ELLI is a collaborative research group from Michigan State University and Texas A&M University.

    • We mentor undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplines to enhance young children’s language and literacy development.
    • Using an apprenticeship model, we provide many opportunities to conduct research with our team nationally and internationally. 
    • We value the input of practitioners in the field and work to make sure that our assessments and interventions fit the needs of the communities where we work.
    • We welcome potential students regardless of race, religion, gender identification, sexual orientation, age, or disability status. We believe that having many perspectives strengthens our science. 

Meet the team of researchers that make up the ELLI Research Group

Hope Gerde, PhD

Hope Gerde, PhD

Faculty, Texas A&M

Interests: Early Writing Development, Teacher influences of children’s language and literacy development
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Marc Goodrich, PhD

Marc Goodrich, PhD

Faculty, Texas A&M

Interests: Development of early oral language and literacy skills among bilingual children

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Lori Skibbe, PhD

Lori Skibbe, PhD

Faculty, Michigan State University

Interests: Literacy and Language Development, Assessment, Self-Regulation
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Ryan Bowles, PhD

Ryan Bowles, PhD

Faculty, Michigan State University

Interests: Measurement and Assessment Development, Early Literacy and Language Development
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Burcu Ozkum

Burcu Ozkum

Graduate Student, Michigan State University

Interests: Digital media, technology, early language and literacy development

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Yatma Diop

Yatma Diop

Graduate Student, Michigan State University

Interests: Parent-child interactions in Senegal
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Arianna Pikus

Arianna Pikus

Graduate Student, Michigan State University

Interests: Science education and nature-based learning

Kyla McRoy

Kyla McRoy

Graduate Student, Michigan State University

Interests: Self-regulation development and best practices

Tiantian Sun

Tiantian Sun

Graduate Student, Michigan State University

Interests: Supporting communication, language, and literacy development for children with disabilities, specifically, children with complex communication needs. 

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Luci Davila

Luci Davila

Graduate Student, Michigan State University

Interests: Early childhood development, language development, bilingualism/multilingualism

Nicholas E. Waters, PhD

Nicholas E. Waters, PhD

Research Faculty, Michigan State University

Interests: Self-regulation and academic development, socioeconomic status, parenting

Sarah Dunkel-Jackson, PhD

Sarah Dunkel-Jackson, PhD

Faculty and Project Coordinator, Michigan State University

Interests: behavior assessment, behavioral interventions, social-emotional regulation, training and development, verbal behavior and communication, and sports. 

Janelle Montroy, PhD

Janelle Montroy, PhD

Alumni

Interests: academic achievement, executive function, measurement, STEM curricula

Sammy F. Ahmed, PhD

Sammy F. Ahmed, PhD

Alumni

Interests: Executive Function, Early Schooling, Measurement Development, Longitudinal Methodology, Data Science
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Sarah Goodwin, PhD

Sarah Goodwin, PhD

Alumni

My lab experiences allowed me to build skills to manage personnel, and I also improved my proficiency in R programming language for statistics and data tasks. I genuinely learned something new every day on the job.

Haruka Konishi, PhD

Haruka Konishi, PhD

Alumni

The ELLI lab provided amazing support, space, and the trust [that] helped me develop as the scholar and teacher educator that I am today.

We encourage graduate students to apply!