2015 - 2016 Academic Year Fellows
Jalisha Jenifer (Braxton)
Jalisha is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Jalisha graduated the Department of Psychology in March 2021. Jalisha obtained a degree with honors from Princeton University in 2016 with a B.A. in Psychology and a certificate in Neuroscience. While at Princeton, Jalisha worked as a research assistant in the Human Working Memory Lab of Dr. Andrew Conway. Additionally, Jalisha has served as a research assistant in the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics branch of Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York and as an analytics contractor for the Delaware Department of Education.
Jalisha is studying the role of metacognition in math education, math learning, how domain-specific attitudes and beliefs influence academic behaviors and outcomes. She serves as the lead researcher on the Math Anxiety & Study Strategies Project. Jalisha’s dissertation title is “Calculated Avoidance: The Role of Effort-Based Valuations in the Relation Between Math Anxiety & Math Avoidance”.
David Knight
David graduated from the Political Science Department in 2022. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Dartmouth College, trained as a teacher at Stanford University, and began his research career as a master’s student at Harvard University. Before coming to Chicago, David was also a certified high school teacher in the city of Boston. Additionally, David holds fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
David’s research interests are civic and political learning; transitions to adulthood; and urban education. More specifically, he has investigated changing understandings of citizenship in the United States with regard to race, ethnicity, and immigration; how social policies affect the political engagement and incorporation of historically marginalized groups; the sources and measurement of school disadvantage; and the political economy of urban education.
Jennifer Lu
Jenny is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher at UC-Berkeley. Jenny Lu graduated from the Department of Psychology in 2021 and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in 2012. Since graduating, she has worked as a Susan Rappaport Knafel ’52 Research Fellow at University College London and as a Fulbright English teaching assistant at a bilingual German/ German Sign Language school in Hamburg, Germany.
Jenny is interested in the interplay of language and gesture in signed and spoken languages and how language and gesture predict learning in signing and speaking children. Furthermore, she hopes to pursue translational solutions to the most pressing issues in education within deaf and hearing communities. Jenny’s dissertation was titled: “Emerging deictic systems shaped by language, modality, and social interaction”.
David McMillon
David is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Emory University. David graduated from the Harris School of Public Policy in June 2021. David obtained a degree in Mathematics from University of Michigan in 2012. He also completed an MS in Mathematics at UM in 2014.
David is currently working on a dynamic discrete choice model that weighs costs and benefits of alternative types of disciplinary policies in schools. The model is designed to account for deterrence, feedback processes related to students’ attitudes towards schoolwork, peer effects, and random heterogeneity. David’s dissertation title is “Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Three Essays on the Policy Implications of Systems Thinking”.
Almaz Mesghina
Almaz is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the Northwestern University Department of Psychology. Almaz graduated from the University of Chicago’s Department of Comparative Human Development in June 2021. Her dissertation was titled “From Distress to ‘Eustress’: Contextual and Cognitive Factors in the Arousal-Performance Relationship”. Almaz received her B.S. both in Child Development and Psychology from Vanderbilt University in 2016, during which she worked part-time as a preschool teacher and managed Vanderbilt’s Early Development Lab.
Almaz’s research is situated at the intersection of cognition and emotion. She examines the inseparable nature of these processes and their effects on students’ capacity to engage in higher order thinking and learning. More specifically, Almaz conducts experiments using rigorous statistical techniques to examine the cognitive mechanisms by which affective factors (e.g., stress, anxiety) influence learning potential, and she designs student- and teacher-level interventions accordingly.
Elayne Vollman (Teska)
Elayne Vollman is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Lake Forest College. She received her B.A. from Carleton College and her Ph.D. from University of Chicago where she was a Predoctoral Fellow for the National Institute for Educational Sciences. Broadly, her researchexamines how children’s social context influences the development of their complex thinking and reasoning skills. Dr. Vollman investigates the role of individual differences, such as students’ cognitive capacity and emotional factors, that often contribute to differences in learning potential in mathematics. She also examines factors that influence children to engage in higher order thinking. Her work in the classroom explores effective teaching practices in the US and internationally to support higher order thinking and improve student outcomes.