Ashley Reece (Ezpeleta) is a doctoral student in the Human Development area working with Dr. Haley Vlach in the Learning, Cognition, and Development Lab. She received her B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Linguistics from Miami University. She was also the lab manager for Dr. Ed Hubbard’s Educational Neuroscience Lab before joining the PhD program. Ashley’s work investigates how lower (e.g. biological)- and higher (e.g. meta)- memory processes influence young children’s language learning, with the goal of applying her work to educational settings.
Student
Rysiew, Joshua
Josh Rysiew is a doctoral student in the School Psychology area within the Department of Educational Psychology. He is advised by Dr. Steve Kilgus. Josh received his BS in Psychology from the University of Georgia. Prior to graduate school, Josh worked in the Gifted Education Equity Research lab, where he focused on testing an equity measurement tool for school districts to examine their gifted enrollment data. His research interests center on assessing internalizing concerns for high-achieving students of color and promoting equitable identification practices in gifted and talented programs.
Stevens, Isaiah
Isaiah Stevens is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. He is interested in the way that students conceptualize mathematics problems. He is a member of the Mathematics Education Learning and Development (MELD) lab with Dr. Percival Matthews. He involves himself in the postsecondary mathematics community through educational opportunities in the mathematics department at UW-Madison. In his free time, he plays basketball, does landscape photography, and cooks for his family.
Tan, Yuanru
Yuanru Tan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Learning Sciences program within the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She works in the Epistemic Analytics Lab advised by Dr. David Williamson Shaffer. Her research focuses on developing novel approaches and statistical tools to model and assess complex thinking.
Veenendall, Anna
Anna Veenendall is a doctoral student in the Human Development area within the Department of Educational Psychology. She works with Dr. Christy Starr. She earned her BS in Neurobiology and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also worked as a research assistant in Dr. Judith Harackiewicz’s PULSE lab. Before starting her graduate studies, Anna served as a research specialist under Dr. Andy Garbacz in School Psychology at UW. Her research interests center on the barriers and costs that adolescents and college students face in pursuing careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Vengurlekar, Ishan
Ishan Vengurlekar is a doctoral student in the School Psychology area at UW–Madison and is advised by Dr. Stephen Kilgus. He received his BA in Psychology and a minor in Social Work from the University of Arkansas. Ishan’s research interests are broadly twofold: (1) to explore the intersection between social-emotional learning and adolescents’ arts education, with a particular focus on the impact of peer relationships and (2) to investigate the risk and protective factors affecting the wellbeing of music majors, in order to develop better programs to support their mental health.
Vidal, Monica
Monica is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (Bilingual) who received her Master’s of Education (MEd) and Educational Specialist Degree (EdS) from National Louis University in Skokie, IL. She is currently a School Psychology PhD student and Project STARS Fellow being advised by Dr. Dave Klingbeil. Prior to joining UW–Madison, Monica practiced as a school psychologist for 6 years, including her internship. In her practice, Monica developed an interest in consultation and the use of data in making decisions to promote equity for diverse learners. Monica’s research interests include MTSS and program evaluation of Bilingual programming in the Midwest.
Vigil, Mariah
Mariah Vigil is a doctoral student in the School Psychology area within the Department of Educational Psychology, advised by Dr. Jennifer Asmus. At the University of Utah, she double majored in Psychology and Family, Community, Human Development. Mariah currently serves as the School Psychology Training Clinic clinician/teaching assistant. Mariah is also the Diversity and Inclusion Association Co-Chair. Her research interests focus on understanding effective and inclusive sexual/romantic supports for autistic individuals that are gender and/or sexual minorities.
Wu, Sally
Xue, Taiming
Taiming Xue is a doctoral student in the School Psychology area within the Department of Educational Psychology. She received her BA in Psychology with Honors from UW-Madison. Broadly, Taiming’s research interests include the development and implementation of school-based mental health interventions to address student’s internalizing concerns, especially through collaboration with families. She is also interested in making interventions more accessible and tailored to students who are culturally and linguistically diverse.