Developmental Sciences Faculty

Dr. Jess Gladstone
Assistant Professor

*Considering accepting new students

• Achievement motivation
• Engagement in STEM
• Role of socializers in student motivation

• BLOOM Lab Website

Dr. Jarrett Lewis
Assistant Professor

*Considering accepting new students

• Trauma, socioemotional development, racial identity and masculinity
• Healing from trauma due to violence and racism
• Academic engagement and mental health intervention development
• TRIAD Lab Website

Dr. Nidia Ruedas-Gracia
Assistant Professor

*Considering accepting new students

• sociocultural impacts on academic performance and wellbeing
• culturally sustaining research and practice
• sense of belonging among diverse populations

• Personal Website

Dr. Aixa Marchand
Assistant Professor

*Considering accepting new students

• Critical Consciousness development
• Students and families of color
• Mixed Methods

• Research Group Website: TREE Lab

Dr. Chris Napolitano
Associate Professor & Division Chair

*Accepting new students (in Dev. Science)

• Social, emotional, and behavioral skills
• Self-regulation and self-control
• Adolescence

Dr. Michelle Perry
Professor

*Does not plan to accept new advisees for Fall 2026

• Understanding the contexts and processes that support success in STEM, including:
  • Elementary school teachers learning to improve their teaching of mathematics.
  • Taking advantage of embodied approaches to learning, to support students’ learning of statistics.
• For more info, see https://perryresearchgroupatillinois.weebly.com

Dr. Kaylin Ratner
Assistant Professor

*Does not plan to accept new advisees for Fall 2026

• Identity, purpose, and meaning in life
• Adolescence and emerging adulthood
• Mental health and well-being

• SAP Lab Website

Dr. Hongyang Zhao
Assistant Professor

*Accepting new students

• Development of relational reasoning ability and relational mindset
• Instructional strategies leveraging children's cognitive resources effectively 
• Developing measurement tools and research synthesis