2026 IMBES Traineee Election Candidates

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Ivan Au, FHEA

Bio

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a doctoral researcher at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. I am part of the Language Learning Lab, and my research interest lies in the psychology and pragmatics of word meanings. Outside the lab, I am a tutor in the Department of Experimental Psychology and a Teaching Fellow in the Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium. I have also recently been in two project teams who set out to investigate EAL students' academic attainment in the UK using the National Pupil Data and the role of artificial intelligence in science education.

Previously, I have taken up lecturerships in a number of universities in Hong Kong and have delivered courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Prior to joining Oxford, I received my teacher-training in Hong Kong and my postgraduate training in Linguistics (with a specialisation in pragmatics) at University College London.

I am interested in the role of the Co-President in the Trainee Board.

Statement of Interest

IMBES aims to promote scientific practices through collaboration and dissemination. I have seen how IMBES has served as a perfect platform that enables academic exchanges and meaningful conversations where we use science to try and solve problems we have today. As a researcher and an educator with an interdisciplinary background, I am passionate about bridging research and practice, and I am excited to put my name forward for the role of the Co-President in the Trainee Board.

In this position, I would hope to foster constructive communication, inclusive engagement, and strong collaboration between trainees and the Main Board. My goal is to bring creative channels and events, both local and international, that could facilitate this. In addition, I also aspire to further strengthen a space for the development of budding scholars and practitioners, as they engage with researchers and the broader IMBES community in different contexts and settings. I trust that my experience in my role as the President of TEDxOxford and Student Liaison Coordinator will serve me well in the undertaking. In working with my teammates, I would lead with an ambitious yet practical approach, through active listening and co-construction, to turn thoughtful ideas into concrete actions.

My own work sits at the interface between developmental science, language learning, and education, and through my work I genuinely appreciate how valuable interdisciplinary dialogues are when they are scientifically rigorous and accessible. In light of this, I would be honoured to contribute to the Trainee Board’s work by helping to strengthen trainee representation, support professional development, and create welcoming spaces for collaboration.

Zoe Mao

Bio

I am a PhD candidate at the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. My research takes an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and multi-method approach to examine how teacher knowledge and instructional practices shape children’s cognitive and self-regulation development. Bridging child and teacher development, my work aims to inform both research and practice. Additionally, I serve as a graduate student researcher with the UC|CSU Collaborative for Neuroscience, Diversity, and Learning, where I support educator professional learning initiatives and related research.

Statement of Interest

I am interested in serving as Co-President of the IMBES Trainee Board for three main reasons. First, having benefited from Trainee Board initiatives (e.g., IMBES 2024 pre-conference and Learning with Leaders events), I am eager to both sustain and expand these efforts. I would like to strengthen the trainee community by establishing more consistent programming and broadening opportunities for networking, research exchange, career development, etc.

Second, I bring experience communicating with diverse stakeholders through multiple student leadership roles across four higher education institutions. These experiences have prepared me to serve as an effective liaison between the Trainee Board and the Main Board through clear communication, active listening, and advocacy. Nonjudgmental curiosity and openness to diverse perspectives are the cornerstones of my approach to progress, both professionally and academically.

Third, I have developed leadership skills in organizing large-scale academic events, including leading cross-functional teams, coordinating speakers and presenters, and executing multi-event programs. For example, I led a team of 64 to organize the 2019 China Education Symposium at Harvard Graduate School of Education, hosting 55 international and local speakers across 24 events over two days, reaching over 400 in-person attendees and 50,000 online viewers. If I am selected as a Co-President of the IMBES Trainee Board, I would bring a collaborative leadership style that emphasizes strategic planning, inclusivity, and a commitment to fostering a globally connected and engaged trainee community.

I would be honored to contribute to advancing the IMBES Trainee Board’s mission and strengthening connections across the broader IMBES network. Thank you for your consideration.

Hillary Mastarciyan

Bio

My name is Hillary Mastarciyan, and I am currently a second-year Master's student at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) studying Psychological Sciences, with a specialization in Applied Cognitive Neuroscience. My graduate research broadly revolves around studying cognitive and neural predictors of early academic achievement, with a particular focus on early mathematics learning. To do so, my work leverages large-scale academic assessments, including province-wide, longitudinal achievement data, alongside neuroimaging techniques such as fNIRS, to understand how children grasp novel educational concepts like literacy and numeracy. I will be continuing my studies within these domains as I begin my PhD in Fall 2026.

