LaB Director
Our
Team
Todd Cunningham
Todd is a faculty member in the Applied Psychology and Human Development department of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children after earning a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Toronto. His area of expertise is adaptive educational technology, specifically the circumvention of students’ academic weaknesses to help them better attain and retain knowledge.
Our
Team
LaB Director
Todd Cunningham PhD C.Psych
Todd is a faculty member in the Applied Psychology and Human Development department of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children after earning a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Toronto. His area of expertise is adaptive educational technology, specifically the circumvention of students’ academic weaknesses to help them better attain and retain knowledge.
LaB Director
Graduate Students
Bronwyn Lamond MA OCT
Current Program
PhD 4th Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
MA in Child Study and Education from OISE
BSc. in Honours Specialization Psychology from Western University
Research Interests
Bronwyn's research focuses on student and teacher perceptions of assistive technology. She is particularly interested in the barriers to assistive technology integration into classrooms.
Contact her at bronwyn.lamond@mail.utoronto.ca
Harrison McNaughtan MA
Current Program
PhD 3rd Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
MA in Developmental Psychology and Education from OISE
BScH in Psychology from Queen's University
Research Interests
Harrison's research in the past has focused on adolescents and emerging adults with Autism and how they understand romance and signal consent. Moving forward, Harrison's research will focus on validating the Hypothesis-Driven Integrated Psychological Assessment method for psychological assessments in the context of education.
Contact him at h.mcnaughtan@mail.utoronto.ca
Francis Wall MA
Current Program
PhD 3rd Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
BScH in Psychology from University of Toronto Scarborough
Research Interests
Francis is currently studying the use of assistive technology for children with difficulties in writing. He hopes to identify ways in which assistive technology can be used to bypass areas of specific weakness, such as planning, organizing, or producing words to reduce the cognitive load of tasks that may otherwise be overwhelming.
Contact him at francis.wall@mail.utoronto.ca
Emily Staffiere MA
Current Program
PhD 2nd Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
BScH in Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University
Research Interests
Emily’s research examines the effectiveness of different keyboarding programs on typing skill acquisition for elementary students. This research will inform intervention recommendations for students with writing challenges so they can develop their typing skills when provided a laptop as an assistive technology, and in doing so optimize its use.
Contact her at emily.staffiere@mail.utoronto.ca
Andrea Zians MA
Current Program
PhD 4th Year
Developmental Psychology and Education
Previous Education
MA in Psychology from OISE
BA in Psychology from Yeshiva University
Research Interests
Andrea's research focuses on post-secondary students and their usage of supports and resources that increase academic success. She is primarily interested in how under-represented groups in post-secondary settings utilize resources and supports like assistive technology and learning strategies.
Contact her at andrea.zians@mail.utoronto.ca
Damian Page Ma
Current Program
PhD 1st Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
BA Honours in Psychology from the University of Victoria
Research Interests
Damian's research focuses on exploring factors that affect the early identification of emerging mental health disorders in children. Specifically, he is interested in the association between mental health literacy and the ability of teachers to discriminate between developmental typical student behaviour and behaviours indicative of emerging mental health disorders.
Contact him at damian.page@mail.utoronto.ca
Lisa Phyllis MA
Current Program
PhD 5th Year
Developmental Psychology and Education
Previous Education
MA in Child Studies from Ryerson University
Research Interests
Lisa's research is focused on improving educational equality for children labelled with special education needs.
Contact her at lisa.phyllis@mail.utoronto.ca
Kunio Hessel MSC
Current Program
MA 2nd Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MSc in Psychology from The University of Western Ontario
BCogSci(H) in Cognitive Science from Carleton University
Research Interests
Kunio's current research examines school engagement among refugee high school students. His thesis project involves interviewing teachers in specialized English Literacy Development programs to learn more about the refugee student experience and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their learning.
Contact him at kunio.hessel@mail.utoronto.ca
Shona Mistry MEd
Current Program
MA 1st Year
Developmental Psychology and Education Psychology
Previous Education
MA in Developmental Psychology & Education from OISE
MEd in Developmental Psychology and Education from OISE
BA in Psychology from McGill University
Research Interests
Shona's research focuses on the interaction between learning challenges and disabilities and youth substance use. Her prior MA thesis focused on the role of family factors in substance use treatment for youth with learning disabilities. The aim of my research is to understand the intersection between education and developmental psychology when treating youth with severe mental health challenges and addictive behaviors.
Contact her at shona.mistry@mail.utoronto.ca
Research
Placement
Students
These students have joined our lab for one school year as part of an undergraduate Research Opportunity Program or OISE's MEd Research Practicum Course.
Research
Volunteers
These lab members volunteer their time to support a variety of on-going research studies happening in our lab.