Meet our Students
Theodora Beauchamp
Concordia University Irvine, M.Ed. Curriculum and Instruction
Humboldt State University, B.A. Multiple Subjects Elementary Education
Research interest(s): I am interested in Generative AI and how it can be facilitated in education through the personalization of word problems for students K-12. My goal is to understand how AI could be used to better curriculum through teachers' usage and education which in turn improves student academic outcomes.
Current Fellowship: I work with Dr. Candace Walkington on the ITEST grant through NSF. The mission of the project is to develop and test innovations using artificial intelligence to personalize mathematics instruction to students’ interests.
Professional experience: Through my career as an elementary education teacher for 22 years, I had the opportunity to teach students using quite a variety of curriculum-spanning classrooms in California and Texas. In the last several years of my career in California, I created personalized word problems for my students through the mentee experience I gained from The Cotsen Foundation, The Art of Teaching. I was able to use Cognitively Guided Instruction strategies to create personalized word problems with “just right number sets”. One of my successes was sharing my spiral review personalization strategy at a Cognitively Guided Instruction conference in 2019 after successes within my classroom and sharing my strategy with other schools in my district. While continuing my career as a teacher in Texas my opportunity to personalize learning continued to be at the forefront of my pedagogy. Through my extensive career as a teacher, forward thinker in curriculum, and advocate for personalized learning, I will continue to strive to do what’s best for kids.
Rashard Fant
Indiana University - Bloomington, MPA Policy Analysis
Indiana University - Bloomington, B.S. Management
Research interest(s): Organizational Change, Culture, and Leadership within intercollegiate athletics. As well as examining Intersectionality, equity, and access issues amongst Black students and student-athletes at predominately white institutions (PWIs).
Current research fellowship: Mustang Fellowship: Recognizes Ph.D. students who show great promise for academic success and potential to enhance graduate program diversity at SMU.
Professional experience: Prior to SMU, Rashard played professional football for the Chicago Bears, served as a Career Coach for working adults, and has held numerous positions within student-athlete development and support departments in the collegiate athletics field. He is currently working for 黑料老司机Athletics as the Director of Student-Athlete Success.
Michael Fong
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Florida State University, M.S. Measurement and Statistics
Nanyang Technological University, M.A., B.A. Psychology
Research interest(s): My current research interests are topics related to item-response theory, structural equation modeling, meta-analysis and their applications.
Current Fellowship: I am working under Dr. Akihito Kamata on a research field-based apprenticeship.
Professional experience: I previously worked as a classroom instructor and as an assessment officer in Singapore.
Paul Foster
Columbia University, MBA Marketing
Columbia University, B.A. Philosophy
Research interest(s): Applying the Theory of Constraints to Education, which requires diagnostic assessment that is as accurate, timely, and efficient, as possible.
Current Fellowship: I am on the NSF-funded STEM+C project that aims to use the Minecraft video game to teach middle-schoolers Computational Thinking. The big idea is to use the student engagement generated by successful commercial video games to promote student learning.
Professional experience: During a 25-year business career, I founded or led organizations in healthcare or staffing. These included a $73 million company with 10 offices worldwide, and culminated in being the CEO of a $150 million home health and hospice company with 2,000 team members in 91 locations nationwide serving 7,000 patients.
Charlotte Gregor
黑料老司机, M.Ed. Literacy
Vanderbilt University, B.S. Elementary Education and Child Studies
Research interest(s): I am interested in foundational literacy acquisition for students both with and without disabilities. It is my goal to ensure that high quality reading instruction grounded in Structured Literacy is available for all students. I specialize in work surrounding students with and at risk for language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia.
Current Fellowship: I work with Dr. Jill Allor and Dr. Stephanie Al Otaiba on Project Intensity, a research project aimed at assessing the efficacy of Friends on the Block (an intensive literacy intervention) for use with students diagnosed with Intellectual Disabilities and other low incidence disabilities. The mission of the project is to make literacy accessible to all children - and to have fun while learning!
Professional experience: Prior to beginning at SMU, Charlotte worked as an Academic Language Therapist in Dallas ISD teaching children with dyslexia fundamental literacy skills. She also had the opportunity to serve the Dallas community in multiple academic interventionist roles since graduating from Vanderbilt in 2016.
