon are courtesy of, Dan Addison, UVa Public Affairs. Photo of Lori Nathanson courtesy of Sarah Cramer, Cramer Photography.