Former Team Members | Reading, Engagement, and Diversity (READ) Lab

READ Lab Manager

Yasmine Kamel recently graduated from University of Maryland with an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, as well as a Reading Specialist Certification, and holds a BS in Early Childhood Education from Towson University. Yasmine has experience as a classroom teacher for children in Kindergarten through Second Grade. She strives to be more involved in the Education field and make an impact on our future learners.

Michelle Mosher

Faculty Specialist

Michelle Mosher serves as Faculty Specialist in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education. She holds an M.Ed. in Montessori Education from Loyola University, Baltimore, and a BA in Sociology from Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Michelle has experience as a Montessori teacher with children ages 2 ½ – 6 in both public and private schools. Additionally, she has worked as a nonprofit arts administrator for a small community-based arts organization that provides arts education to diverse audiences of all ages. Michelle is excited to be part of the READ lab and to learn more about Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs and their benefits to children.

Susan Lutz Klauda

Faculty Specialist

Susan Lutz Klauda serves as Faculty Specialist in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Education at The Catholic University of America. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Maryland and a BA in Neuroscience from Drew University. Susan’s research has centered on the interplay of cognitive, affective, and social processes in children’s and adolescents’ literacy development and on the effects of integrated reading-science and reading-history instruction on student engagement and achievement. She is also interested in family and peer influences on individuals’ academic motivation and recreational activity choices. Additionally, Susan has enjoyed working in the educational policy realm on projects aimed at improving the rigor of student teaching experiences and strengthening prospective teachers’ understanding of cognitive science and its implications for teaching. In her free time, Susan loves exploring new places near and far, crafting and drawing with her kids, swimming laps, and reading biographies and novels.

Francisca Vizcaya-Jofre

Graduate Asssistant

Francisca Vizcaya-Jofre is an elementary school teacher from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with a specialization in Language and in Mathematics. Currently, she is in her fourth semester of MA in Language, Literacy, and Social Inquiry at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her professional experiences consist of teaching in Chilean classrooms from third to sixth grades, collaborating in the elaboration of pedagogical resources in publishing companies, and as a teaching and research assistant. She is interested in language and literacy impact across the curriculum, and in education for sustainable development and local/global citizenship. In her free time, Francisca enjoys assembling puzzles, watching series, drawing, and spending time with friends and family.

Victor Landaeta-Torres

Research Asssistant

Victor Landaeta-Torres holds a B.Sc. in Physics from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Social Complexity at Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile. He has worked in High school classrooms as a teacher in Math and Physics, has interest in experimental economics, cooperative behavior, educational psychology (particularly in bullying and aggressive behavior in the classroom) and applied coding and data analysis and visualization.

Weimeng Wang

Data Analysis Consultant

Weimeng Wang is a PhD candidate in the measurement, statistics and evaluation program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her dissertation investigates the statistical inference using LASSO penalty to detect differential item functioning. She is passionate about fairness and equity in measurement and assessment. Her research interests include latent variable modeling, item response theory, psychometrics, patient reported outcome, and differential item functioning. In her free time, Weimeng enjoys cooking, drawing, rock climbing, boxing, running and weight lifting.

Liz McAllen

LEARN Project Coordinator

B.A. in Hearing & Speech Sciences University of Maryland, College Park.

Speech-Language Pathology Master’s student at Towson University

Casey Archer

Data Coordinator

Ph.D.(c) in Education Policy & Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park.