Curricula Vitae in Educational & Developmental Science

Name	Personal Focus	Summary
Allison Anders Associate Professor		Using ethnography and qualitative research methodologies, she studies the everyday experiences of targeted youth and the k-16 educational settings they navigate. Her research includes work with incarcerated youth and children with refugee status and analyses of alliance criteria articulated by LGBT-identified educators and professionals in higher education for LGBT communities and communities of color.
Dr. Kate Ascetta Assistant Professor	development and assessment of effective instructional practices	Kate Ascetta is an assistant professor of Early Childhood Special Education in the Department of Educational Studies. Before pursuing her Ph.D. at University of Oregon, she worked in variety of settings with young children and early childhood teachers. She began as an early childhood special education teacher for young children who had experienced trauma. Prior to beginning her doctoral, she was an assistant principal at a Head Start program.
Dr. Kara D Brown Associate Professor	Comparative & International Education, Anthropology of Education, Baltic & East European Studies	Kara Brown is an Associate Professor of Social Foundations of Education. Brown's research focuses on language policy, minority schooling, and teacher migration. Her regional expertise in in education and schooling in the Baltic States and former Soviet Union. Brown's current research examines teachers' understandings of language policy in Estonian kindergartens. A second research project examines international teacher recruitment and the global economy in South Carolina.
Dr. Ryan G Carlson Professor	My focus is counselor education specializing in mental health and marriage, couples, and family coun	I am a licensed mental health counselor with training in several couples counseling/relationship education approaches. I have experience working in private practice and community mental health. I have studied and published in the area of (a) outcomes for low-income couples and individuals who received relationship education; (b) efficacious recruitment/retention of low-income participants into research; and (c) intimate partner violence typologies’ implications for counseling.
Dr. Molly Dawes Associate Professor	Peer Social Dynamics, Teacher Management of Peer Social Dynamics, Peer Victimization Experiences	Molly Dawes earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA working with Hongling Xie in the Transition to Middle School Lab. Following her graduate degree, she spent three years as a postdoc working with Thomas Farmer on two Institute of Education Sciences (IES) grants at Virginia Commonwealth University and College of William and Mary focused on supporting middle school teachers as they promote positive peer relationships and academic contexts at school.
Dr. Christine DiStefano Professor	Structural equation modeling, Rasch modeling, scale construction, validity studies	Christine DiStefano is an Assistant Professor of Educational Research. Her research interests include structural equation modeling, survey design, and latent class clustering/cluster analysis. She is also involved with the application of advanced statistics and measurement methods to issues related to school psychology.
Dr. Vanessa Nicole Dominguez (O'Hare) Assistant Professor
Dr. Erik Drasgow Professor	Language and communication internvention for individuals with severe disabilities, Positive behavior support, Special Education policy and law	My research interests include language and communication intervention for individuals with severe disabilities, functional assessment and positive behavior support, special education law, language and deafness, and teacher training and retention.
Dr. Melissa Duffy Assistant Professor	role of motivation and emotion in learning and performance across a variety of higher education, examined how negative and positive emotional states relate to cognitive processes and performance, impact of different achievement goals on learning with intelligent tutoring systems	Melissa Duffy’s program of research focuses on the role of motivation and emotion in learning and performance across a variety of higher education and professional training settings, including medical education. In particular, her research has examined how negative and positive emotional states relate to cognitive processes and performance during medical simulation training; the impact of different achievement goals on learning with intelligent tutoring systems.
Andrea Fleming Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Michael M. Grant Associate Professor	The design and development of technology-enhanced learning environments, Graphic and instructional designs to support learning, Key learner characteristics	Michael M. Grant is an education scientist, teacher, keynote and workshop presenter, author, and consultant to K-12 schools and in higher education. His research considers three complementary areas: the design and development of technology-enhanced learning environments, graphic and instructional designs to support learning, and key learner characteristics. His most recent scholarship has focused on how to design, develop, and implement mobile teaching and learning in K-12 and higher education.
Fred Greer Research Associate Professor	Early Childhood Psycho-educational Assessment, Gifted Education, Child Temperament	Fred W. Greer, Ph.D. is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, College of Education. His expertise includes Early childhood assessment, social-emotional behavior assessment, and early intervention.
Dr. Jessie Dawson Guest Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Thomas Paul Hebert Professor	Qualitative Methodology, Gifted and Talented Education	Hebert's research focuses on: social and emotional development of gifted students; highly able students from low-income backgrounds; culturally diverse gifted students; underachievement; and problems faced by gifted young men. He consults with school districts and educational organizations internationally and nationally. He is the author of Understanding the Social and Emotional Lives of Gifted Students.
Jennifer Hightower Assistant Professor
Ashley K Holt Clinical Associate Professor	Language and communication intervention, Positive behavior support	Mrs. Holt teaches specialized graduate level courses in the areas of severe and multiple disabilities and early childhood special education. She teaches the introductory special education course to both graduate and undergraduates. She also supervises MAT practicum students and M.Ed. teacher candidates in special education. Prior to her transition to USC, she taught young children for eight years in South Carolina public school settings.
