Team

Dr. Brigid Barron 
Brigid Barron is a Professor of Education and the Learning Sciences at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. Her research investigates the dynamics of interest driven learning to better understand how sustained engagement relates to the diversity of opportunities within and across home, school, and community settings.  She takes an ecological approach to understand social and relational aspects of learning with a focus on how caregivers and educators catalyze learning by brokering access to resources, collaborating, and coordinating activities across time.  These inquiries include a focus on how digital technologies can be leveraged to provide more equitable access to content and expertise.  At Stanford she teaches in the Learning Design and Technology MA program, the Learning Sciences and Technology Design doctoral program and the Developmental and Psychological Sciences doctoral program.  She was a lead researcher in the NSF-funded LIFE Center (Learning in Informal and Formal Environments), investigating the social foundations of learning across diverse communities, contexts, and domains.  She is a co-lead of TELOS, a Stanford Graduate School of Education Initiative to investigate how technologies can provide more equitable access to learning opportunities. She is on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Learning Sciences and Cognition and Instruction.  Dr. Barron received her doctorate from Vanderbilt University in Developmental and Clinical Psychology.

Caitlin K. Martin
Caitlin has over 20 years of experience researching and designing learning environments, with a focus on out-of-school opportunities, youth production with technology, data visualization, and community-informed design and interpretation. With Brigid, she co-authored The Digital Youth Network: Cultivating Digital Digital Media Citizenship in Urban Communities (MIT Press, 2014). She also regularly collaborates with The Office of Community Education Partnerships (OCEP) at Northwestern University, and the Technology for Social Good Lab (TSG Lab) at DePaul University and has conducted evaluations of regional and national projects including the American Library Association's Libraries Ready to Code initiative. Martin holds a Masters degree in Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford University. Prior to graduate work she designed children's books at Farrar, Straus & Giroux in NYC.

Amber Maria Levinson
Amber Maria Levinson, Ph.D. is a Senior Researcher at Stanford Graduate School of Education who uses ethnographic and mixed methods to study how educators, children, and families can leverage digital tools for learning and development, particularly in language-minority communities. With YouthLAB Dr. Levinson currently leads a research-practice partnership with San Francisco Unified School district (SFUSD) around the district’s Personalized Learning Environments Pilot with a focus on issues of equity, collaboration and innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her prior research examined Hispanic-Latino immigrant families use media and opportunities for technology to support intergenerational language learning. As a doctoral student she was part of the research team studying youth as media producers in the Digital Youth Network. Dr. Levinson earned a Ph.D. in Education at Stanford in the Learning Sciences and Technology Design program and was a Post-Doctoral Scholar with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. She is also active as a design researcher and consultant in the digital learning space, conducting UX research, leading design workshops, and coaching design teams. Her work draws on early career experience as an elementary and middle school teacher, as well as work in community education and media production in Brazil and the US. She has authored multiple publications in the field of technology and learning, with recent chapters in Children and Families in the Digital Age and The Digital Youth Network: Cultivating Digital Citizenship in Urban Communities. 

Rose K. Pozos 
Rose is a PhD Candidate in the Learning Sciences and Technology Design and Developmental and Psychological Science programs. Her research focuses on three topics: everyday family learning, early computer science education, and using design thinking as a method for improving instruction for multilingual learners. She also has experience as a user experience researcher in corporate and non-profit settings. Before coming to Stanford, she worked at the New York Hall of Science, working to create high quality, equitable STEM learning experiences for youth. Rose holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College in Anthropology where she spent time extensively writing about coffee shops and also contributed to research on the psychology of interest in education. 

Judy Nguyen
Judy Nguyen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Learning Sciences and Technology Design and Developmental and Psychological Sciences programs at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the design and implementation of K-16 adaptive equity-oriented pedagogy and technology in formal and informal learning environments. Currently, Judy is studying classroom, family, and counseling practices and interactions that promote greater academic and social-emotional development for all students, including first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented minority students. Judy has a master’s degree in Technology, Innovation, and Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UC Berkeley. 

Veronica Lin
Veronica is a doctoral candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Education studying Learning Sciences & Technology Design and also a masters student in Computer Science, specializing in Human-Computer Interaction. She focuses on two primary research areas: computer science education for youth and environmental education in informal learning environments. She has co-taught courses at the intersection of technology, learning, and entrepreneurship, and in industry, has contributed as a UX researcher to a variety of immersive AR and VR technologies. Prior to Stanford, Veronica graduated from Wellesley College in 2015 with honors in Computer Science and Economics, where she worked on several projects to broaden access to robotics and engineering education. 

Brandon Reynante 
Brandon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Development and Psychological Sciences (DAPS) and Learning Sciences and Technology Design (LSTD) programs at Stanford University. His research interests are centered around creating and studying learning experiences, design methods, and technologies that inspire and empower diverse communities to envision and engineer more equitable and sustainable futures. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC San Diego and an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and he is a licensed professional engineer in the State of CA. Prior to Stanford, Brandon designed spacecraft and theme-park rides at an engineering consulting firm and taught humanitarian engineering at UC San Diego.

Susie Garcia
Susie is an undergraduate pursuing a major in Economics with a concentration in Development and a minor in Philosophy. She is interested in education equity and resource availability in rural communities. At Stanford, Susie works as a College Advising Fellow with Matriculate, where she provides free college counseling to low income high school students. She also contributes to research in the Economics department, including her own project about access to clean fuel in India.

April Ball
April is an undergraduate majoring in Psychology and double minoring in Human Rights and Spanish. She is interested in inclusion and education, specifically equal access to education for neurodiverse communities, communities with disabilities, and immigrant communities. During her time at Stanford, April has worked for multiple research projects, exploring issues in equity and inclusion, optimal teaching methods, and culturally informed care for refugee communities. She also serves as a peer mentor for multiple programs: the Stanford Neurodiversity Project, which supports Stanford students who identify as neurodiverse, as well as Syrian Youth Empowerment, which supports Syrian and Iraqi High School students applying to the United States for college. 

Flora Troy
Flora is an undergraduate pursuing a major in Human Biology with a concentration in Child Development and a minor in Education. At Stanford, Flora is involved with the Design Education team in Stanford Women in Design, and is Teaching Coordinator for Flying Treehouse, a children’s theater group that teaches creative writing to 2nd and 3rd graders, then transforms their stories into skits and songs so students can see their stories come to life. She also contributes to grant writing for the nonprofit Bridging Tech Charitable Fund, which was designed to bridge the digital divide by providing tutoring and devices to students at homeless shelters. 

Lab Alumni

Cindy K. Lam 
Chris Proctor 
Kathleen Remmington  
Kia Darling-Hammond 
Amber Levinson
Michelle Friend 
Aekta Shah 
Véronique Mertl  
Daniel Stringer  
Ugochi Acholonu
Indigo Esmonde
Rachel Fithian
Karin Forssell
Emma Mercier
Sarah Lewis
Ofelia Mangen
Jolie Matthews
Maryanna Rogers
Colin Schatz
Lori Takeuchi
Sarah Walter
Susie Wise