Cheyenne Heath-Warr
University of Texas - Permian Basin, M.A. Special Education
Pepperdine University, B.A. Liberal Arts
Research interest(s): Diversity, equity, and inclusion among K-12 schools, particularly private educational institutions.
Current Fellowship: Funded by the Moody Graduate Fellowship, Cheyenne works under the advisement of Dr. Meredith Richards in the department of Education Policy and Leadership.
Professional experience: Prior to SMU, Cheyenne worked as a teacher across various grade levels and subjects. She most recently served as the Resource Intervention Program Director at a private school in California where she taught and advocated for students with exceptional learning needs.
Jonathan Hunnicutt
Fuller Theological Seminary, Master of Divinity
Texas A&M University, B.S. Sociology
Research interest(s): Bridging Learning Science and Computational Social Science via automated data collection, educator social networks, and mathematical models of complex contagion to understand how math teachers learn and spread good pedagogy.
Current research fellowship: Lead Graduate Research Assistant, supervising four undergraduates, for my co-Advisor Dr. Candace Walkington under the EXCEL grant. This embodied cognition research explores how AR/VR might help ELL students collaborate and learn geometry.
Assisted my co-Advisor, Dr. Annie Wilhelm, in adapting an inquiry-based math curriculum for the West Dallas STEM School.
Professional experience: Corps of Cadets and Fightin' Texas Aggie Band. Math Tutor for 20 years. Ordained Anglican Deacon. Failed Church Planter. Taught Math at Uplift Williams, a Title I, T-STEM High School. In my first 3 years, quadrupled AP Calculus AB passing rate. Lead HS Math team through Uplift's transition to IB-for-All.
Jonathan Isaac
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University of California, Berkeley; B.A. Statistics
Research interest(s): Learning the reasons people come to think that math is too difficult for them or only useful in some niches. I want to learn how we can inculcate a meaning focused understanding of math which equips students with the broadly applicable, logical approach to problems that it actually is. Also, how new data collection methods and modeling can be used to identify students at risk for falling behind in mathematics so that intervention can be implemented as early as possible.
Current Fellowship: I will primarily work with Dr. Pande on the design, implementation, and evaluation of web-based and immersive virtual reality interfaces for embodied learning of science and mathematics. Specifically, I plan to help with the collection and analysis of complex behavioral data obtained through eye- and interaction-tracking to understand how learners navigate through the above-mentioned learning environments.
Professional experience: Jonathan worked at Resultant LLC for just over 3 years as a Data Consultant. During my time there, I helped clients in fields including finance, healthcare, and education and created tools and models for organizations from small non-profits to large banks and even the Indiana Department of Education.
Joanne Joo
Columbia University, M.A. Statistics
State University of New York at Stony Brook, B.S. Applied Math and Statistics
Research interest(s): My research centers on studying educators working with students experiencing difficulties. Specifically, I'm intrigued by their self-efficacy, career intentions, and how interventions and math assessments can bolster their teaching efficacy.
Current research fellowship: I am a member of the Leaders Investigating Mathematics Evidence (LIME) fellowship program, funded by the Department of Education. I have been working on the SCALE and the PAR math intervention projects helping 4th and 6th graders with math difficulties in Texas, Idaho, and Missouri.
Professional experience: I worked as an HR manager at a Korean engineering company for 4 years. I was involved in projects building the infrastructure for electricity and water supply in Africa and oil sands plants in Canada. I managed data on nearly 10,000 employees and created solutions to improve their performance.
Maricela Leon
黑料老司机, M.B.E. Bilingual Education and Gifted and Talented
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, B.S. Economics
Research interest(s): Successful implementation of Dual Language Immersion Programs, equity and social justice for multilingual/multi-dialect learners, socio-cultural competence, and critical linguistics.
Current Fellowship: I am currently working with Dr. Quentin Sedlacek in a project that analyzes Teacher's education in African American Languages and its impact on Science Teaching. I am also part of the West Dallas STEM School project designing inquiry driven curriculum and coaching educators that work with students classified as Emergent Bilinguals or speakers of other languages or dialects.
