SPARK LAB - Key Persons
Catie Connolly is a PhD Candidate in Developmental and Psychological Sciences. She received her BA in Psychology and English Literature from Columbia University in 2018.
Her research examines diverse development of social-emotional skills in early childhood, and equitable measurement and assessment tools to capture all children's skills. Catie's work through the SFUSD-Stanford Research Practice Partnership incorporates perspectives from children, parents, teachers, and trained outside assessors to form a cohesive understanding of social-emotional development in racially/ethnically, socioeconomically, and linguistically diverse populations.
Her research aims to promote equity and anti-racism beginning with the equitable measurement of children's foundational social-emotional skills in early childhood. More generally, she is especially interested in better understanding the development of emotion regulation processes in early childhood and the role of family systems in sibling-to-sibling social-emotional development.
Alexis is a postdoctoral fellow with the Equity in Early Education (E3) postdoctoral fellowship program, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). She received her Ph.D in Human Development and Family Studies from Oregon State University in 2023. Prior to her doctoral training, she received a B.A. in psychology from Seattle Pacific University, and an M.S. in Human Development from Oregon State University. Alexis is an Aleut tribal member and previously worked to promote education, health, and cultural connection in American Indian/Alaska Native children through youth program development at an AI/AN health organization in the Northwest.
Job Titles:
- Senior Education Researcher at SRI International
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at Tufts University
Gladys Aguilar is an Institute of Education Sciences Equity in Early Childhood Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Before earning her Ph.D. in Human Development, Learning, and Teaching at Harvard University, Gladys was a bilingual public elementary school teacher and family therapist working alongside children and families in under resourced communities in Los Angeles, California. She received her B.S. in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University and her M.S. in Counseling at California State University, Los Angeles.
Gladys applies sociocultural and resilience frameworks to investigate factors affecting the psychosocial well-being and educational success of ethnoracially and linguistically minoritized children in the U.S. and abroad, particularly Latine children in immigrant families. Her research examines bilingualism and ethnic-racial identity as strengths in their learning and development, focusing on these culturally informed competencies within home and school settings. Drawing on her lived experiences as an immigrant from Yucatán, México, and as a first generation college student, she aims to inform equity-focused early childhood policies and practices that recognize and elevate immigrant families' cultural assets while promoting their children's positive development.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR / PI
- Professor at Stanford University
Jelena is a professor at Stanford University in the Developmental and Psychological Sciences program at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She completed a Ph.D. in developmental psychology at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, and postdoctoral training in psychophysiology at the University of British Columbia. She is the recipient of a Jacobs Foundation Advanced Research Fellowship, a William T. Grant Foundation Scholar Award, and Early Career Research Contribution Award from the Society for Research in Child Development. Jelena's research examines how the interplay of children's physiological stress arousal, self-regulatory skills, and quality of caregiving environments contributes to their health, learning, and well-being over time. She also studies how caregivers' executive functions and emotion regulation skills contribute to teaching and parenting practices that promote or undermine child development. Her current work involves the development of novel, pragmatic, scalable assessments of executive functions, emotion regulation, and motivation.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Job Titles:
- Incoming SRCD State Policy Fellow, California Department of Education
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- Research Associate at Child Trends
Job Titles:
- NICHD F32 Postdoctoral Fellow
Meriah is an NICHD F32 Postdoctoral Fellow. She received her PhD in developmental psychology from University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development in 2023, where she was the recipient of the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. Prior to her doctoral training, she received a B.S. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego, an M.A. in psychology from Columbia University, and worked for several years as a lab manager at New York University.Meriah's research examines how the type and timing of poverty-related experiences shape children's cognitive, learning, and self-regulation development. A goal of this work is to identify unique strengths that develop in the context of poverty, which can be leveraged to enhance educational and social policy.
Michael received his B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers University-Camden in 2006 and his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Arizona State University in 2013. Prior to joining the SPARK Lab in 2016, he worked in the Institute of Human Development and Social Change at New York University.
Michael studies how children's early experiences influence the development of self-regulation and socioemotional learning, and how these skills contribute to mental health and academic success. He is also interested in assessment and methodological issues in developmental science.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate at WestEd
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- Associate Professor at Wake Forest University
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- Senior Researcher at Imagine Worldwide
Job Titles:
- Research Associate at MDRC
Duru is currently a sophomore majoring in Data Science & Social Systems with a minor in Education. She's interested in the intersection of research and policy, specifically in the use of data in informing decisions. Within SPARK, she is excited to leverage data science tools to understand trends in social-emotional curricula. In her free time, Duru enjoys reading and playing board games.
Emma Keller is a doctoral student in Developmental and Psychological Sciences and Race, Inequality, and Language in Education at Stanford University. Emma received a B.S.Ed in Youth and Social Innovation and B.A. in English from the University of Virginia in 2022. She is a recipient of the Stanford Impact Labs Ph.D. Fellowship and the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Fellowship.
Her research centers the experiences of Black and biracial adolescents, particularly in the areas of racial socialization, racial identity development, and psychological well-being. Her ultimate goals are to understand how siblings engage in racial socialization processes, inform effective interventions that mitigate racial stress, and promote positive mental health outcomes for racially minoritized youth. Emma's SPARK Lab project examines how siblings and parents support the development of children's cognitive, social, and emotional skills.
