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- Candidates for the Equity & Justice Committee
- Candidates for the Ethnic & Racial Issues Committee
- Candidates for the Interdisciplinary Committee
- Candidate for the International Affairs Committee
- Candidate for the Program Committee
- Candidate for the Publications Committee
- Candidates for the Science & Social Policy Committee
- Candidates for the Teaching Committee
Candidates for the Equity & Justice Committee
Meg Bishop
My name is Meg Bishop (they/them) and I am an NIH-funded postdoctoral research fellow in the department of family science at the University of Maryland, College Park. I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in the department of human development and family sciences in 2022. I am a developmental scientist whose research leverages approaches at the nexus of developmental psychology, public health, and demography to examine the intersectional and life course contexts that support LGBTQ+ (and all) youth to thrive.
I have been a member of the Society for Research in Child Development since 2017 and believe deeply in the importance of SRCD’s role for improving the lives of young people. In particular, the SECC’s contribution to shaping the future of developmental science is exciting to me. As a beneficiary of the SECC dissertation funding award, I experienced firsthand the potential of the SECC to support social justice-focused research, and would be excited for the opportunity to continue to support emerging equity-focused scholarship. I am also an active member of the SRCD SOGIE Caucus, and I believe that my participation in both the SOGIE Caucus and the SECC would strengthen communication and collaboration across distinct areas of SRCD. I am interested in joining the Equity and Justice Committee in particular because I am committed to promoting social-justice focused scholarship within and beyond academic spheres to foster policy and programmatic change. I would be thrilled to apply my experience with justice-focused scholarship, university-community partnerships, and SOGIE-focused activism to the Equity and Justice Committee.
Jordan Goodwin
My name is Jordan Goodwin, and I am a doctoral student of Social Work at Rutgers University. I study youth development and identity formation in the context of housing instability, especially among racial minority and LGBTQ youth. My research builds developmentally appropriate, identity-affirming, trauma-informed solutions to youth homelessness. In my dissertation, I work with a youth homelessness collaborative made up of scholars across North America who share interdisciplinary research with the goal of eradicating homelessness.
I am therefore passionate about the justice-minded, collaborative approach that SRCD fosters, and will bring valuable social work perspectives to the SECC’s Equity and Justice Committee. Beyond academia, I carry experience as: a case manager for families exiting homelessness; a social services coordinator for individuals in affordable housing; an ordained chaplain; and a sister and friend to loved ones who have experienced marginalization over their identities.
Through the Doctoral Student Committee of the Society for Social Work and Research, I have facilitated mentorship for hundreds of students through Coffee with a Scholar events, which I will bring to SRCD. I peer review for academic journals and conferences, which has prepared me to review SRCD funding submissions. Moreover, as the co-chair of Rutgers’ PhD Student Committee on Anti-Racism, I help coordinate trainings on anti-racist pedagogy and research methodologies, including an upcoming workshop on employing ‘liberatory consciousness’ frameworks within research. I look forward to continuing this work on SRCD’s Equity & Justice Committee while learning from others who advocate for equity and justice in research and education.
Candidates for the Ethnic & Racial Issues Committee
Sei Eun Kim
My name is Sei Eun Kim. I am a Bruce S. Goldberg Postdoctoral Fellow at Teachers College of Columbia University. My research examines how systems of oppression influence identity and well-being for racial/ethnic and sexual/gender minority youth. I am interested in serving on the Student and Early Career Council (SECC) for the Ethnic & Racial Issues Committee, as I believe diversity is central to scholarship and service. I have demonstrated a commitment to mentoring underrepresented students in my capacity as a graduate student and a postdoctoral fellow to increase the representation of and engagement of marginalized students in academia. As a scholar applying cultural developmental theoretical perspectives (Garcia Coll et al., 1996) and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1997) in my work, I critically understand how White supremacy gets perpetuated in academic institutions/psychological science and the negative impact on racial/ethnic minority scholars.
Having extensive experience working alongside racially/ethnically diverse groups of scholars, I will bring various perspectives and novel ideas to support students and early career members of SRCD. In addition, as a member of the SRCD Asian Caucus and Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race) of the American Psychological Association, I will be able to serve as a member of SECC to raise awareness of the significance of equity and promote equitable access to developmental science research for historically marginalized representation in academia. As a member of SECC, I hope to be a part of advanced integrative developmental science that celebrates diversity, recognizes ethnic and racial issues, and contributes to educational equity and change for marginalized populations.
Melissa Lucas
Hola! My name is Melissa Lucas. I recently completed my degree (August 2022) as an Applied Developmental and Educational Psychologist and now serve as a postdoctoral associate at Yale University. My research focuses on supporting youth and educator’s socioemotional health, especially that of minoritized populations, to nurture healthier and more equitable classroom and school environments. By gaining a deeper understanding of how culturally and linguistically minoritized learners develop and navigate academic settings, I aim to develop interventions, services, and policies that better understand and address the challenges faced by Latinx/multilingual populations in oppressive educational systems, structures, and practices.