Matthew Irvin Professor		Broadly, the focus of my research and expertise is the academic and behavioral development of adolescents from rural communities. Specific topics include risk, resilience, achievement, motivation, aggression, peer relations, online learning, and advanced course-taking.
Dr. Lauren Mary LeJeune Assistant Professor
Dr. Lucas Lima de Vasconcelos Assistant Professor	designing professional learning to support preservice teachers’ learning to code science simulations, integrate coding into scientific modeling lessons, investigate impact of educational robotics on preservice teachers’ STEM learning and attitudes	Lucas Vasconcelos earned his Ph.D. in Learning, Design, and Technology from The University of Georgia, where he participated in several research projects and taught courses on technology-enhanced learning. His research agenda is at the intersection of educational technology, computer science education, and science education. Specifically, he researches technology-enhanced designs for STEM teaching and learning.
Dodie (Dorothy) Limberg-Ohrt Associate Professor	School counseling, Research identity development of counselors, The development of altruism	Dodie Limberg, Ph.D., research interests include school counseling, research identity development, and the development of altruism. Dodie is currently focused on the school counselor’s role in STEM career development and identifying factors that influence counselor education doctoral student’s research identity development. She currently serves as an editorial review board member for Professional School Counseling and Counseling and Values Journal.
Jin Liu Clinical Associate Professor		Jin Liu, Ph.D.is a Clinical Associate Professor, Educational Psychology and Research in the Department of Educational Studies, College of Education. Her research interests include Ethics issues in assessment; peer assessment in online courses; applied research in public health; psychometric studies for scales measuring young children's behavioral and emotional problems; applied structural equation modeling.
Dr. Xiaofeng Steven Liu Professor	Statistical Power Analysis, Hierarchical Linear Model, Information Technology	Xiaofeng Liu is an Assistant Professor of Educational Research. He was awarded the Ph. D. from MichiganState University. His research interests include statistical power analysis, hierarchical linear model, and information technology.
Dr. William Morris, Jr. Clinical Associate Professor	Education	William Morris, Ph.D. is a Clinical Associate Professor and Program Coordinator in the Department of Learning Design and Technology Program, Educational Studies, College of Education.
Dr. Jonathan Ohrt Associate Professor	Adolescent and emerging adult well-being, Group counseling, Counselor burnout	Dr. Jonathan Ohrt is an Assistant Professor in the Counselor Education Program in the Department of Educational Studies. He completed his PhD in Counselor Education at the University of Central Florida. He earned his master’s degree in Counselor Education at the University of South Florida and his undergraduate degree in Psychology at Florida State University. He is a certified K-12 school counselor and has previous experience in high school, college, and residential settings.
Dr. Tony Plotner Professor	Special Education	Anthony Plotner's primary research interests include the community inclusion of individuals with significant disabilities: specifically, transition to college, supported employment, and the collaboration across systems to promote positive student outcomes.
Elizabeth Reyes Clinical Assistant Professor		Elizabeth Reyes, Ph.D. is a clinical assistant professor of Special Education in the Department of Educational Studies at The University of South Carolina. She has taught classes in undergraduate and graduate special education programs in topics related to classroom management, literacy, and single-case research designs.
Patricia (Crissy) Roddy Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Robbie A Ross Assistant Professor	factors that influence the link between cognitive control skills & learning in young children, understanding factors that shape how educators can support students' cognitive control skills	Robbie Ross investigates factors that influence the link between cognitive control skills and learning among young children, including peer effects, teaching practices, and children’s self-perceptions of skill. Her research is also focused on discovering the ways in which understanding these factors might shape how educators can best support the development of cognitive control skills in the classroom.
Dr. Michael A Seaman Associate Professor	Experimental design, non-parametric statistical methods, statistics education	I am Associate Dean for Administration and Research and Associate Professor of Educational Research in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina. My current research interests include nonparametric statistics, statistical education, and effect size analysis. I am a member of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and have served as program chair for the quantitative methods section of Division D of this organization.
Nicole Silverio Assistant Professor
Dr. Angie Starrett Assistant Professor	Business, Economics
Greg Trevors Associate Professor	Misinformation, STEM Learning, Belief Change	I investigate the cognitive and affective psychological factors underlying learning from educational texts on science topics such as vaccines, climate change, and genetically modified foods. Within this, I focus on the conditions that lead to correcting misinformation and misconceptions.
Katie Wolfe Associate Professor	Applied Behavior Analysis, Autism, Early Childhood Special Education	My research interests include the development and implementation of interventions to promote language and communication skills in young children with autism, the synthesis of single-subject research to identify empirically-supported treatments, and the use of technology in training individuals to analyze single-subject data. I am also interested in evaluating methods of training parents and practitioners to use the principles of applied behavior analysis to effectively change behavior.
Dr. Mitchell Louis Yell Professor	Legal issues in special education, Assisting school districts in the formation of legally sound, research-based policies	Mitchell Yell is Fred and Francis Lester Palmetto Chair of Teacher Education and Professor in Special Education in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina (USC) in Columbia, South Carolina. His professional interests include special education law, evidence-based interventions for children and youth with disabilities, school wide positive behavior support, and progress monitoring.