Meet the Speakers
Event
National Science Foundation 101
Anna Fisher (Presenter)
Anna Fisher, Ph.D. currently serves as a Program Director at the Developmental Sciences Program, within the Directorate for Behavioral, Social and Economic Sciences (SBE), Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) at the U.S. National Science Foundation. She earned Ph.D. in Psychology from The Ohio State University in 2005. Fisher has been a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University since 2006. Fisher’s research explores experience-driven changes in semantic memory, the development of attention regulation in young children, and the role of attention in learning in formal and informal settings. In addition to managing the Developmental Sciences program at NSF, Fisher also contributes to the Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence Program in SBE and Research on Innovative Technologies for Enhanced Learning (RITEL), a cross-directorate program at NSF.
Steven Breckler Ph.D. (Presenter)
Steven Breckler, Ph.D. is Program Director for Social Psychology at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Across two “rotations,” Dr. Breckler has been at NSF for about 15 years. He has been active in numerous cross-cutting initiatives, including the Science of Learning Centers Program, Smart and Connected Health, Growing Convergence Research, Fairness in AI, CRISP 2.0, and most recently Strengthening American Infrastructure (for which he chairs the working group). In between NSF rotations, Dr. Breckler was Executive Director for Science at the American Psychological Association (APA). At APA, he managed a unit of 30 staff associated with science and science advocacy activities. Prior to his first rotation at NSF, Dr. Breckler was a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught introductory social psychology, attitudes and social influence, research methods, and multivariate statistics. Dr. Breckler holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from The Ohio State University and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego.
Suzanne Le Menestrel Ph.D. CAE (Moderator)
Suzanne Le Menestrel, Ph.D., CAE is the Director of Science Affairs at the Society for Research in Child Development where she leads developmental science programs and initiatives and provides oversight for SRCD's scholarly publications. Previously, Dr. Le Menestrel was a Senior Planning, Strategy, and Impact Officer at the National CASA/GAL Association for Children and a Senior Program Officer in the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine where she directed five consensus studies on the well-being of children and families. Prior to her tenure with the National Academies, she was the founding national program leader for youth development research at 4-H National Headquarters, U.S. Department of Agriculture; served as the research director at the Academy for Educational Development’s Center for Youth Development and Policy Research; and was a research associate at Child Trends. Dr. Le Menestrel is an elected member of the American Camp Association Board of Directors and is a volunteer mentor for the Dream Project, a non-profit organization focused on empowering Virginia students whose immigration status creates barriers to higher education through access to scholarships, resources, and mentors. She holds a B.S. in psychology from St. Lawrence University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in human development and family studies from Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Le Menestrel also has a nonprofit management executive certificate from Georgetown University, and she is a certified association executive.