Meet the researchers at the Dennis Learning Center.
Director
Lauren Hensley
Dr. Lauren Hensley is the Interim Director of the Dennis Learning Center and leads the center’s translational research efforts. Dr. Hensley’s ongoing program of research focuses on college and pre-college student success, with a special emphasis on understanding motivational needs and designing educational interventions. She received an M.A. in higher education and student affairs and Ph.D. in educational psychology from Ohio State. As a scholar-practitioner, her background includes work in program administration, curriculum design, and student success initiatives. She is a recipient of The Ohio State University Distinguished Staff Award and Department of Educational Studies Mentor of the Year Award. Her work has been funded by the Racial Justice grants program, Student Academic Success Research grants program, Outreach and Engagement grants program, Drake Institute Research and Implementation grants program, and the Impact grants program.
Researchers
August Masonheimer
August is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Educational Psychology program and master’s student in the Quantitative Research, Evaluation, and Measurement program at Ohio State. His research interests concern students’ self-regulated learning, with an emphasis on motivation regulation, measurement, theory, and practice-oriented applications of research. He has held several teaching positions at the university, including that of an independent instructor of the DLC’s ESEPSY 1259 course and a teaching assistant for ESQREM 7648. He received his undergraduate degree in psychology with a minor in education from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Huy Nguyen
Huy Nguyen is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Educational Psychology program at Ohio State. His research interests focus on students’ self-regulated learning and motivation, particularly among students in transition, e.g., first-years, transfers, etc., and how that intersects with topics of race, diversity, and equity in higher education. He is currently an instructor for the DLC’s ESEPSY 1259 course. Prior to Ohio State, Huy received an M.A. in Higher Education from the University of Michigan, where he subsequently worked as an academic advisor.
Joshua Peri
Josh Peri is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Quantitative Research, Evaluation and Measurement program at Ohio State. He is currently working as a graduate research associate at Ohio State’s Quantitative Methodology Center. His research interests are in applications of quantitative methods using structural equation modelling (SEM) and Multilevel Modeling (MLM). Currently, he is interested in measurement models (EFA & CFA) and growth modelling. He received a B.S. in psychology from the University of Scranton. As an affiliated researcher, Josh brings his interest in the application of statistical modeling to intervention work at the Dennis Learning Center.
Andrew Perry
Andrew Perry is a Graduate Research Associate in the Educational Studies department at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on the academic motivation and self-regulated learning behaviors of first-generation college students who have transferred from community colleges to four-year universities. Andrew received his master’s degree in psychology at The State University of New York at New Paltz. In addition, he has been the independent instructor for the DLC’s flagship course, ESEPSY 1259, for two and a half years. Andrew was a nominee for the 2019 Educational Studies Teaching Associates’ “TA of the Year” award and the winner of the 2020 AERA Studying and Self-Regulated Learning Special Interest Group graduate student research award.
Jackie von Spiegel
Jackie von Spiegel is the Program Manager for the Dennis Learning Center. She received an M.A. in Developmental Psychology and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Psychology at Ohio State. Her research focuses on college students’ academic help-seeking. Jackie previously served as a Senior Academic Advisor and Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. She was recognized with the Outstanding Advisor Award from the Academic Advising Association of Ohio State.
Yumeng (Marcela) Wang
Marcela Wang is a fourth-year Psychology undergraduate student and an Academic Coach for the Dennis Learning Center. She is a research assistant, working on projects at the Dennis Learning Center that focus on studying the impact and effectiveness of academic coaching and help-seeking. Marcela previously served as a course assistant and psychology ambassador at the Department of Psychology. She is currently working on her thesis, “The Effect of Warning on the Continued Influence of Misinformation,” in Dr. Duane Wegener’s Attitudes and Persuasion lab. She also received a grant from Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) at The Ohio State University and plans to present her poster at the upcoming 2023 Midwestern Psychology Association conference.
Hailey Wilson
Hailey Wilson is a third-year honors Pre-Medicine/Psychology undergraduate student. She is a research assistant for the Dennis Learning Center and analyzes data on the impact of academic coaching. She is a proud member and senior leader in a club called Conversations to Remember, which focuses on combatting senior citizen loneliness. As for her interest in medicine, she is participating in Pre-Med club, shadowing healthcare professionals, and working as a Pharmacy Technician in her spare time.
Christopher Wolters
Dr. Christopher Wolters is a Professor of Educational Psychology and former director of the Dennis Learning Center. Dr. Wolters has a substantial record of research and scholarly publications focused on understanding students’ motivation and self-regulated learning, including the development of these processes and how they interact to influence students’ academic engagement, learning, and achievement. Prior to coming to Ohio State, he was a faculty member at the University of Houston for 17 years where he served terms as Program Director for the Ph.D. program in Educational Psychology and Individual Differences, and as Associate Chair for the Department of Educational Psychology. He earned his Ph.D. in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Learn more about Dr. Wolters and see his work.
Alumni
Anna Brady
Dr. Anna Brady is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum, Foundations and Reading at Georgia Southern University. Two-time graduate of The Ohio State University, Dr. Brady earned both a M.A. and Ph.D. in Education Studies with a specialization in Educational Psychology. While at Ohio State, she worked at both the Dennis Learning Center and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion on efforts to provide programming and support to undergraduate and graduate students. In 2018, she received Ohio State’s Graduate Associate Teaching Award. Dr. Brady’s research focuses on understanding college students’ academic success through the lens of motivation and self-regulated learning. In addition, she is interested in designing interventions to improve students’ academic success, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math contexts. Learn more about Dr. Brady.
Katherine Kachnowski
Katherine teaches eighth grade English in New York City. As an undergraduate at Ohio State, Katherine developed her senior thesis, which evaluated the relationship between growth mindset, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, and metacognitive learning strategies. After earning a Bachelor’s of Science in English Education from Ohio State, Katherine was accepted to Columbia University’s Teachers College, where she is currently working toward her Master of Arts in the Teaching of English. Katherine’s Master’s capstone thesis is centered on the impact of metacognitive learning strategies throughout the writing process with her own students. Katherine hopes to be a teacher-researcher who makes contributions to the field through her own experiences within the classroom.
Yeo-eun Kim
Dr. Yeo-eun Kim is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology along with an interdisciplinary specialization in Quantitative Research Methods from The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on understanding and improving students’ motivation and self-regulated learning in diverse personal and social settings. She is particularly interested in supporting all students to pursue and achieve academic, social, and well-being goals. She is a recipient of The Ohio State University Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award, College of Education and Human Ecology Dissertation Fellowship, and Graduate Student Research Award from the American Educational Research Association.
Robin Sayers
Dr. Robin Sayers is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on understanding students’ perceptions of teacher and instructor caring and the impact those perceptions have on motivation and learning. Dr. Sayers received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Ohio State in May 2021. During her time at Ohio State, she worked at the Dennis Learning Center as an Instructor and Graduate Academic Coach. Before completing her graduate work, Dr. Sayers was an elementary school teacher. As such, she is passionate about translating research into practice and loves working with practicing educators.
Sungjun Won
Dr. Sungjun Won is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Gongju National University of Education. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from The Ohio State University. His research focuses on understanding the role of academic motivation and self-regulated learning in academic success and well-being. He is also interested in investigating how students’ perceptions of academic and social contexts influence their motivation and engagement in self-regulated learning. See Dr. Won’s work.