Professional experience: Bilingual/ESL Instructional Coach, Language Acquisition Specialist, Design/Coordination/Implementation of Dual Language Immersion Programs, Argument Driven Inquiry applied to Dual Language Programs, Parent Engagement Initiatives, Coppell ISD strategic design committee. Experience teaching PK, 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade learners.
Charity Lewallen
CalPoly San Luis Obispo - MA Education Counseling and Guidance
University of California Los Angeles - BA Sociology
Research interest(s): As a higher education scholar, my research interests include institutional, state, national and accreditation policies that influence transfer student pathways and outcomes. This interest stems from a deep commitment to address systemic shortfalls in higher education in the US, particularly those policy shortfalls that contribute to significant inequities for students from underrepresented minority backgrounds. I also engage in research exploring structures, strategies and leaders (boards and presidents) of higher education institutions. I am deeply interested and committed to work that contributes to policies and systems that promote just and impartial pathways to a college degree for all students.
Current research fellowship: I am funded by the Fairess Simmons Fellowship, and I work primarily with Dr. Sondra N. Barringer, Ph.D on research that explores various organizational and policy dynamics in higher education institutions. Specifically, we are studying how R1-striving institutions change their academic organizational structure over time. We also study college presidents and boards of trustees to better understand the types of leadership profiles and reasons for leadership instability in some institutions. Lastly, we are working on a project that examines the nature of transfer partnerships between community colleges and universities across Texas.
Professional experience: A well-established career in higher education for over 20 years informs the work I do as a scholar. I have held a range of roles including administrator, instructor and academic advisor in a variety of colleges and universities. I've gathered invaluable experience from working at a breadth of institutions, including regional 4-year public, large community college system, small private religious liberal arts university, and small art and design college- each with its own niche culture and needs. And this experience spans two states with vastly different higher education systems- California and Texas. While my roles changed with each institution, my commitment to investing in systems, programs and curriculum to support student success remained constant.
Sydney Loutit
黑料老司机, M.Ed. Higher Education Policy and Leadership
Texas Christian University, BS Sports Broadcasting
Research interest(s): My primary research interest is student-athlete academic success in higher education from both a first-hand qualitative perspective as well as the larger context of higher education policy as it affects these students.
Current research fellowship: My research fellowship is with the Education Policy and Leadership department, where I have assisted with research on university governance and athletic profiles of universities.
Professional experience: Following my undergraduate degree I worked for the Dallas Stars in communications and partnerships. I decided to return to school to complete my master's degree and work with student-athletes as an assistant academic counselor here at SMU. I finished my master's in 2022 and began my Ph.D. in the fall of that same year.
Laura McCormack
黑料老司机, B.A.
黑料老司机, M.Ed.
Research interest(s): Laura's research interests lie in the intersectionality of educational testing for students with disabilities and finding the best instructional teaching practices for explicit reading development for both typical and atypical learners. She is working to research and support teachers in their understanding of identifying students with exceptionalities and hopes to assist identified students and families navigate special education procedures and laws within the public school system.
Current Fellowship: Laura is funded by the Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies' Mustang Fellowship.
Professional experience: Before her time as a doctoral student at SMU, Laura spent nine years as a classroom teacher. She also worked as a primary academic specialist, and both opportunities allowed for her to gain insight into how students are identified with learning differences. Working to obtain her Educational Diagnostician Certification, Laura has been focused on testing procedures and reducing testing anxiety. In her spare time, she enjoys walking her golden retrievers, painting, and Pilates.
Saki Milton
黑料老司机, MBA Marketing
University of Texas at Austin, B.A. Mathematics
Research interest(s): My research interests in STEM education is to study the design of informal learning environments situated within Black and brown girls' (grades 6-12) learning ecosystems. I am curious about the effects of various interventions that impact underrepresented and underserved girls' attitudes, confidence, interests, and choices in STEM career pathways in order to alleviate disparities associated with the intersectionality of race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Current research fellowship: As a first year Graduate Research Assistant, I am working on the Mathfinder App project under Dr. Candace Walkington. This Innovations and Development Project will conduct research on a location-based mobile app for informal mathematics learning and is funded by the National Science Foundation AISL Advancement of Informal STEM Learning (DRL 2115393).
