SRCD Science Programs Research Showcase Webinar

    Dr. Dilay Zeynep Karadöller Astarlıoğlu received her BA and MA degrees in Psychology from Boğaziçi University (Türkiye) in 2013 and 2016, respectively, and completed her PhD in 2022 at Radboud University Nijmegen, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. After returning to Türkiye, Dr. Karadöller worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Koç University Language and Cognition Laboratory. In 2023, she joined the Department of Psychology at Middle East Technical University as a faculty member, where she established the Multimodal Language and Cognitive Development Laboratory with support from the Max Planck Society Cooperation Fund. 

Her research is supported by national and international funding bodies, including the Max Planck Society, the Society for Research in Child Development, the U.S. National Science Foundation, TÜBİTAK, and METU. Dr. Karadöller’s research focuses on language and cognitive development, with particular emphasis on speech, gesture, and sign language acquisition. Her work examines how environmental and cognitive factors shape language learning through experimental designs, controlled stimuli, and advanced statistical analyses. Her findings have been published in top-quartile journals and presented at national and international conferences. In recognition of her academic contributions, she received the METU Development Foundation Young Researcher Achievement Award, the Türkiye Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist Award in 2025, and the Science Academy Young Researcher Award in 2026. She also engages in science communication through school training, public talks, blogs, and digital tools that support deaf and hard-of-hearing children’s language development. 

    Dr. Boyun Kim is a brand new Ph.D. She defended her dissertation on February 25, 2026. Originally from South Korea, she will be working as an assistant professor at Utah Tech University starting Fall 2026. Her doctoral degree, to be conferred in May, is in Early Childhood Education with a concentration in research methodology. Her research focuses on Policy impacts in the ECE environment, the early childhood teacher workforce, Evaluation/Assessment of Early childhood education policies, and teacher education. She is also curious about the economic value of the ECE teacher workforce. 

    Dr. Regina T. Lohndorf is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (ranked #1 in Latin America). She holds a Master's degree in Psychology from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and a Ph.D. in Child Development from a Cultural and Educational Perspective from Leiden University, The Netherlands. Dr. Lohndorf teaches graduate courses on child development, learning, and education.

Her research examines how family processes and early childhood education environments shape the socioemotional and neurocognitive development of preschool-aged children. She is particularly interested in the physiological consequences of environmental adversity—specifically, how adverse social conditions such as insensitive caregiving, poverty, crowding, and noise translate into biological stress markers, including elevated cortisol levels. Her work prioritizes social and educational justice, with a focus on Indigenous ethnic minority groups in Chile and culturally diverse, low-SES populations across Latin America and the Caribbean.  

Dr. Lohndorf has received two major national grants from the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (Ministry of Science and Technology) and one international grant from the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). She has published high impact journals in her field and serves on the editorial board of Child Development Perspectives. 

    Dr. Rodneys Mauricio Jiménez Morales holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Master’s degree in Psychology, and Doctor of Psychological Sciences from the “Martha Abreu” Central University of Las Villas, Sant Clara, Cuba. He served as a researcher at the Directorate of Science and Technology of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) and as a professor-researcher at the Center for the Study of Educational Sciences (CECESS) of the Faculty of Pedagogical Sciences at José Martí University. He is currently a Full Professor in the Faculty of Psychology, Education, and Human Relations Human Relations at the University of the Cuenca del Plata (Posadas, Argentina). He has taught graduate courses at universities in Cuba, Peru, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. 

As a coordinator and/or director of research projects, he has worked in several main areas: parenting practices and early childhood development in Latin America, social-emotional learning programs for preschool children, and multiple studies on resilience in clinical and school settings.   He has collaborated with the University of Leeds (England), the Universitat Jaume I (Spain), the Pontificia Universidad of Chile, and various national universities in Cuba. He is the author of numerous scientific articles published in national and international journals. Among his honors, he has received the Annual Health Award in Cuba (2018), the Award from the Cuban Academy of Sciences (2019), and the Small Grants Program for Early Career Scholars (2022). He is a member of the Argentine Society of Neuropsychology (SONEPSA). 

    Dr. Andrea Negrete is a community psychologist with a focus on adolescent development. She received her PhD in Community Psychology at the University of Virginia. Her work has examined the ethnic-racial identity and sociopolitical development of immigrant youth in the United States. Through the support of a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowship and SRCD Small Grant Award, her work has begun to explore the well-being and educational experiences of Mexican-origin youth who migrate with their families to Mexico after living in the United States. 

Yuhang Shu is a Ph.D. candidate in Developmental Psychology at the University of Virginia. Her research examines how children understand and respond to social inequality, with a focus on how experiences of resource inequality shape children’s social trust and prosocial behavior. Using experimental methods, she investigates the psychological processes underlying these responses, including fairness evaluations and emotional reactions. Her dissertation focuses on how experiencing inequality influences children’s trust in others and how such mistrust may generalize across social contexts and behaviors.

Yibin Yang is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Work at Boston University. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of child mental health, implementation of science, and health equity, with particular attention to young children and families from diverse and marginalized backgrounds. Through an implementation science lens, he is particularly interested in examining the facilitators and barriers that influence infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) practitioners’ adoption and delivery of evidence-based and innovative services, as well as strategies to strengthen their work with young children and families. Informed by his prior experience as a clinical social worker, early childhood educator, and social and emotional learning curriculum developer, he is committed to bridging research and practice through collaboration with community practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to promote the healthy development and well-being of children across backgrounds.