2022 IMBES Trainee Board Election Candidates

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Floor Vandecruys

Bio

My name is Floor Vandecruys and I am a PhD student under supervision of Bert De Smedt at MathLab, KU Leuven, Belgium. I investigate how experience shapes brain and behavior in early childhood. My current focus has been on how the exposure to formal schooling, being a critical experience itself, affects brain networks underlying reading and arithmetic. I am passionate about science outreach to both an expert and to a non-expert audience. I believe social media nowadays is one of the most important channels of communication, because it easily allows for flexibility and interaction. I am currently running the Instagram- and Facebook accounts of our lab (@mathlab_kuleuven), which we use for both scientific and social outreach.

As IMBES Social Media Chair, I plan on utilizing my experiences from running our lab’s social media accounts to reach a broader audience and to generate content that is both relevant and comprehensible. As I believe the true value of social media lies in its flexibility and allowing interaction between various members of the community, I would firstly propose launching Q&A-sessions on various research-related topics. This would facilitate sharing knowledge and experiences, but also concerns and would, additionally, assist us in improving and adapting social media content to our audience. Furthermore, I would dedicate my time to keeping the social media accounts active to increase and preserve interest and awareness. I would, for instance, suggest to create a monthly “research-highlight-post” in which we will focus on one recently published study from Mind, Brain, and Education. This not only increases awareness of our social media, but also of our research. Lastly, as IMBES Social Media Chair, I intend to facilitate collaborations by promoting an educational and social environment in which our community is encouraged to share and learn.

Twitter: @VandecruysFloor

Anna Levy

Bio

I am receiving my PhD in School Psychology at Fordham University, Graduate School of Education where I am researching what factors and resources can help make math learning more accessible. I’m looking to pursue a career in school psychology by bridging the gap between academia and school settings. I received my BA in Psychology from Lafayette College in 2019 where I studied the influence of female role models for counteracting stereotype threat for women in STEM. Following undergrad, I worked as a Research Coordinator at UCSF Neuroscape where the influence of digital training games on children’s cognitive development. I additionally served as a Research Fellow for Educators Thriving, a non-profit dedicated to helping educators avoid burnout with evidence-based interventions. I am passionate about education, educational research, advocating for students who tend to “fall through the cracks, and working with children and educators. I have been the Social Media Chair for the IMBES trainee board for the past year and a half. I have assisted in planning various events, including the 2022 pre-conference series, the Trainee Research Pitch Competition and various Ask Me Anything events. I also was involved in a discussion panel on the usage of digital tools in educational research at the 2022 conference.

One of my main visions as co-president of the IMBES trainee board would be to make funding more accessible to allow international trainees to attend the 2024 conference. This would include securing funding specifically for international travel awards earlier, as well as sending out application information well in advance for the 2024 conference to ensure trainees have ample time to secure visas and other necessary travel documents. One of the goals of this would be to make the 2024 conference accessible specifically for individuals from traditionally underrepresented nations. This also includes working with a travel agent to ensure travel plans be made directly with the funding source, rather than requiring trainees to front-load funding and eliminate a chunk of the reimbursement process. I am so proud and thoroughly enjoyed the 2022 pre-conference event, and I would aim to plan a pre-conference event along similar lines as the one we had this past year. Additionally, as co-president, I would plan to create a series of networking events to allow trainees to connect with other trainees or mentors who are interested in the same, or similar, topics. At the pre-conference when we had opportunities to connect and bounce ideas off each other, it was rewarding and helpful for developing our own projects. Overall, my main goal as co-president would be to host events and programs that are directly related to the needs and interests of trainees, and looking to make attending the 2024 IMBES conference more accessible for international trainees.