Professional experience: I am an experienced educator and international girls in STEM advocate with more than 20 years of mathematics education experience. I am the founder and Executive Director of The GEMS Camp (Girls interested in Engineering, Mathematics, and Science), a 501(c)3 based in Dallas, TX. My experience includes mathematics classroom teaching in diverse settings such as public, public charter, and international schools, curriculum writing, and marketing and consulting in edTech. I hold a BA in Mathematics from The University of Texas at Austin.
Grace Morison
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Texas Christian University, B.S. Early Childhood Education
Texas Christian University, M.Ed. Science Education
Research interest(s): My research interests revolve around informal science education, STEM curriculum refinement, and the implementation of unique teaching techniques in science education; exploring how informal learning environments can effectively engage learners of all ages in scientific concepts through interactive and experiential activities. Additionally, I am interested in studying innovative methods that enhance student comprehension and retention in STEM education, aiming to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of scientific principles outside traditional classroom settings.
Current research fellowship: I am supported by the Fairess Simmons Fellowship, and I am looking forward to working closely with the West Dallas STEM School science curriculum with Dr. Jeanna Wieselmann scaffolding my efforts.
Professional experience: Immediately following my undergraduate studies, I began working towards my Master’s degree in Science Education at Texas Christian University. During my M.Ed. pursuit I worked in higher education, the University Unions, serving as an assistant in the Student Activities Department. My prior experience includes teaching Early Childhood Education, grades 3, 4 and 5.
Molly Novelli
Texas State University, MEd Secondary Education
Rice University, B.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Research interest(s): My research interests are generally in three areas: preservice STEM teacher education, issues of equity in science education and non-western epistemologies of science.
Current Fellowship: Simmons Fellowship; Field-based apprenticeship for research with Dr. Flavio Azevedo.
Professional experience: Molly has over a decade of experience in the education field ranging from classroom teaching in K-12 math and science classes to working with the National Park Service on Latinx focused initiatives and teaching outdoor and place-based education experiences for museums and schools.
Kathleen Roberts
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Washington & Lee University, B.A. Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Spanish.
Research interest(s): My research interests include academic assessment development, usage and analysis for elementary students and educators.
Current Fellowship:
I am a member of the Leaders Investigating Mathematics Evidence (LIME) Fellowship Program, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs. I work with Dr. Leanne Ketterlin Geller and the Research in Mathematics Education (RME) department on the MMaRS and SCALE projects.
Professional experience: I completed my undergraduate degree in the spring of 2024 and began my graduate studies in the fall of 2024. While at Washington & Lee, I spent three years working in Dr. Megan Fulcher’s research lab studying child and gender development. In this role, I presented my research at on-campus research symposiums as well as the 2024 Midwestern Psychological Association conference in Chicago, IL.
Jennifer Sayed
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Ph.D. student, Department of Education
Research interest(s): Jennifer is interested in examining the qualities of relevant and effective social studies education, including the integration of data analysis, digital skills and computational thinking into social studies instruction.
Current Fellowship: Jenniver is funded by the Moody Graduate Fellowship.
Research interest(s): Jennifer is interested in examining the qualities of relevant and effective social studies education, including the integration of data analysis, digital skills and computational thinking into social studies instruction.
Professional experience: Jennifer grew up in the area of Boston, Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. in international relations from Tufts University and earned an M.Ed. specializing in secondary social studies from Merrimack College as an education fellow. She completed her Master of Liberal Studies at 黑料老司机in 2022, specializing in global studies and humanities, and presented her capstone research at the American Historical Association annual conference. She has been an educator for over 23 years and most recently taught at Dallas Independent School District’s CityLab High School, one of the district’s transformation schools. While there, she taught social studies classes and developed the urban planning CTE program. She strives to engage students in experiential and project-based learning to develop both their local and global awareness. Her work as an educator has been recognized by the Abdelkader Education Project, DISD and the Greater Dallas Planning Council. She enjoys walking in nature, visiting museums and reading.
Ching-Yu Tseng
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, M.A. Educational Psychology, Learning and Cognition
National Central University, B.A. Business Administration/Finance
Research interest(s): Computational Thinking, Game-Based Learning, and Mathematic Thinking. Exploring the learning effects of fostering computational thinking (CT) within game-based learning environments and how CT skills benefit students in the STEM fields.
