Our Team

Our team is comprised of doctoral and masters-level students from various psychology-related fields, including developmental, educational and school psychology, social intervention, mental health and school counseling, as well as undergraduates in applied psychology and other related majors. A unique characteristic of the team is its diversity in national, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. A partnership-based model is key to all research activities conducted in our the team. As such, all team members provide service to the communities we work with on a regular basis, including volunteering in local preschool classrooms as aides.

 
 

Dr. Gigliana Melzi, Principal Investigator

I am a professor in the Developmental Program at  NYU’s Department of Applied Psychology.  I am also an affiliated faculty member of Latinx Studies and of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU. Born and raised in Lima Peru, I came to the US to pursue my undergraduate and doctoral studies. I am interested in the relation between cultural and linguistic practices in the context of family interactions, and how these family interactions shape young children’s early development and learning. My work focuses on Spanish-speaking and Spanish-English families, largely from immigrant communities in the United States. I rely on mixed-methods approaches to address how Latine parents support their children's learning, the role language plays in that process, and how the educational system might leverage culturally grounded family practices to enhance children’s school-based learning. While the bulk of my work has focused on language and literacy development, my most recent work investigates everyday family STEM practices in Spanish-speaking and Spanish-English speaking homes of preschool-aged children.  

 

Our Members

  • Viviana Kawas, Junior Research Scientist

    I am a full time researcher who manages the CFD lab. I joined the lab after graduating from NYU Abu Dhabi in May 2018. As an undergraduate, I worked as a research assistant in the lab, particularly under the early language and literacy project.

  • Nydia Prishker, PhD, Senior Research Affiliate/Collaborator

    I am an Assistant Professor of Childhood Education at the NYU partner university St. Thomas Aquinas College. I am a Bilingual Educator and an advocate for quality and equity in the early care and education of children from diverse cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. I have experience working with different bilingual programs both as an early childhood and elementary school teacher and as a teacher trainer/mentor. I have been a member and collaborator of the CFD Lab since 2018. In partnership with the CFD team, I investigate the rich language and education practices that are embedded in Latine families’ everyday lives. Learning from and with Latine families, I also work in developing new resources for early childhood education teachers, providers, and parents to enhance the practices of teachers and families that support the school readiness of young children in a culturally responsive and relevant way. The aim of my work is to strengthen partnerships between educators and parents to share knowledge and strategies that can improve the education and well-being of ALL young children.

  • Andrea C. Bühler-Wassmann (she/they), PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow

    I am a postdoctoral associate in the Institute of Human Development and Social Change at NYU. I earned my PhD in human development and MA in child development from the
    University of California, Davis, and my BA in psychology and economics from Barnard
    College. I am an interdisciplinary feminist scholar exploring how early social and
    cultural environments support well-being, particularly within Latine/x communities and
    in contexts of stress. My work takes a strength-based approach to highlight how
    caregivers, especially mothers, are nurturing their children’s emotional and physiological health and what systemic, interpersonal, and intrinsic factors help them or challenge them. Passionate about Earth, interconnectedness, and storytelling, I am excited to be studying cultural and family influences on children’s early science learning as part of the Ciencia en Relatos project.

  • Jessica Huancacuri, Doctoral Student

    I am a doctoral student in the developmental psychology program, Department of Applied Psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. I received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Psychology from The City College of New York. My work examines how the Quechua Runa, the ancestral people of the Andean highlands, describe themselves ethnoculturally, and how these identities inform their ideas about children's socialization, and children's early STEM learning.

  • Paola Montufar, Doctoral Student

    I am a doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology program at NYU Steinhardt. My research focuses on bilingual Latine children’s and families’ early STEM experiences; I am particularly interested in the family practices as well as individual cognitive processes that support early math learning for bilingual Latine children.

    I hold a B.A. with Honors in Psychology with a minor in Biology from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA); my thesis was titled “Two times four” equals “Dos por cuatro”: A study of memory for arithmetic in bilinguals.

  • Mackenzie Swirbul, Doctoral Student

    I am a doctoral student in the developmental psychology program of the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. My research takes a social-cultural approach to examining infants’ and toddlers’ experiences with and exposure to math language (i.e., words for numbers, shapes, spatial relations) in their everyday lives. I previously worked in early childhood grantmaking at the Robin Hood Foundation and studied child development at Vanderbilt University. (Go 'Dores!).

Research Assistants

  • Alexis Soriano

    I am a Junior in the Applied Psychology department at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. I decided to join the CFD team because I am interested in understanding how familial narratives and cultural contexts shape the trajectory of human development. As a member of CFD, I have the opportunity to volunteer at one of the sites at the New Life Child Development Center and interact with children from varying cultural backgrounds, especially those from Spanish-speaking and Spanish-English bilingual families. Through my volunteering experience, I am able to witness first hand the varied cultural norms, values, and practices that influence a child's upbringing.

