Rebecca Bulotsky Shearer - Principle Investigator
rshearer@miami.edu
Dr. Shearer is a child clinical and school psychologist and has worked both as an early childhood practitioner and researcher with very young children and families living in impoverished urban areas for the past 20 years. My research is guided by a "whole child" developmental-ecological systems perspective which is child-centered and considers both proximal and broader system-level influences on children's development over time. My research is grounded in a community-based partnership model whereby research is conducted in close collaboration with key contributors to children's development. This process starts with genuine dialogue about children's needs and considers the strengths and intervention capacities of large programs; I feel this approach helps to ensure that research is relevant to community members and holds the greatest promise to inform system-level interventions that can benefit low-income children and families.
Casey Mullins - Assistant Research Scientist
cxm2436@miami.edu
Dr. Casey Mullins is a multidisciplinary, educational psychologist driven by her belief of the importance of access to quality education. As a graduate student at Penn State, Casey focused her program of research on understanding the effect of maltreatment on academic functioning through malleable developmental mechanisms such as engagement. During her time as a NIH-funded T32 predoctoral fellow, Casey was trained to examine the complex problem of child maltreatment from the developmental, policy, intervention and prevention, and biobehavioral health perspectives. Currently, in her role as an Assistant Research Scientist for the IDEAS Consortium out of the University of Miami, Casey continues to employ a multidisciplinary approach when working with community-based organizations representing diverse communities in Miami, FL and system partners to create a population-based measure of school readiness for children. This work includes working closely with the community organizations to build their capacity for using data to make policy and practice decisions, using existing administrative data to help inform these decisions and to make recommendations, and the development and deployment of parent and child surveys to better assess school readiness.
Elizabeth Howe - Post-Doctoral Research Associate
exh706@med.miami.edu
Elizabeth (Betsey) Howe is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Miami. Her background is in early childhood education, special education, and intervention. Her main research interests include young children’s social and emotional development, access to high quality care for diverse young children, and using data to improve early childhood systems. Betsey holds a bachelors from Syracuse University, a Master’s from the University of Colorado in Denver, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut.
Eraine Leland - Doctoral Student
eraineleland@miami.edu
Eraine is a PhD student in the developmental psychology department. She graduated with her BA in Psychology and Spanish from Rhodes College in 2021 and worked as a Spanish reading aid for AmeriCorps during her post-bac. Her research interests focus on the intersection of children’s language and social emotional development, particularly in Spanish English bilingual communities. She is passionate about improving access to high quality early education for all children, regardless of their background and working with teachers and parents to best support children’s linguistic and social emotional development.
Bella Lerner - Doctoral Student
bellaslerner@miami.edu
Bella is a PhD student at the University of Miami department of psychology, in the developmental track. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2019 where she received a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Applied Psychology, after which she worked at UC Irvine’s School of Education until 2023. Her research is motivated by the intersection of psychology and education, specifically to understand how teachers and parents can leverage learning opportunities to best foster attributes that support children’s motivation to learn and their development of social-emotional and cognitive skills to do so successfully. With this aim in mind, her goals include designing interventions that support teachers and parents in facilitating these outcomes within both formal and informal learning environments.t.
Elizabeth Campos - Research Associate
exc766@miami.edu
Elizabeth (Liz) is a Research Associate with the IDEAS Consortium, working closely with community-based organizations and system partners to improve children’s development and school readiness in Miami-Dade County. She received her BA in Psychology and Child Study and Human Development from Tufts University. Her research interests center on the sociocultural factors contributing to racial and ethnic mental health disparities and the effects of racism and discrimination on mental health. She aims to advocate and support at-risk populations by developing and evaluating mental health interventions that are accessible and culturally sensitive for minoritized groups.
Catherine Rizo - Research Associate
cxr1267@miami.edu
Catherine is a Research Associate for the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind (MLB) project. She graduated from FIU with a BA in Psychology with a minor in Religious Studies and certificate in Women and Gender Studies. Her goal is to pursue a PhD program in child clinical psychology with an emphasis in research on the internal factors and treatment of childhood mood disorders and suicide ideation.