Current Fellowship: I am currently working on the STEM+C project with Dr. Leanne Ketterlin Geller in Research in Mathematics Education (RME) lab. We aim to combine interdisciplinary expertise from learning scientists, game designers, and computer scientists to integrate computational thinking into STEM education within a commercial game, Minecraft.
Professional experience: I had been a math teacher for over ten years in the after-school program. My expertise is in solving students' learning difficulties in math. While studying in the master's program, I developed research skills, including designing and conducting experiments in middle school classrooms, data coding, and analysis skills.
Kuo Wang
University of Electro, M.E. Software Design
Senshu University, B.A. Information Management
Research interest(s): My research interest includes online learning, automated measurement, and data analysis of assessment. My current research focuses on the automated measurement of oral reading fluency with prosodic features using deep learning.
Current research fellowship: I am a third-year Ph.D. student and research assistant. I am working on different research projects with different researchers who come from different institutions. According to the project, I am using both R language and Python language in my research. I am enjoying my research, especially cooperating with the other researchers.
Professional experience: I have worked both in Japan and China as a software design manager and a professional developer of software systems. I have nearly 20 years of career in the field of business software development and gained extensive knowledge and experience in relative areas.
Julianna Washington
黑料老司机, M.Ed. Education (focus in STEM Education)
The University of Texas at Austin, B.A. Economics
Research interest(s): I am interested in and research the effects of technology on how people learn STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). My interests revolve mostly around high school students learning and pre-service and in-service teachers' experiences with technology. Specifically, I look at Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and iPads. My work primarily draws on embodied and distributed theories of cognition and gestures. I have also conducted research with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Current Fellowship: I am a Graduate Research Assistant and work primarily with Dr. Candace Walkington on her Augmented Reality (AR) Grant. Our research further examines ways to connect mathematical practices with physical motions including gestures, using AR, VR, and motion capture technologies. This grant from the U.S. Department of Education examines how AR technologies can allow students to collaborate using shared holograms of geometric shapes. Additionally, I am currently working with Dr. Anthony Petrosino on one of Candace's National Science Foundation (NSF) grants that studies how STEM walks can help students see the world through the lens of math. This team is partnering with nine Dallas learning sites, including the Dallas Arboretum, to create and evaluate the effectiveness of STEM walks. Tony, myself, and some colleagues are examining the Research Practice Partnerships (RPPs) within this greater grant. Finally, I have worked on Candace's Artificial Intelligence (AI) grant that collaborated with Rice University.
Professional experience: Prior to beginning at SMU, I served through a partnership with Teach For America (TFA) at a public middle school in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) as a math and coding teacher. I also served as a Pre-Calculus teacher for 黑料老司机's (SMU's) summer school program, Upward Bound.
Michele Wiedemer
University of North Texas - M.S., Learning Technologies
University of Texas - B.A., English
Research interest(s): My research interest centers around where and how adults learn in a rapidly鈥痗hanging world. Technology vendors are disrupting traditional ways of working, and they are well-poised to help potential and current customers (and students) learn to leverage innovations in their work. However, Customer Education remains in its infancy as a standard and important function in business. I am interested in advancing knowledge in the interdisciplinary nature鈥痮f effective instruction and learning in this context. I also want to look at online and self-directed learning through the lens of the Diffusion of Innovations theory.
Current Fellowship: I am funded by the Fairess Simmons Fellowship, working under the supervision鈥痮f faculty advisors Dr. Lin Lipsmeyer and Dr. Corey Brady.
Professional experience: I started my career as a writer in K-12 educational publishing and then worked as an instructional designer, e-learning developer, and technical writer for over 25 years with small, medium, and large-size companies. For 10 years, I also volunteered as an after-school Destination Imagination coach in Dallas ISD, teaching creative problem solving, teamwork, and presentation skills to K-8 grade students. For the last 15 years, I focused on designing and developing online resources and learning experiences for business-to-business software companies (like Workplace and Rapid7). I initiated a Customer Education function at Snyk, a cyber-security software company, and I regularly share my perspective with the growing Customer Education community.