Emma is a doctoral student in Developmental and Psychological Sciences at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She received a MS in Education Data Science from Stanford in 2023, and a BS in Applied Mathematics & Statistics and Psychology from the University of Notre Dame in 2021. She is a recipient of the Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science and Engineering.
Grace is a high school student at Mission San Jose High School. She has worked on many research projects and taken many courses in neuroscience and psychology. Her current interests are in development and the overlap between neuroscience and psychology. In her free time, she likes to paint, play with her dog, and watch movies.
Ishita Ahmed is a doctoral student in Developmental and Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Humanities and Interdisciplinary Policy Studies at Stanford University. Ishita received an MA in Economics at University of Maryland-College Park in 2018 and a BA in Economics and International Relations at the College of William and Mary in 2011. She is a recipient of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Fellowship and the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship.
Her research examines how to promote equitable education for marginalized communities in the U.S. and low-and-middle-income countries. In particular, she focuses on how to adapt measures of children's cognitive and behavioral skills to represent different cultural experiences. Ishita's SPARK Lab projects use mixed methods to incorporate the voices of parents, children, and teachers to investigate measurement of executive functions, self-regulation, and learning related emotion socialization. Her long-term goal is to incorporate culturally adapted measures into global education policy analysis.
Javier Omar is a doctoral candidate in Developmental and Psychological Sciences at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Prior to his time at Stanford, Javier served as a secondary science teacher within the San Antonio Independent School District. He received his BS in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and BA in Human Health from Emory University. He is a recipient of the Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science and Engineering, Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship, and Research, Action, and Impact through Strategic Engagement Doctoral Fellowship.
His research leverages mixed methods and community-based participatory approaches to examine the social-emotional and psychosocial development of culturally and linguistically diverse students. His current work is situated within the Stanford-San Francisco Unified School District Partnership. It broadly focuses on assessing emotion knowledge development across a diverse cohort of preschoolers and examining the role of teacher beliefs and biases on social-emotional learning practices. Additionally, he is currently involved in a multi-institution, community-driven project focused on developing and validating a measure of youth immigration-related stress, trauma, and strength, where he is leading a qualitative study to explore how caregivers and youth perceive the impact of immigration-related experiences on youth psychosocial development and mental health.
Jocelyn is a junior at Stanford, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Minor in Education. Her interests lie in child and adolescent development, particularly in the context of mental health and stress within education and familial relationships. She is further passionate about social-emotional learning interventions to help contribute to the improvement of educational outcomes as well as the promotion of mental well-being among youth.
Kevin Casillas was born and raised in Hayward, CA. He is a rising Junior at Stanford University majoring in Sociology on the Data Science, Markets, and Management Track. Kevin is interested in educational equity, particularly in early childhood, and its ties to race, income/wealth, and language. On his free time, Kevin likes to go on walks, listen to music, spend time with friends, and watch food recipe videos on YouTube.
Marielle is a rising Senior at Stanford studying Psychology and Education. She is interested in child and adolescent development, especially in promoting resilience, socio-emotional learning, and effective learning for children from adverse backgrounds. She is also interested in curriculum development within a global education context. During her free time, Marielle enjoys going to the gym, producing music, and cooking.
Mateus Mazzaferro is a doctoral student in the 2023 cohort of the Developmental and Psychological Sciences program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Prior to his time at Stanford, Mateus worked as a Research Assistant at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and at the NYU School of Global Public Health. He received his B.S. in Psychology from Humboldt University in Berlin and his M.A. in Psychology in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- RESEARCH COORDINATOR
- Project Coordinator for the SPARK Lab 's MAGIC Initiative
Maya is the project coordinator for the SPARK Lab's MAGIC Initiative. If you are interested in learning more about this work, please reach out to Maya directly.
Sadie Richardson is a doctoral student in Educational Policy and Developmental and Psychological Sciences at Stanford University. Sadie received a B.A. in Cognitive Sciences and Statistics from Rice University in 2019. Prior to Stanford, she worked on the early childhood research team at Texas Policy Lab in Houston, TX. She is a recipient of the Stanford Impact Labs Ph.D. Fellowship.
Sadie is interested in studying how policies and programs can better support early childhood development and promote equitable educational outcomes. She is also excited about engaging in partnership research to advance social and educational policy. In the SPARK lab, she works on analyses examining racial disparities in early educational trajectories.
Sofia Wilson is a doctoral student in Education Policy and Developmental and Psychological Sciences at Stanford University. She is a recipient of Stanford's Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship. Sofia received a BA in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an Ed.M in Education from Boston University. Prior to Stanford, Sofia was an Education Pioneers Impact Fellow at Start Early, an education technology leader at Clever and Newsela, and a teacher in Oakland and Boston public schools. Sofia's research examines the causes and consequences of inequality with a particular focus on the role of place, parenting, and policy in shaping early childhood opportunities. In the SPARK Lab, Sofia supports quantitative analysis of a parental learning-related emotion socialization measure to evaluate how everyday parenting behaviors relate to child well-being and educational success. She is also examining the role of teacher beliefs and biases on child social-emotional learning outcomes, a project in partnership with San Francisco Unified School District.