  • Claire Han

    I am a senior studying Applied Psychology at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at NYU. I am an undergrad research assistant and my work for the team includes data collection, data inputting, transcription, and helping with other research tasks. I am interested in the intersection of education, development and family relations.

  • Ilse Tarango Pacheco

    I am a senior in Applied Psychology at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. My work with the team consists of data transcription, literature research, and miscellaneous research tasks. My research interests include bilingualism and language development.

  • Nicole Wuelfing

    I am a second-year student athlete in the Applied Psychology department at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. I play on the Women’s Tennis Team and am the Sports/Club chair on the NYDM Executive Board. I joined the CFD lab because I am passionate about how varying cultural contexts and norms affect the integration of STEM into children’s’ lives. I love working with children and it’s a privilege to witness the beauty of their curiosity and the human development amongst different cultural backgrounds.

  • Rosaura Cuevas

    I am a junior pursuing a degree in Applied Psychology at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University. I am an undergraduate research assistant. I am particularly interested in mental health and wellness, and being able to find a way to provide support to those struggling with mental illness and help reduce the stigma that we still have about it.

  • Yuexi Zhang

    I am a junior student at New York University, majoring in Applied Psychology at the Steinhardt School with a minor in Sociology. I currently serve as a research assistant at the CFD Lab. I have a strong passion for developmental psychology and have consistently dedicated my efforts to assisting minority groups. In my free time, I have a deep love for both art and animals; I enjoy visiting art exhibitions and rescuing stray cats and dogs.

  • Laura March

    I am a senior undergraduate student at NYU Steinhardt. I am an undergraduate research assistant at the CFD Lab and I’ve been working here since November of 2022. I decided to join the team because I wanted to be part of a multicultural team at NYU that researches caregiver-child interactions in Spanish and English. Some of my research interests are psychoanalysis, the subconscious mind, and developmental psychology. My tasks at the lab include transcription and data collection.

  • Giselle Reyes

    I am a second-year student majoring in Biology and minoring in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies on the pre-med track under NYU’s College of Arts and Science. As an undergraduate Research Assistant, I am responsible for transcription and little projects. Through this lab, I am looking to gain experience, knowledge and give back to the community. I joined the CFD Lab because I aspire to become a doctor that works with low-income/minority families. I believe being able to explore how varying cultures have an impact on a child's development through STEM/literacy related subjects is inspiring and essential.

  • Natalia I. Hernández Pardo

    I am a senior majoring in Applied Psychology and triple minoring in Studio Art, Global Education Studies, and Gender & Sexuality Studies at New York University. I have been with the CFD team since January 2023 and throughout this time I have helped out with data collection, data inputting, transcribing, volunteering at the Head Start, and other tasks as assigned. My interests lie among culture, education, and art, with a focus on marginalized communities.

  • Catherine Palacios

    I am a senior in the Applied Psychology department at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. I’m also completing a minor in sociology. I am a research assistant in the lab and my tasks consist of transcribing, coding, and data inputting. I’ve also helped with data collection and writing a literature review. My interests are cultural psychology, the psychology of immigration, and counseling psychology.

  • Jimena Orrego

    I am a third-year student at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Psychology with a minor in Communicative Sciences and Disorders. I have previously interned at The BELLE Project/The Video Interaction Project, a research project at the NYU School of Medicine designed to enhance parent-child interactions and school readiness for low-income children. I joined the CFD in the Fall of 2023 to grow my research experience and engage myself with communities that have been historically ignored and downplayed in psychology research. As a part of the team, I help transcribe video recordings from data collection and volunteer once a week at a Head Start. My interests include multicultural counseling for marginalized communities, immigrant and refugee mental health, child development, and looking at child-parent interactions, particularly in Latine families.

  • Natalia Oben

    I am a sophomore at NYU College of Arts & Sciences, pursuing a joint degree in Linguistics and Cultural Anthropology, and minoring in the Business of Entertainment, Media, & Technology on the pre-law/ph.d track. I am an undergraduate Research Assistant at the CFD Lab, where my duties are assisting with research projects and transcribing analyzed data. At the lab, I further pursued my interest in applied linguistics, sociology, and educational development. My contribution to the lab is by my ethnographic approach to research and my anthropological perspective towards highlighting minority groups and prompting cultural educational practices. The experience I am garnering through the lab will assist me in my future as an attorney with linguistic expertise.

  • Ana Ramírez Rojas

    I'm a master's student in the MA in Human Development Research and Policy at NYU Steinhardt. Currently, I am seeking to deepen my understanding of the development processes affecting children, adolescents, women, and LGBTQI+ communities, with the goal of ensuring their meaningful involvement in policy making and research processes.

    I hold a law degree from Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I have specialized in the development of socio-community projects, gender, and international affairs. Over the past 15 years, I have worked in both the public sector and nonprofits, dedicated to promoting urban community development in vulnerable habitats.