Since my undergraduate studies, I have been deeply passionate about developmental cognitive neuroscience research. Early in this journey, I completed my Honours thesis under the supervision of my current supervisor, Dr. Moriah Sokolowski, exploring academic achievement across the lifespan using network neuroscience techniques, with a specific focus on whole-brain network segregation. I presented findings from this project at the 2024 IMBES conference in Leuven, Belgium, an experience that offered me my first opportunity to share my research with an international audience and connect with a talented, like-minded community of scholars. That experience solidified my commitment to the IMBES community and deepened my investment in the field of Mind, Brain, and Education.

Since then, I have worked actively to develop connections within the MBE and broader cognitive neuroscience communities. Whether through fostering collaboration within my home institution (SMART Lab, TMU), neighbouring institutions (Mathematical Thinking Lab/BOLD Lab, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), or internationally (The Number Lab, Vanderbilt University), my research endeavours have continuously centred on building interdisciplinary collaborative initiatives. As I transition into my PhD studies, I hope to further develop long-lasting research collaborations with scholars both nationally and internationally, strengthen the community that has already been built within IMBES, and contribute meaningfully to the field of MBE. Looking ahead, I aim to grow into a researcher who not only advances the science of learning, but who actively works to bridge the gap between research, practice, and policy, helping to translate findings from the lab into real-world impact.

I am also deeply passionate about knowledge translation in the field of Mind, Brain, and Education. I strongly believe in maintaining a careful balance between basic science and translational research, and see immense value in promoting outreach to audiences beyond the scientific community, including educators, policymakers, and parents. Findings from MBE research have the potential to meaningfully shape how children are taught, how educational policy is designed, and how families support learning at home, and I believe it is our responsibility as researchers to make that science accessible and actionable.

Statement of Interest

I am currently interested in joining the IMBES Trainee Board as a Trainee Board Member. I believe this role would be an excellent opportunity to grow my knowledge, expertise, and leadership within the broader IMBES community, while contributing meaningfully to an organization that has already played an important role in my development as a researcher. As highlighted above, I am deeply invested in fostering collaborative networking opportunities among trainees, senior scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, and I am confident that my experience building interdisciplinary connections across institutions positions me well to do so. I also currently serve as a Psychological Sciences program representative on my institution's Psychology Graduate Students Association, a role that has allowed me to develop collaborative leadership skills and advocate meaningfully on behalf of my peers. I hope to bring that same spirit of representation and community-building to the IMBES Trainee Board, and to continue contributing to this community as I grow as a junior scientist and early-career researcher.

Melanie Maximino

Bio

I am Mélanie Maximino Pinheiro, a postdoctoral researcher currently transitioning from the Laboratory for the Psychology of Child Development and Education (Paris, France) to the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Vienna (Austria). I am also an affiliated researcher with the Educational Policy Group at the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies at Sciences Po (Paris, France).

I completed my PhD in December 2025, with a dissertation entitled “Promoting metacognition in early childhood education as a lever to reduce SES-related inequalities”, under the supervision of Prof. Grégoire Borst. Beyond my core research areas – metacognition, SES related educational inequalities, and early childhood education – my work focuses on the transfer of research findings into educational practice and public policy, as well as large-scale implementation. I have led and contributed to research projects involving over 4,000 students, conducted research–practice partnerships, and provided training to several hundred teachers and teacher trainers. I also collaborate closely with education stakeholders and policymakers, including through a national professional development initiative on metacognition developed in partnership with the French Ministry of Education. At the international level, I have contributed to policy-oriented work, including a UNESCO policy brief developed within the Global Alliance on the Science of Learning for Education.

Statement of Interest

I have a strong and longstanding interest in the MBE approach, reflected in my participation in the IMBES 2024 conference, a collaborative blog post published on the BOLD platform with a teacher who attended the conference, and my involvement in EARLI Special Interest Groups 16 – Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning and 22 – Neuroscience and Education. This interest is also reflected in my teaching activities, including a course entitled “Neuroeducation: From the Lab to the Classroom” for undergraduate psychology students at Université Paris Cité, and my contribution to a one-year continuing education diploma in neuroeducation for in service education professionals.

Through these experiences, I have developed strong expertise in fostering dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, and I would be eager to contribute these skills to the IMBES community as a Trainee Board Member.

Noelle Kee

Statement of Interest

Dear International Brain, Mind and Education Society (IMBES) Nomination Committee, I am writing to apply for the Trainee Board Member Position for the International Mind, Brain and Education Society. I am currently completing an MSc in Educational Neuroscience at Birkbeck College, UoL and the UCL Institute of Education. I am also a 2025 graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University with a degree in Neuroscience and Behaviour and a minor in Urban Teaching. My academic and professional interests lie at the intersection of neuroscience and education, with a focus on how research can be translated into accessible, inclusive and practical learning contexts.

My engagement with research communication began in high school through presenting neuroscience research at symposiums and has continued through university-level presentations and participation in academic forums, including CU Journal of Global Health. More recently, I gained experience in an international conference setting through the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (Tokyo, 2024), where I attended and volunteered. This experience gave me insight into how large-scale academic communities are organized and how knowledge is shared across both disciplines, and countries.

A central theme across my leadership experience has been community-building through structured communication. In the McIntosh Activities Council at Barnard College, including as President, I helped design and oversee campus-wide initiatives that fostered student engagement and belonging. Through the New Student Orientation Program, where I served in a communications-focused role on the planning committee, I facilitated dialogue between faculty, staff, and students. Here, I led initiatives such as town halls and open forums to create structured spaces for feedback and participation.

I have also contributed to communication and outreach in other settings, including as Vice President External and Community Service Chair of Kappa Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc., where I coordinated inter-organizational communication and community engagement initiatives. In my role as Faculty Fun Chair at Breakthrough Collaborative, I organized events to strengthen relationships between educators and staff. Currently, as Academic Representative for my MSc program at Birkbeck and UCL-IOE, I serve as a liaison between students, academic leads, and institutional structures. Across these experiences, I have developed experience in coordinating communication across groups and supporting inclusive participation within academic and student communities.

I am motivated to contribute to the IMBES Trainee Board because of its role in fostering dialogue within the MBE community and supporting collaboration across research, policy, and practice. I am particularly interested in supporting initiatives that enhance communication between trainees and senior scholars and broaden interdisciplinary exchange within the field.

I believe my experience in organizing large-scale student initiatives, facilitating communication across academic communities, and engaging in research-adjacent conference environment positions me well to contribute to the Trainee Board’s goals.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. I hope to have the opportunity to contribute to your team and please let me know if there is any additional information you may need from me.

Ozlem Oner

Statement of Interest

Dear IMBES Board Member Selection Committee,

I would like to express my interest in joining the IMBES Trainee Board as a member. Please find my CV attached and a brief professional bio below.

I am a PhD Candidate in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Special Education at the University of Idaho (anticipated graduation December 2026), where I also serve as a Graduate Assistant and teach graduate-level coursework in Applied Behavior Analysis. I hold a BA and MA in Psychology from Bogaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. As a Board-certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) since 2017, I have extensively worked with individuals with autism spectrum disorder and learning differences, and that hands-on experience continues to inform and ground my scholarly work in meaningful ways.

My dissertation, Bridging the Researcher-Teacher Gap: Scientists' Perspectives on Barriers, Roles, and Collaboration Pathways in Educational Neuroscience, examines why so much promising research never finds its way into the classrooms where it could make a real difference, and what it would look like if researchers and educators worked together as genuine, equal partners to make this happen.

These questions are also what motivate me to join the IMBES Trainee Board. I believe that building bridges between research, practice, and policy is not just an academic exercise. It is urgent, relational work that requires exactly the kind of community IMBES is working to cultivate. I would be honored to contribute to awareness-raising initiatives, support international networking and collaboration, and help create spaces where the next generation of MBE scholars and educators feel truly connected to one another and to the field they are helping to shape.

Thank you for your consideration.

Samuel Ojode

Statement of Interest

I am seeking nomination as an IMBES Board Member because of my strong commitment to advancing research informed educational practice at the intersection of mind, brain, and education, particularly within diverse and underrepresented contexts.

My professional career spans more than twenty years in secondary education as a teacher, examinations officer, director of studies, senior teacher, and deputy principal. Alongside my leadership roles, I have worked extensively in teacher professional development, ICT integration, and curriculum reform, including serving as a national and county level trainer for digital learning initiatives and competency based curriculum implementation in Kenya.

Academically, I hold a Master’s degree in Assessment, Measurement, and Evaluation and am currently pursuing a PhD in Educational Psychology. My research interests include teacher cognition, classroom questioning, assessment practices, and the psychological dimensions of teaching and learning. I have published in peer reviewed journals and continue to engage in scholarly inquiry aimed at strengthening the connection between educational research and classroom realities.

I am particularly interested in contributing to IMBES in the following ways:

• Supporting global and practitioner engaged perspectives within the society;
• Contributing to conference committees, including poster, symposium, and awards reviews;
• Strengthening the interface between research, teacher education, and school leadership;
• Advocating for inclusive participation from researchers and educators in Africa and other underrepresented regions.

If elected, I am committed to active participation in Board meetings, committee service, and attendance at the IMBES biennial conference. I am confident that my combined experience as an educator, researcher, and leader would add meaningful value to the IMBES Board and its mission.

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