Kristin (Kris) Simmers

Bio

As a current PhD student at the University of Connecticut studying Learning Sciences, I have particular interests in integrating MBE into teacher preparation programs and fostering mutually beneficial researcher-practitioner partnerships. I am also a trainee in the Science of Learning and Art of Communication, an interdisciplinary group of researchers funded by the NSF that uses the Science of Learning to address real-world problems with a transdisciplinary approach. I have been elected to serve on the AERA Brain, Neuroscience and Education special interest group board as the current Graduate Student at Large. In this capacity, I utilize my experience in international outreach, foster collaborations with MBE-related graduate programs, and contribute to the design and delivery of outreach events. Throughout my 16 years of teaching and leading in 4 countries, I worked with educators and administrators in Europe, Asia and North America to facilitate translation of MBE into practice in actual school settings. I also facilitate MBE translation with the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, which includes serving as a Translation Group Leader in the Summer Academy, as well as on-site professional development with schools that are implementing MBE in their policies and practice. Previously, I started a Professional Learning Community dedicated to MBE translation at my previous school, and I prioritize equity and accessibility in outreach endeavors.

In serving as Co-President, I will liaise with the IMBES Board and advocate for opportunities to best support and develop our trainees, including articulating our Trainee Board vision and ensuring our actions align with our vision. I will support increased engagement and interest of trainees through our Trainee Board initiatives, both in on-going initiatives as well as potentially new initiatives that may serve the needs of our trainees in novel ways. To achieve this, I will consider the perspectives of existing trainees, while also seeking guidance from similar organizations regarding how we might best serve our IMBES trainee community. I am highly organized and will take on the Trainee Board email duties as well as treasurer duties with efficiency and transparency. Similar to the ways in which I represent Graduate Student interests in my role with the AERA BNE SIG, I will represent our trainees in the role of co-President and continually seek to improve the experience and professional development of our trainees.

Sarah Gilmore

Bio

Effective, equitable, and sustainable relationships between policy, practice, and research are central to the vision of IMBES. With my experience as a teacher (15 years) with a Masters in Educational Leadership and Management, and as a PhD student in the Learning Sciences, I am well-positioned to facilitate translational work. I have the energy, experience, and passion for this cause and would be well suited to serve as an effective and innovative Policy and Practice Chair for the Trainee Board. In my former role as a teacher and leader I was personally passionate about research-based practice, and I spearheaded a long-running and successful Professional Learning Community for my colleagues with an aim to make education research more accessible to them. I also co-authored a book for teachers that advocates for a holistic and research-based approach to school technology integration (Heinemann Publishing), and created and co-host a translational podcast for the teaching community centered on translating published research on topics of teacher interest and need into actionable classroom-focused, research-based guidance. As a PhD student, my research interests are focused on teacher research engagement, the factors that prevent or support teachers from engaging in and with research, and the question of how academic and policy organizations might use technology to create more equitable and accessible pathways for teachers to access and use research. I am also focused on the development of more scalable and sustainable approaches to teacher-researcher partnerships.

I believe that researchers and practitioners have much to learn from each other in service of the common goal of better understanding how humans learn, and how our educational institutions and practices can support learning. A key aspect of realizing this goal lies in the relationship between policy and practice, and in the mechanisms that enable an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary dialogue to grow and flourish. At present there is a divide between education research and practice, in terms of who conducts research, how that research is conducted, how research findings are disseminated, and the conceptualization of how research findings should be implemented. As Policy and Practice Chair, my goal is to contribute to closing this divide through 1) translational communication, such as through podcasting, blogging and working in collaboration with the Social Media Chair, 2) outreach in the form of open-access webinars and professional development workshops on practice-focused topics led by researchers and practitioners within the Society, and 3) practical initiatives with policy and practice-focused communities to foster more accessible, innovative, and sustainable approaches to research and implementation. The realization of these goals depends on collaboration within and beyond the Society, and I would seek to work closely with other Chairs, members, and trainees, and to strengthen the voices of teachers and practitioners within the Society in service of our shared goal of advancing our understanding of learning.

