Lourdes Santiago-Poventud, Ph.D. (Research Assistant, University of Florida)

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Lourdes Santiago-Poventud Lourdes Santiago-Poventud, Ph.D., is currently a research assistant in the Department of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida.   Before joining the University of Florida, Lourdes worked with Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) for 18 years.  During her time with M-DCPS, she worked in a variety of capacities, including: elementary school classroom teacher, reading leader, and curriculum support specialist for the Division of Language Arts/Reading.  Lourdes’ previous experience also includes her work with Pearson Scott Foresman as an educational consultant for the company, where she provided professional development to school districts in the southeast region of the United States.

Lourdes has been a part of Project SELF: Social-Emotional Learning Foundations from its inception.  She was a member of the research team dedicated to writing the SELF curriculum for students in kindergarten and first grade.  Her dissertation focused on the effects of the SELF intervention on children’s emotional vocabulary development.  Her dissertation work has earned her the Fien Dissertation Award as well as the honor of being selected as a Doctoral Student Scholar for the Council for Exceptional Children – Division of Research.

Pamela Chalfant (Early Learning Initiatives Manager, University of Florida)

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Pamela Chalfant Pamela Chalfant, Ph.D. is the Early Learning Initiatives Manager at the Lastinger Center for Learning in the College of Education at the University of Florida, Gainesville.  Dr. Chalfant’s research focuses on early literacy and language interventions and the prevention of reading difficulties through teacher education.  She has conducted studies on effective teacher professional development and supporting oral language development of at-risk kindergarten students through teacher-student interactions.  Professor Chalfant was awarded the Fien Dissertation Award for her dissertation entitled: Teacher Professional Development and Storybook Reading: Supporting Oral Language Development. Prior to pursuing her studies at UF, Dr. Chalfant spent nearly 20 years teaching children with diverse needs in the preschool and primary grades.  She has also worked to develop and implement a curriculum that imbeds social/emotional learning in literacy instruction for kindergarten and first grade students at risk for behavioral disorders.  Her work has been presented at state, national and international professional conferences. She is currently working to develop blended online learning courses focused on cognitive and behavioral approaches to learning for early learning professionals across the state of Florida.