Human Development Program

Current Graduate Students

	Victoria Alexander valexa@umd.edu / 1st year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Kelly Mix Undergrad Institution: The University of Central Florida Research Interests: My research interests center around identifying ways students, especially those from underrepresented populations, can use the arts to strengthen cognitive processes necessary in mathematical learning. Lab Website: https://umdmixlab.weebly.com/
	Angelica Alonso aalonso1@umd.edu / 3rd year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Natasha Cabrera Undergrad Institution: New York University Research Interests: My research focuses on how Latino parents promote their young children's socioemotional development, particularly their emotional competence and self-regulation. I am also interested in identifying protective factors among Latino families that can be used to promote family well-being. Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/research-college/labs/family-involvement-laboratory
	Jenna Alton jalton@umd.edu / 3rd year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Lucas Payne Butler Undergrad Institution: St. John's College Research Interests: I study how children make evaluative judgements across social groups, and how empirical evidence may influence the process by which children make judgements such as stereotyping. Lab Website: https://www.cogdevlab.umd.edu/
	Yu (Tina) Chen ychen189@terpmail.umd.edu / 4th year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Natasha Cabrera Undergrad Institution: Grinnell College Research Interests: My research focuses on how parent-child interactions and early home environment shape children's developmental trajectories and outcomes. She is particularly interested in how mothers and fathers from diverse cultural and SES backgrounds communicate and interact with their young children and the impact of their language input on children's language and cognitive outcomes. Tina also utilizes nationally representative datasets to explore the variability in children's early experiences at home and its relation to later developmental outcomes. Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/research-college/labs/family-involvement-laboratory
	Mary DePascale mdep@umd.edu / 5th year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Geetha Ramani Undergrad Institution: Wesleyan University Research Interests: My research focuses on the roles of parent-child interactions, child engagement, and play-based learning in children's early math development. Lab Website: http://go.umd.edu/ecilab
	Jannah Fusenig jfusenig@umd.edu / 3rd year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Patricia Alexander Undergrad Institution: California State University, Chico Research Interests: Jannah's research focuses on multimedia learning, or the study of how we learn from both text and pictures. More specifically, she is interested in understanding the influence of pictures on students' ability to learn from textbooks. Lab Website: drlrl.org
	Nancy Gans ngans@umd.edu / 1st year / Ed Psych Advisor: Drs. Doug Lombardi & Patricia Alexander Undergrad Institution: The Ohio State University Research Interests: Nancy's interests include: Cognition and motivation of elementary-aged students, Socio-cultural learning in diverse communities, & Epistemic cognition and critical analytic thinking in younger students and teachers Lab Website: sciencelearning.umd.edu & drlrl.org
	Rachel Ghosh ghoshra@umd.edu / 3rd year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Natasha Cabrera Undergrad Institution: University of Michigan Research Interests: My research interests include fathering and father-child relationships - as it pertains to early childhood development, especially among low-income, ethnic minority families. I am also interested in parenting or family interventions and protective factors that promote the well-being of children in single-mother families. Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/research-college/labs/family-involvement-laboratory
	Jacquelyn Glidden jglidden@umd.edu / 4th year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Melanie Killen Undergrad Institution: Bucknell University Research Interests: I am interested in the cognitive factors underlying children’s intergroup interactions. In one of my current projects, I am investigating the role of morally-relevant theory of mind in children’s judgments and evaluations of gender-based resource inequalities. In a second project, I look at the ways that theory of mind and perspective taking skills underlie children’s intergroup conflict resolution processes, such as the ways children cooperate, negotiate, and compromise with ingroup and outgroup members. Lab Website: killenlab.umd.edu
	Raychel Gordon rjgordon@umd.edu / 4th year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Geetha Ramani Undergrad Institution: Boston University Research Interests: I study how children's early math knowledge relates to their use of and exposure to gesture, as well as other domain-general factors (such as executive function). Additionally, I'm interested in how each of these may vary based on context, such as in a playful, game-based math environment, or more formal, school-based educational setting. Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/research-college/labs/early-childhood-interaction-lab
	Gillian Grose ggrose@umd.edu / 2nd year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Geetha Ramani Undergrad Institution: Cornell University Research Interests: My research focuses on how parent-child interactions and beliefs about math can impact children's early math learning. I am also interested in intervention work that aims to make math more accessible. Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/research-college/labs/early-childhood-interaction-lab