Kristin (Kris) Simmers

Bio

As a current PhD student at the University of Connecticut studying Learning Sciences, I have particular interests in integrating MBE into teacher preparation programs and fostering mutually beneficial researcher-practitioner partnerships. I am also a trainee in the Science of Learning and Art of Communication, an interdisciplinary group of researchers funded by the NSF that uses the Science of Learning to address real-world problems with a transdisciplinary approach. I have been elected to serve on the AERA Brain, Neuroscience and Education special interest group board as the current Graduate Student at Large. In this capacity, I utilize my experience in international outreach, foster collaborations with MBE-related graduate programs, and contribute to the design and delivery of outreach events. Throughout my 16 years of teaching and leading in 4 countries, I worked with educators and administrators in Europe, Asia and North America to facilitate translation of MBE into practice in actual school settings. I also facilitate MBE translation with the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, which includes serving as a Translation Group Leader in the Summer Academy, as well as on-site professional development with schools that are implementing MBE in their policies and practice. Previously, I started a Professional Learning Community dedicated to MBE translation at my previous school, and I prioritize equity and accessibility in outreach endeavors.

In serving as the Policy and Practice Chair, I would prioritize the expansion of IMBES’ reach to include non-academic audiences, as well as fostering international networking, collaboration, and outreach opportunities. The inclusion of non-academic audiences is critical to IMBES’ impact, as teachers and practitioners are not yet well-represented among our conference attendees, and many school leaders, responsible for making policy and practice decisions, remain largely unaware of the field of MBE. I believe that mutually beneficial researcher-practitioner partnerships are an underutilized resource, both in ensuring that research is relevant and accessible to educators, but also in bringing teacher voice and perspective into MBE research. One way to encourage more researcher-practitioner partnerships in an equitable way could be to utilize no-cost platforms such as UNIFIED, or other venues that remove financial and geographic barriers to collaboration. Lastly, increasing the presence and accessibility of IMBES materials in K-12 and higher education settings could enable our work and mission to have a greater impact in the community beyond current IMBES members.

Hyeon Jin Yoon

Bio

My program of research broadly focuses on quantitative research methods including the evaluation of educational interventions and developing research methodologies to examine substantive research questions about individual differences in development and response to intervention. I have extensive experience working with diverse collaborators and partners including federal, state, and district-level education/health agencies, administrators, educators, families, and schools on a variety of federally or state-funded research grants. For such collaborations, I have taken the lead in research translation to foster better communication and understanding by utilizing data visualization and producing reports tailored to a non-academic audience. As a faculty member of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools (CYFS) of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), I also have added efforts to translate our research work to a diverse audience through our CYFS website. Specifically, we—UNL CYFS community—provides information and resources on our completed and ongoing research projects in various formats including videos, social media, interactive web tools, and briefs/reports targeting both academic and non-academic audience. In addition, I have been serving on the CYFS Strategic Plan Committee that focuses on disseminating, promoting, and elevating CYFS research findings and interventions that address CYFS impact areas in highly visible outlets accessible to practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders locally, nationally, and globally using an integrated communications strategy that includes websites, social media, news media, email marketing, technology and database development, and other innovative communication platforms. Currently, we are working on new event ideas or outreach opportunity to offer in the future to better engage our target audiences and create a system to identify a research-based interventions and relevant research findings addressing CYFS impact areas.

The experience of working with a variety of non-academic collaborators and stakeholders has taught me that there is a gap between knowledge gained through research and its interpretation and application in policy and practice and the importance of translational work to bridge such gap and improve the research impacts. Given these experiences, I am interested in fostering connections and partnerships among stakeholders in IMBES, including trainees, senior scholars, and non-trainee practitioners. To improve the IMBES student community, I would like to assess the interest and needs of the IMBES student community via surveys (if there is no data yet) and strategize to provide resources and activities that could meet the needs of the students. To do so, I could create the survey in collaboration with the IMBES Board and collect responses from students and share the results with the IMBES trainee board. Based on the results, as an IMBES community that includes the trainee board and student community, we could come up with and implement student engagement activities; and I am willing to take the lead on such efforts as a Policy and Practice Chair. Another possible way to improve student community is to provide In-Progress Research Gala at the IMBES conference (like the one offered at AERA), where graduate students share their research in progress with an audience of interested researchers and practitioners, including a panel of reviewers who will provide feedback on the research. In the Research Gala, we could provide graduate student mentoring sessions (if it does not exist yet) too. I am happy to take the lead (or support) on organizing and running such opportunities at the conference.

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