As a Student and Early Career Council Representative (SECC), I hope to contribute to SECC programing and initiatives, to better support the advancement and dissemination of developmental research, especially as it pertains to culturally and linguistically diverse populations and authors. As part of the Ethnic & Racial Issues Committee, I will work to ensure that student and early career members, particularly minoritized scholars, have the space to feel seen and heard. I will support and amplify the stories, voices, and experiences of people of color and undocumented individuals, so that their perspectives may be included, valued, and integrated in the Society’s publications, programming, and policies. My aim is to foster a more inclusive environment for students and early career scholars within SRCD, including the development of new programming and opportunities that address and advance the work of minoritized scholars (e.g., mentoring, Cafecito hours, community engagement). Thank you for your consideration of my candidacy.
Candidates for the Interdisciplinary Committee
Yafan Chen
I am Yafan Chen, a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University School of Social Work. I have a master’s degree in Social Work, and I am also a Licensed Social Worker in New Jersey. My research focuses on the impact of early childhood adversity, particularly child maltreatment and exposure to domestic violence on child behavioral and mental health. Specifically, my research investigates how different characteristics of adversity, such as severity, frequency, and co-occurrence of violence, affect child behavioral health, and what the developmental pathways are between early adversity and child outcomes.
Throughout my doctoral training, I have received substantial support from mentors, senior colleagues, and professional communities. I deeply appreciate it as I would have not made my accomplishments without it. I understand how service and support are important in a professional community, and I hope to contribute what I have back to the community.
I am committed to interdisciplinary collaboration, as studying the impacts of early adversity on children requires knowledge from multiple scientific disciplines, such as psychology, public health, and neuroscience. I have an avid interest in joining the Interdisciplinary Committee, as I look forward to building connections with experts in other disciplines and enhancing my conceptual understanding of early adversity through an interdisciplinary lens.
Ekjyot Saini
The interconnectedness of behavior and biology has fascinated me since I first encountered it in coursework and this encouraged me to pursue a multidisciplinary approach to my academic training. As a post-doctoral scholar in human development and family studies, I continue to utilize bioregulatory processes, in conjunction with social work and psychology disciplines, to understand how family and sociocultural contexts contribute to risk and resilience in the wellbeing of children and families across development.
My current role as the student and early career representative for the Asian Caucus has allowed for me to create resources and programs to provide for the needs of an international membership and finding new ways to facilitate greater connections among members. Additionally, I have been involved in planning Biennial events, represented the interests of the caucus on the SECC, and participated in SECC initiatives. In other positions, I’ve advocated for student interests and worked collaboratively with others to address concerns and create needed resources.
The SECC is an invaluable resource that helps new generations of diverse scholars navigate their way through the vast field of developmental science. My involvement on the SECC and committees would allow for me to represent the interests of early career scholars and develop programming focused on fostering the use of interdisciplinary approaches and address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I hope that involvement with the interdisciplinary committee will provide a unique perspective to help facilitate collaborative interactions and help foster a welcoming and collegial environment for other emerging scholars.
Sen Wang
My name is Sen Wang, and I am a doctoral candidate in Reading Education and Language Arts at Florida Center for Reading Research and Florida State University. I study children’s language and literacy development that falls within three areas: 1) vocabulary and knowledge acquisition and cumulation, 2) environmental influences on children’s language and literacy development, and 3) interventions that promote children’s language and literacy development in school and home settings.
My research interest aligns well with SRCD’s mission “to understand child development as an integrated part of lifelong development that takes place in complex and interrelated contexts.” I believe that being involved in SECC will help me to grow professionally and personally. I will learn new skills that can enhance my career from experts worldwide. Additionally, serving in academic communities is one of the missions of researchers who support each other within the community.
I believe that children’s language and literacy development supports other aspects of development, such as cognitive, social, and emotional development. For example, logical reasoning and inference-making skills are related to reading comprehension. Therefore, I believe that interdisciplinary research will help understand children’s overall development more in-depth. Interdisciplinary research will also build connections among researchers, practitioners, and parents to provide children with a more efficient education.
Candidate for the International Affairs Committee
Nazlı Akay
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Middle East Technical University (METU). I obtained my Psychology BA from Boğaziçi University, my Clinical Psychology MA from İstanbul Bilgi University, and my Developmental Psychology PhD from METU. I also have field experience as a kindergarten psychologist and psychotherapist in Türkiye. I am interested in pursuing a research career at the intersection of developmental and clinical psychology and studying familial factors as well as the unique interactions of risk and protective factors in understanding the development of child well-being.
