About Our Faculty
Gerontology Certificate program

Expertise

• Teaching and learning
• Human development 
• Acculturation
• Heritage language issues
• Bilingualism
• Achievement gap
• Tutoring and mentoring

Education

• Ph.D., Educational Psychology, Applied Cognition and Development Program, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, May, 2017
  Advisor: Pedro R. Portes, Ph.D.
  Committee: Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, Ph.D; Louis Castenell, Ph.D; Stephen Cramer, Ph.D.
  Dissertation: The Impact of Spanish First Language Proficiency on English Second Language Achievement: The Development and Pilot Validation of the CLASE Language Assessment Inventory-Spanish.
   
• M.A., Educational Psychology, Applied Cognition and Development Program, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, December 2011
  Advisor: Paula Schwanenflugel, Ph.D.
  Thesis: The Impact of Expressiveness on the Comprehension of Storybooks by Prekindergarten Children.
   
• B.A., Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, May, 2006

Expertise

• Academic engagement
• Adolescent and young adult development
• College persistence and success
• Cultural values
• Lifespan development psychology
• Racial/ethnic identity
• Positive youth development

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology and Education, University of Michigan, 2007
• M.A., Psychology, Wake Forest University, 1992
• B.A., Psychology, Wake Forest University, 1990