	Joshua Jaffe jjaffe13@umd.edu / 3rd year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. DJ Bolger Undergrad Institution: Binghamton University Research Interests: My research focuses on how linguistic processing affects numerical processing through word problems Lab Website: https://lnrl.umd.edu
	Elise Kaufman ekaufma1@umd.edu / 1st year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Melanie Killen Undergrad Institution: Vanderbilt University Research Interests: Interested in children and adolescent social and moral development in the classroom, how teachers affect these processes, how children think about teacher bias Lab Website: killenlab.umd.edu
	Karen C. Levush klevush@umd.edu / 4th year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Lucas Payne Butler Undergrad Institution: Towson University Research Interests: I am interested in how children’s naïve epistemology is integrated with and affected by their developing understanding of the social world. Lab Website: https://www.cogdevlab.umd.edu/
	S. Alexa McDorman samcdor@umd.edu / 2nd year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Rachel Romeo Undergrad Institution: William & Mary Research Interests: Early childhood risk and protective systems among low-income families; informing strengths-based intervention. Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/leadlab
	Josh Medrano jmed7@umd.edu / 3rd year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Richard Prather Undergrad Institution: The Ohio State University Research Interests: My research focuses on roles that cognitive processes (e.g., executive functions) and other factors (e.g., environment) play in acquiring mathematical skills. Lab Website: cogdevlab.umd.edu
	Julianne E. van Meerten jmeerten@umd.edu / 4th year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Patricia Alexander Undergrad Institution: University College Roosevelt Research Interests: Julianne's research interests are undergraduate students' academic writing ability and their use of multiple sources; additionally, she focuses on student-centered learning environments and teaching Lab Website: www.drlrl.org
	Laura Jimenez Parra ljimene1@umd.edu / 6th year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Brenda Jones Harden Undergrad Institution: Catholic University of America Research Interests: applied research; social and emotional development of young Latino children; design and evaluation of programs that enhance the well-being of young children Lab Website: https://pearlab.umd.edu/
	Kate Luken Raz lukenraz@umd.edu / 2nd year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Melanie Killen Undergrad Institution: University of Washington Research Interests: Children’s moral development, children's understanding of equality and equity, intergroup inclusion and exclusion, as well as cross-race and cross-wealth friendships in childhood. Lab Website: killenlab.umd.edu
	Jinglei Ren jinglei@umd.edu / 2nd year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Min Wang Undergrad Institution: University of Waterloo Research Interests: Jinglei's research interests are in statistical learning, language acquisition and reading Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/labs/bilingual-and-biliteracy-lab
	Eric C. Schoute ecschout@umd.edu / 4th year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Patricia Alexander Undergrad Institution: University College Roosevelt Research Interests: Eric's research interests are in critical analytic thinking, reasoning, multiple source evaluation and use, and student motivation Lab Website: drlrl.org
	Riley N. Sims rnsims@umd.edu / 5th year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Melanie Killen Undergrad Institution: University of California, Davis Research Interests: Broadly, I study children’s understanding of fairness in intergroup contexts. More specifically, I'm interested in children’s resource allocation and inclusion and exclusion decisions, bystander behavior, attributions of intentionality, and considerations of merit in intergroup contexts (with a particular emphasis on those involving gender group membership). Lab Website: killenlab.umd.edu
	Anisha Singh asingh8@umd.edu / 6th year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Patricia Alexander Undergrad Institution: Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi Research Interests: Anisha graduated with a master’s degree in English from the University of Delhi, India. She then moved to the United States and completed a second Masters in International Education from George Washington University before starting her PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on reading across different media (with a special interest in audiobooks), multiple source use in online environments, and the effects of multilingualism in digital communication. Lab Website: drlrl.org
	Kathryn Yee katyee@umd.edu / 4th year / Dev Sci Advisor: Dr. Melanie Killen Undergrad Institution: New York University Research Interests: My research focuses on how children think about social groups, their perceptions of inequality and social mobility, and the implications for intergroup behavior and reasoning. Lab Website: killenlab.umd.edu
	Nan Zhang nanzhang@umd.edu / 3rd year / Ed Psych Advisor: Dr. Min Wang Undergrad Institution: Beijing Normal University Research Interests: My research focuses on second language acquisition and processing in adults, especially the word reading and spelling. Lab Website: https://education.umd.edu/labs/bilingual-and-biliteracy-lab