The main reason behind my application to the SECC and the International Affairs Committee is networking. Serving for the community allows for meeting wonderful researchers and leads to future collaborations. Secondly, I want to help connect research and thought from different parts of the world with the mainstream literature.
Finally, here are a few things I can offer: First, I realized that there are not any members from Türkiye in the current IAC roster. Türkiye is a unique country with a predominantly Muslim population that carries both European and Middle Eastern values. Therefore, I can offer a unique perspective and can be a catalyst for international dialogue as a Turkish representative. Second, I have experience in and enthusiasm for the SECC duties like event organization or manuscript reviewing; therefore, I can help with coffee hours or award reviews.
Considering my experiences and interests, I would be delighted to be considered as an SECC and IAC member.
Candidate for the Program Committee
Vanessa Bermudez
I am a third-year doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of California Irvine. My research interests focus on process quality of care in early childhood and its impacts on later outcomes, and the funds of knowledge of Latine, immigrant, and low-income communities that support early STEM learning. In collaboration with families and teachers, I aim to create culturally relevant playful environments aligned with learning sciences research that enhance early STEM learning in and out of school. As a first-generation college student, woman, and Latina, I am passionate about mentoring students from similar backgrounds in navigating higher education and conducting research. I would like to join the SECC because I enjoy contributing to service organizations supporting emerging scholars. Serving on the SECC would provide me with a remarkable opportunity to contribute to the professional development of students and early scholars while simultaneously building relationships and expanding my research knowledge. I seek to become more involved in SRCD because I appreciate its growing focus on interdisciplinary, community-engaged, and culturally-responsive research. I am interested in joining the Program Committee, given my experience planning events as a recruitment weekend coordinator for graduate and undergraduate students. Part of the planning included setting agendas, communicating with recruits, faculty, and current students, and scheduling recruits-faculty meetings. Through service organizations, I have also planned professional development workshops for students and served on mentoring committees. These experiences provided me with skills and insights transferable to the Program Committee, enabling my commitment to supporting emerging researchers.
Candidate for the Publications Committee
Claudia Kruzik
During my training in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College, I began my journey in scientific communication via a four year tenure as editorial assistant of SRCD’s Child Evidence Briefs where I gained a thorough education in translational writing and the federal legislative process. As I advanced in my doctoral program, I had the opportunity to serve as an SRCD Policy Fellow at MA EEC where I often acted as translator on the state of the science to aid policy design and implementation. In the past two years, I have collaborated on the development of a graduate certificate in Early Childhood Policy and Leadership as program manager of the BC Institute of Early Childhood Policy. This role has allowed me to co-develop programming around research translation for the next generation of scholars. My interest in becoming an SECC representative stems from both a desire to share my insights honed as a teacher of graduate students and manager of a graduate certificate program and an interest in continuing to develop my advocacy skills in this space. The experiences I gained during my graduate training have reaffirmed how important connecting students to personally and professionally meaningful opportunities can be. I am excited by the prospect of being able to collaborate with colleagues on programming that benefits our community. Given my interest in scientific communication as well as my past experiences both working on SRCD publications and developing relevant programing for graduate students, I believe I am well suited to represent SECC on the Publications Committee.
Candidates for the Science & Social Policy Committee
Arcadia Ewell
I am Arcadia Ewell, a third-year PhD student at Boston University (BU), working with Dr. Amanda Tarullo. I study effects of early stress on memory development, with a focus on the implications of my research on education policy.
I am thrilled to be considered as a Student and Early Career Council (SECC) Representative for the Science and Social Policy Committee. I am passionate about this committee, as I believe scientists have the responsibility to bridge the gap between research and policy. I currently work towards this in many ways. As President of the Graduate Student Organization at BU, I work with university administration on several initiatives. Across the state, I serve as a member of the Boston Grad Federation and nationally on the board of the National Association for Graduate-Professional Students and as a representative of the Grad Coalition.
I am also passionate about preventing domestic violence. Through these efforts, I gained experience in drafting summaries of relevant research, advocating for federal funding, and staying apprised of legislation. I have also had the privilege of working with US Attorney Rachel Rollins and Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.
On this committee, I will apply my skills to contribute to advancements in child-centered policies. I am prepared to be a contributing member of this committee who can think critically about complex issues. Before my future career in education policy, serving on this committee will be an invaluable learning experience. I look forward to the opportunity to serve the SRCD.
Qingyang Liu
My name is Qingyang Liu, and I am a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Science (HDFS) at Syracuse University. My research seeks to understand developmental trajectories of self-regulation among children in socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Particularly, I am interested in examining the multidimensionality of poverty on preschoolers’ regulatory skills and identifying protective contextual factors to promote self-regulatory when entering adolescence.
