Former Team Members
Xiaoli Gong
Xiaoli Gong is a doctoral student in Applied Linguistics and Language Education. She has presented and co-presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), the American Psychological Association (APA), the STARTALK Conference, and the National Conference on Chinese Immersion Programs.
Angeliki Altani
Post-Doctoral Associate
Angeliki Altani holds a PhD in Educational Psychology and has a complementary background in Cognitive Science and Linguistics. Her research centers on the cognitive processes underlying reading development across languages, aiming to understand the mechanisms involved in reading fluency and their relation to reading comprehension. She is also interested in the role of executive functions in the development of skilled reading. Angeliki has extensive experience in conducting school-based research, using eye-tracking and experimental behavioral design.
Sophia Waltz
Coordinator
Sophia Waltz graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Special Education in the Spring of 2023 and obtained her Master’s in Special Education in 2024. She has experience teaching in a variety of classroom settings, but specializes in teaching students with moderate to profound disabilities. This was her first experience working in research.
Data Manager
Abhijith Reddy holds a Master of Information Management and a B.E in Information Technology from Osmania University, India. Abhijith has worked as a Software Engineer, Data and Business Intelligence for Optum, UnitedHealth Group for 2 years before joining the University of Maryland. Abhijith aims to work on contemporary challenges in building applications to leverage data at scale.
Faculty Specialist
Susan Lutz Klauda serves as a Faculty Specialist in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland and as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Education at The Catholic University of America. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Maryland and a BA in Neuroscience from Drew University. Susan’s research has centered on the interplay of cognitive, affective, and social processes in children’s and adolescents’ literacy development and on the effects of integrated reading-science and reading-history instruction on student engagement and achievement. She is also interested in family and peer influences on individuals’ academic motivation and choices regarding recreational activities. Additionally, Susan has enjoyed working in the educational policy realm on projects aimed at improving the rigor of student teaching experiences and strengthening prospective teachers’ understanding of cognitive science and its implications for teaching. In her free time, Susan loves exploring new places near and far, crafting and drawing with her kids, swimming laps, and reading biographies and novels.
Vanessa Villatoro
Research Assistant
Vanessa Villatoro graduated from Montgomery College and has an associate’s degree in Secondary Education. Vanessa joined Project CLIMB in the fall of 2022 as a bilingual assessor and worked with us until the Fall of 2024.
Graduate Assistant
Francisca Vizcaya-Jofre is an elementary school teacher from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with a specialization in Language and in Mathematics. She holds an MA in Language, Literacy, and Social Inquiry at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her professional experiences consist of teaching in Chilean classrooms from third to sixth grades, collaborating in the elaboration of pedagogical resources in publishing companies, and serving as a teaching and research assistant. She is interested in language and literacy impact across the curriculum, and in education for sustainable development and local/global citizenship.
Research Assistant
Victor Landaeta-Torres holds a B.Sc. in Physics from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He has worked in High school classrooms as a teacher in Math and Physics, has an interest in experimental economics, cooperative behavior, educational psychology (particularly in bullying and aggressive behavior in the classroom), and applied coding, data analysis, and visualization.
Data Analysis Consultant
Weimeng Wang is a PhD candidate in the measurement, statistics, and evaluation program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her dissertation investigates the statistical inference using the LASSO penalty to detect differential item functioning. She is passionate about fairness and equity in measurement and assessment. Her research interests include latent variable modeling, item response theory, psychometrics, patient-reported outcomes, and differential item functioning. In her free time, Weimeng enjoys cooking, drawing, rock climbing, boxing, running, and weight lifting.
LEARN Project Coordinator
B.A. in Hearing & Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park. Speech-Language Pathology Master’s student at Towson University
Data Coordinator
Ph.D.(c) in Education Policy & Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park.