People
Lab Director
Geetha Ramani
Dr. Ramani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. Before coming to University of Maryland in 2008, Dr. Ramani received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Ramani teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in cognitive development. Her research centers around social influences on cognitive development, namely mathematics and problem solving.
Graduate Students
Nicole Scalise
Nicole is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. Prior to returning to school, Nicole earned her Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard and worked for two years as a research and evaluation analyst at Abt Associates in Bethesda. Nicole is interested in children's early understanding of number, including how informal learning activities and interactions with parents and early childhood educators can build their foundational knowledge.
Mary DePascale
Mary is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Wesleyan University. Before graduate school, she worked for two years as a research assistant in the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT and as an education intern at the Children’s Museum of NH. Mary is interested in children’s mathematical and social learning, and how children learn through play, games and informal social interactions.
Raychel Gordon
Raychel is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. Before becoming a Terp, she earned her B.A. in Psychology from Boston University, and then spent two years working as a lab manager at the Boston College Infant and Child Cognition Lab. Raychel is primarily interested in how children can use embodied practices and gestures to learn new math concepts (such as pointing while counting), as well as how children can more broadly learn from informal or play-based interactions.
Lab Manager
Nadia Tavassolie
Nadia graduated from the George Washington University in 2015 with a B.A. in Anthropology and Human Services & Social Justice. After graduation she worked as a research assistant in the Social and Moral Development Lab and the Culture Lab at UMD, and then as a lab coordinator in the Cognition and Development Lab at UMD. She is interested in studying the social factors that influence mathematics achievement and motivation. In the future, she hopes to attend graduate school to pursue a PhD in Educational Psychology.
Lab Alumni
Emily Daubert
Emily earned her Ph.D. in Human Development in 2018. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers University-Newark.
Alaina Wodzinski
Alaina worked as a lab coordinator in the ECI lab until 2018. She is currently in graduate school pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Montclair State University.
Erica Zippert
Erica earned her Ph.D. in Human Development in 2016. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University.
Sarah Eason
Sarah earned her Ph.D. in Human Development in 2015. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago.