Dr. Joanna A. Christodoulou

Joanna A. Christodoulou, Ed.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, leads the Brain, Education and Mind (BEAM) Team in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She integrates roles as clinician, developmental cognitive neuroscientist, and educator, focusing her work on (1) identifying risk factors from school and home contexts associated with learning challenges; (2) investigating effective identification of learning difficulties across clinical and research settings, and (3) optimizing intervention practices for struggling students. Her primary research focus has been on the brain-behavior dynamic underlying development of reading and related skills, and approaches to harnessing individual variability to improve educational outcomes. Her work has been recognized with the Transforming Education Through Neuroscience Award by the Learning & the Brain Foundation and the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society (2014), as well as funding organizations including the Fulbright Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and National Institutes of Health. She joined a select group of researchers at the White House (2015) to discuss education neuroscience topics and implications for practice.