Meet the Team
Current Research Team
Dr. Lauren van Huisstede
ASU
Principal Investigator
Director, Literacy@Play Lab
Dr. Lauren van Huisstede is a child development researcher who studies how embodied, interactive shared reading supports children’s comprehension and emotion understanding and develops innovative ways to assess learning among diverse communicators.
Dr. Erin Rotheram-Fuller
ASU
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Erin Rotheram-Fuller is a licensed psychologist and board certified behavior analyst. Her work focuses on adapting interventions and environments to support children with unique learning styles, and especially with individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
Dr. M. Adelaida Restrepo
Univ. of South Florida
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. M. Adelaida Restrepo is Professor & Chair of the Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders at USF, where she directs the Bilingual Language and Literacy Lab. She is a bilingual speech-language pathologist who studies assessments and interventions for Spanish-speaking children in the US.
![Sepide[45]_edited_edited_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/857f96_fba02a81c79b449e9c49a836da803b03~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_306,h_306,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Sepide%5B45%5D_edited_edited_edited.jpg)
Ailin Zhang
ASU
Researcher
Ailin Zhang is a PhD student in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies at ASU. Her research centers on supporting the language and literacy development of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, with the aim of promoting equity in bilingual education.
Jae Young Jung
ASU
Researcher
Jae Young Jung is a PhD student in the Learning, Literacies, and Technologies program at Arizona State University. She is a board-certified music therapist, and her research focuses on enhancing socio-emotional well-being to support optimal educational outcomes in PK–12 settings.
Simge Cepdibi-Sıbıç
Anadolu University
Researcher
Visiting Scholar
Simge Cepdibi-Sıbıç is a PhD student in the Education of the Hearing Impaired program at Anadolu University and a research assistant at Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Türkiye. Her work focuses on assessing children's classroom communication.
Dr. Melissa Pierce
Midwestern University
Researcher
Melissa Pierce is a bilingual speech language pathologist and an assistant professor of Speech-Language Pathology in the College of Health Solutions at Midwestern University. Her research focuses on assessment and intervention with culturally and linguistically diverse preschool students.
Past Research Team Members
Thank you to the scholars who shaped past iterations of Literacy@Play research.
Dr. Annette Schmidt, Dr. Kathleen Farrand, Dr. Megan Troxel Deeg, Dr. Sarah L. Alvarado, Dr. Katie Chapman, Kate Hamm, Steve Capobres, Dr. Alan Brown, Cassandra Larsen
Research Assistants
Thank you to our wonderful team of student research assistants,
who are the day-to-day faces of our project in classrooms.
Current Research Assistants:
Ava Mattei, Brooke Lee, Emily Holcomb, Evelyn Centeno Molina, Hamna Awan, Kristell Murrietta, Madeleine Yearout, Natalie Rivera Mendez, Ryan Dolphin, Sasha Whipple, Savanna Ghaleb, Suzanne Choi, Tessa Shuey
Past Research Assistants:
Alana Larson, Allison Davis, Ana Calixto, Andrea Ortiz, Bailey Diehn, Breanna Rebe, Callie Baukol, Cristal Vargas Cesario, Debby Suarez, Dominique (Dom) Petitti, Elizabeth Banuelos, Elizabeth Figueroa Lopez, Eva Stein, Evan Ippolito, Genesis Navarro, Gisselle Ramirez, Isabel Ciuca-Farcasanu, Jessica Palma Moreno, Karen Cabrera, Katie Hornok, Krysten McGough, Kyria Kelley-Wolfe, Kyrie Robbins, Lucila Castillo, Maria Meza Velarde, Meredith Porter, Mirta Morales Alvarez, Nicky Garcia, Nicole Carloni, Rachel Hicks, Rebecca Wilson, Robert Landing, Ruowen (Viola) Qi, Sabrinna Flores, Samantha Ruiz, Tiara Furukawa, Ximena Saldana
Childsplay Team
Teaching Artists
We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the teaching artists who helped shape the EYEPlay program. You keep us thinking and learning and laughing every day:
Korbi Adams, Laura Alarcon, Amani Anacaona, Alejandro Bastien-Olvera, Patricia Black, Sam Briggs, Raquel Denis, Sarah Dolens-Moon, Megan Flod, Bradford Forehand, Emily Freeman, Alex Frost, Jen Gantwerker, Molly Gittleman Kurtz, Liliana Gomez, Ximena Gonzalez, Iris Gutierrez, Ashley Hare, Gigi Hernandez, Haley Honeman, Maria Katsadouros, Clara Kundin, Molly LaJoie, Carlos Lara, Crystal Lizardo, Andrea Lombardi, Kim Manning, Karen Marulanda, Rachel McCabe, Katie McFadzen, Sean Avery Medlin, Laura Mejia, Jenny Millinger, Kathleen Pennyway, Iva Pereira, Stacie Perez, Elizabeth Polen, Lillie Richardson, Nickela Rooney, Julio Sauceda-Lara, Alli St. John, Brianna Stapleton Welch, Debra K. Stevens, Sarah Sullivan, Thomas Underdal, Carlos Urtubey, Lindsay Vanegas, Xanthia Walker