There are two areas for specialization within the Human Development program: Developmental Science or Educational Psychology.

Developmental Science
The Developmental Science specialization is designed to train students in the areas of social, cognitive, emotional, and biological aspects of human development. This specialization involves intensive research apprenticeships with faculty mentors, coursework in core courses and advanced seminars, and exposure to leaders in Developmental Science through the colloquia and professional development weekly seminar organized by the Center for Children, Relationships, and Culture, which is housed in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology.

The goal of the program is to train students for research careers in academic or applied areas of child development; graduates have obtained positions as university professors and research scientists. The program encourages engagement in collaborative research with faculty and students in a wide range of developmental science areas. In addition to coursework, students enroll in a one-credit weekly colloquia series and professional development seminar which hosts invited speakers from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan universities, institutes, and research "think tanks," as well as provides for professional development sessions on various topics such as conference preparations, dissertation projects, grant writing, and career options.

Specific topics investigated include peer relationships, parent-child relationships, attachment, emotional development, developmental neuroscience, social-cognitive development, moral judgment, motivation, social goals, intergroup attitudes and relationships, prejudice, linguistic development, play, cognitive development, parent-child discourse, father involvement, early childhood policy, civic engagement, and cultural influences on development.  

Educational Psychology
The Educational Psychology Specialization is a nationally-ranked and internationally-recognized program of study in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. 

The goal of the Educational Psychology specialization is to train students in the processes involved in learning across the life span and competent functioning in educational settings. Based on a mentorship model, students work closely with faculty on research and scholarship. Specific topics of research include cognitive development, as it relates to language, mathematics, and reading, social and academic aspects of motivation and self-regulation, and parent, teacher and peer relationships as they relate to school success. Students take courses and advanced seminars on cognition, motivation, learning, language, social influences on learning, and cognitive neuroscience.  Advanced training in quantitative methods is also a specific focus of the specialization.

Educational psychology faculty and students meet bi-weekly as part of a research seminar series that focuses on the discussion of ongoing student and faculty research. The seminar also includes professional development topics such as how to publish and present research, grant writing, job search advice, and networking skills.  

While completing their Ph.D., graduate students are also able to pursue concentrations in quantitative methodology, as well as in interdisciplinary areas such as neuroscience and cognitive science and language science.

The doctoral program provides students with core courses and research experience relevant to the social, cognitive, affective, linguistic and neurophysiological aspects of human development from birth through adulthood. Core courses include: History and Systems of Human Development, Language Development, Cognitive Development and Learning, Social Development and Socialization Processes, Psychophysiological Processes, and Research Methods; students also are required to master intermediate-level statistics.

Students also receive close mentoring in developing their research capabilities and agendas through Research Apprenticeship experiences. As part of this apprenticeship experience, all Ph.D. students are required to complete a first-year research project. Students in the general program are welcome to participate in the colloquium series offered by the Developmental Science and Educational Psychology specializations. The required comprehensive examination consists of a portfolio of the student's research reviewed by three faculty members.

Please refer to the 

EDHD Doctoral Handbook 2023

for more information on program requirements.

Take advantage of research opportunities offered through the labs and centers affiliated with the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology (HDQM) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Advising
Academic advisement for graduate students is provided by the graduate faculty in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology (HDQM). For general advising information, please contact the Coordinator of Graduate Studies, Jannitta Graham at (301) 405-8432 or jgraham7@umd.edu. 

Graduate Policy
Graduate students in the College of Education are responsible for meeting University and the Graduate School policy, and for meeting Program requirements. The Graduate Catalog  is the official listing of Policies governing graduate education at the University of Maryland. The schedule adjustment policy is available from the Office of the Registrar and provides information on adding and dropping courses, penalties, and refund schedules.

Handbooks and Guidelines
The program handbooks provide information about the Masters and Doctoral programs. The handbooks cover topics such as overviews of the programs, milestones, and course requirements.

EDHD Doctoral Handbook 2023

Forms
Graduate students must submit various forms at specific points as required by the Human Development program and as part of the Graduate School process. The Graduate School offers university-level forms, and the College of Education offers college-level forms. To determine the form required by the Human Development program, please refer to the Graduate Student Handbooks.

Templates and Formatting Guidelines for Thesis and Dissertation 
Dissertations are to be submitted to the Graduate School in electronic format after final approval of the dissertation by the Dissertation Examining Committee.  The University of Maryland Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) website or the University of Maryland Thesis and Dissertation Style Guide include details of this process.

Dissertations submitted to the University through the ETD process will also be deposited in the UM Library's online electronic archive, DRUM (Digital Repository at the University of Maryland). This is a free public archive of academic work by University faculty and graduate students.

Study Fellowships and Awards
A variety of fellowships and awards are available to prospective and current graduate students. Opportunities to apply for these awards are announced through the University, the College of Education, and the Department.

For applicants interested in obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Human Development, please click here.
 

For applicants interested in obtaining a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Human Development, please click here. 
 

For applicants interested in obtaining a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in Human Development, please click here. 
 

For applicants interested in an Off-Campus Cohort, Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in Human Development, please click here. 

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