Teachers are preparing lesson plans and students are gathering supplies. School will soon be back in session around the country.

Florida State University’s education faculty are experts in researching the effectiveness of teaching practices and other measures to improve student success. FSU faculty members are available to answer media questions and provide perspective for reporting on education issues.

SPECIAL EDUCATION
Jenny Root, associate professor, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
jrroot@fsu.edu
Root teaches courses on differentiating instruction, access to the general curriculum, and transition for students with disabilities. Her research focuses on instructional methods to promote academic learning for students with autism and intellectual disability. She is the director of the General Curriculum Access lab, where she leads a team developing and evaluating strategies for teaching meaningful math skills.

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY
Lyndsay Jenkins, Michael and Jean Shahnasarian Endowed Professor, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
lnjenkins@fsu.edu
Jenkins is the program director of the M.S./Ed.S. School Psychology program and the Combined Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and School Psychology. She researches bullying and childhood trauma prevention research. One of her lab’s major projects is the IVY project, or Interventions for Victimized Youth, which is focused on developing intervention programs for children and adolescents who have been targets of bullying, sexual harassment and microaggressions.

ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT
Heidi Gazelle, associate professor, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
hgazelle@fsu.edu
Gazelle researches the interpersonal and intrapersonal processes that forecast continuity in change in socially anxious children’s and adolescents’ developmental pathways over time. Her research is guided by a Child-by-Environment Model which focuses on how socially anxious youths’ strengths and vulnerabilities interact with interpersonal supports and stressors in their everyday environments (school, peers, and family) to influence their social and emotional development.

POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION
Lara Perez-Felkner, professor, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
lperezfelkner@fsu.edu; (850) 645-8450
As a professor in FSU’s Higher Education Program, Perez-Felkner’s research uses developmental and sociological perspectives to examine the mechanisms that shape entry into and persistence in institutions and fields in which individuals have traditionally been underrepresented. In particular, she investigates racial-ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic disparities in post-secondary educational attainment and entry to scientific career fields.

LITERACY AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Sonia Cabell, associate professor, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
scabell@fcrr.org
As a member of the Florida Center for Reading Research, Cabell focuses on the prevention of reading difficulties among young children who are at-risk, particularly those living in poverty. Her work spans pre-kindergarten through second grade and consists of how to strengthen children’s language and literacy skills that serve as precursors to both successful reading comprehension and word recognition.

Shannon Hall-Mills, assistant professor, College of Communication and Information
shannon.hall-mills@cci.fsu.edu
Hall-Mills researches spoken and written language development and disorders in school-age children and adolescents. Her work aims to improve the accuracy of assessment and the effectiveness of intervention practices for language and literacy in schools. She is also interested in the effects of educational policy on practice patterns for speech language pathologists and outcomes for children with speech-language impairment.

MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Robert Schoen, associate professor, School of Teacher Education and Learning Systems Institute
rschoen@lsi.fsu.edu; (850) 645-9926
Schoen studies the impact of interventions in mathematics and statistics classes on teachers, teaching and students. The Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics named him the 2022 Kenneth P. Kidd Mathematics Educator of the Year. He leads groundbreaking research that is identifying ways to increase student achievement and enjoyment.

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