Fall 2023 New Peabody Faculty

Department of Teaching and Learning

Alyssa Wise
Professor of Technology and Education

Professor Wise is the new director of the Learning Incubator: A Vanderbilt Endeavor (LIVE). Her research combines the tools of data science, the theory of learning sciences, and the practices of human-centered design to build and study the use of learning analytics systems that promote equitable and effective education.

Department of Special Education

Meghan Burke
Professor of Special Education

Professor Burke examines how families advocate for services for their family members with disabilities and how siblings of individuals with disabilities transition to caregiving roles. Professor Burke has developed and tested advocacy programs which have been widely replicated.

Jason Chow
Associate Professor of Special Education

Professor Chow’s research focuses on language, social, and behavioral development; identifying and developing interventions to support children with or at risk for disabilities; and supporting special education teachers to collaborate with other educators on delivering evidence-based practices.

Samantha Gesel
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Special Education

Professor Gesel’s work focuses on intensive intervention and data-based decision-making in reading education for students with the most persistent reading difficulties, particularly related to the impact of professional development on pre-service and in-service teachers’ ability to effectively support students.

Kiersten Kinder
Assistant Professor of the Practice, Early Childhood Special Education

Professor Kinder’s work focuses on supporting teachers to use effective practices for promoting social-emotional development and preventing and addressing challenging behavior in early childhood settings. She has been involved in research on the Pyramid Model and Practice-Based Coaching in early childhood settings.

Department of Psychology and Human Development

Krista Mehari
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Human Development

Professor Mehari is a community-based researcher who studies youth violence prevention by collaborating with schools, police departments, local businesses, and organizations to understand factors that catalyze youth violence and to develop violence prevention programs and strategies.

Chris Strauss
Senior Lecturer

Chris Strauss’ research interests include measurement, scoring, and multilevel measurement models, with an emphasis on application to classroom-based high impact learning interventions.

Department of Human and Organizational Development

Andrew Nalani
Assistant Professor of Human and Organizational Development

Professor Nalani studies the organizational dynamics of youth work in community-based and institutionalized settings, focusing on how power ideologies and distributions across organizational levels enable or constrain the transformative potential of youth work.

Andres Pinedo
Assistant Professor of Human and Organizational Development

Professor Pinedo studies the processes that either perpetuate or disrupt inequality in society, with a particular focus on how youths develop amidst inequality and how they push back against it.

Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations

Daphne Penn
Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Inequality

Professor Penn is a sociologist of education who studies how public schools are influenced by and respond to the broader social, political, and economic forces within their local contexts. Penn’s current research focuses on how the new demography of the American South is shaping politics, governance, and equity in K-12 schools.