Alumni
Emily Rosenzweig, Ph.D.: Emily graduated with her Ph.D in 2017. Emily studies the educational applications of students’ motivation and self-regulated learning. Her current work focuses on how to develop effective motivation-focused interventions for students studying STEM. She also studies how different student characteristics (gender, pre-test motivation, etc.) influence how those students respond to motivation interventions. She graduated in 2011 from Washington University in St. Louis, with a B.A. in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and Educational Studies. She earned a graduate certificate in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics from the University of Maryland in 2015 and graduated with a Ph.D. in 2017.
Katherine Muenks, Ph.D.: Katie Muenks graduated with her Ph.D. in 2016, and is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. Her research interests include: (1) students’ beliefs about their own and others’ effort and ability on academic tasks, especially in the domain of mathematics, (2) how parents’ beliefs about their children’s effort and ability influence parent-child interactions during academic tasks, and (3) the intersection between personality traits such as grit and students' motivation. Katie received her B.S. in Psychology from The Ohio State University.
Amanda Mason-Singh, Ph.D.: Amanda Mason-Singh graduated with her Ph.D. in 2016. Within the fields of developmental psychology and educational psychology, her research has two main foci: (1) relationships among relational schema, internal working models (IWMs) of attachment, and self-schema, and (2) instruction as a change agent for academic motivation. For the former, her research explores how cognitions about relationships develop and change from birth to early adulthood and how these cognitions may influence cognitions about the self, perceptions of social relationships, and general well-being. For the latter, her research examines: (a) how these relational representations in the school environment influence academic motivation and learning throughout the school years, and (b) the processes behind how instruction can evoke changes in academic motivation. Amanda received her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Iowa Wesleyan College and her M.S. in Developmental Psychology from Illinois State University.
Amy N. Ho, Ph.D.: Amy graduated with her Ph.D. in 2016. Amy N. Ho received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton, where she worked as a research assistant on the Fullerton Longitudinal Study with Drs. Allen and Adele Gottfried, and Pamela Oliver. Her thesis investigated the relationships of parental involvement and children's academic achievement and motivation. She has also worked with Dr. Carol Dweck at Stanford University where she assisted in studies exploring the effects of children's beliefs of goodness and its relation to their reactions to task difficulties, helplessness, and motivation to persist; and whether stories of goodness can change children's self-theories. Amy is pursuing her Ph.D. in Human Development specializing in Developmental Science under the mentorship of Dr. Allan Wigfield. Her interests span topics relating to the developmental processes of children's academic motivation, including aspects of family and cultural influences.
Lauren Musu-Gillette, Ph.D.: Lauren Musu-Gillette graduated with her Ph.D. in 2014. The title of her dissertation was Motivational Processes and the Pursuit of Postsecondary Education. She currently works at the National Center for Education Statistics in Washington, D.C.