My research inspires my involvement in the SRCD community. As an international student, who self-identifies as Chinese, I can contribute to the SECC by providing multicultural and global perspectives. In the past three years, I have disseminated my diversity, equity, and inclusion philosophy to the community by providing the Multicultural Classroom workshop with 350 new incoming Teaching Assistants. I also serve as the Graduate Student Liaison in HDFS Departmental Graduate Committee to advocate for my graduate students around issues of funding and professional development. Additionally, I transfer my global educational perspective to my peers by mentoring undergraduate and graduate research assistants. I would like to be part of the SECC to extend my advocacy in a broader professional community. I strongly believe that we have a crucial responsibility to promote the transferability of research into social policy in order to improve the accessibility of research implications to the public, thereby helping children and families’ flourish. The opportunity to engage in SECC and serve on the Science and Social Policy Committee will provide a voice for international students and further support underserved communities through policy.
Candidates for the Teaching Committee
Ashleigh Aviles
As a postdoctoral associate at NYU Steinhardt, I research how early family interventions can promote school readiness in at-risk families, as well as the implementation of universal pre-kindergarten in New York City. One of the highlights of my graduate work at The University of Texas at Austin was teaching four undergraduate classes: Research Methods in Human Development and Family Sciences (course evaluations: 4.60 and 4.70/5.00) and Child Development in the Spring (4.75 and 4.85/5.00). Additionally, I taught for three years as an assistant graduate teacher at the laboratory preschool, the Priscilla Pond Flawn Child & Family Laboratory.
As an undergraduate, I remember my amazement when my introductory psychology instructor taught us about the effects of early relationships on the life course. I knew immediately that I wanted to contribute to that work, and I want all undergraduates to feel that same spark as they discover child development research. Effective teaching that engages diverse groups of students is crucial both to our field and our larger communities. I look forward to sharing ideas that have worked in my classrooms, learning from others passionate about teaching, and sharing this information with the SRCD community. I have wanted to serve on the SECC since I attended my first conference – SRCD 2017 in Austin. SRCD, with its curious scholars who are so committed to children’s well-being, has continually energized and recommitted me to my research and teaching. Thank you for considering me for the Teaching Committee.
Amanda Haber
My name is Amanda Haber and I am a fifth year doctoral candidate in Applied Human Development at Boston University. My research focuses on social cognitive development in early childhood. Utilizing a strengths-based approach, the goal of my research is to understand the factors that impact each child’s learning and development in a particular social and cultural context. My program of research is aimed at investigating how one malleable factor, the language in children’s social contexts, shapes their early learning in informal and formal learning environments during early childhood.
I am interested in serving on the SECC because I am passionate about advocating for the needs of students and early career scholars. As a member of the SECC, I am interested in developing programming to further support the life-long trajectories of students and early career scholars. I have extensive experience collaborating with students and faculty in my role as the student representative to my department’s Doctoral Training Committee and Antiracist Curricula Working Group. I was also elected to the American Education Research Association Graduate Student Council as the Junior and Senior Newsletter Editor.
As a developmental psychologist and a licensed early childhood educator, I am interested in joining the Teaching Committee because I am passionate about enhancing quality teaching of developmental science in higher education and applying research findings to educational, clinical, and policy-oriented settings. I am particularly interested in supporting the development of the SRCD Teaching Mentorship program to further enhance connections between senior faculty and early career teachers.
Danielle Turley
I am pleased to have the potential opportunity to serve on the Student and Early Career Council Representative for the Teaching Committee. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Psychology and Child Development Department at California State University, Stanislaus. I earned my PhD in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia. My research focuses on early childhood transitions and pretend play, broadly. My newer interests also address parent efficacy and the implications for children’s school success. My personal, professional, and academic experiences have equipped me to contribute to the work and purpose of the SECC and specifically the SCRCD Teaching Committee.
I am interested in serving on SECC as a way to increase my engagement with the developmental research community and also to serve in a capacity that helps equip others. Navigating academia is a skill and a primary lesson learned is the value of collaboration. I want to be a part of that within the SRCD community, just as others have supported me as a first-generation student.
My interests and skillset are specifically aligned with serving on the Teaching Committee as a way to continue sharing and supporting the importance of quality education in the developmental sciences. I have had over ten years of higher education teaching experience including a variety of settings and working with a diverse group of students. The majority of students at my current institution are first generation and this has illuminated issues of equity and effectiveness in teaching that I was mostly unaware of previously. I am eager to work alongside like-minded colleagues that have passion and interest in supporting effective teaching and look forward to the opportunity to serve as the SECC Representative for the Teaching Committee.
The deadline to vote is Wednesday, January 11, 2023, at 11:59pm ET.