People

Matt Cooper Borkenhagen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (Psychology by courtesy) and Core Faculty at the Florida Center for Reading Research. His research is on the learning mechanisms that underlie reading development and how aspects of the language (including print) environment can serve to accelerate development. He uses computational models of learning as the core of his research program. cv | code | personal

Jordan Dozier is a PhD candidate and Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) fellow at Florida State University. His interests include dyslexia, adolescent word reading development, and reading intervention. Before becoming a doctoral student, Jordan was an educator for nearly a decade with experience as a classroom teacher, literacy interventionist, and school leader in a trauma-informed setting. Jordan is a mentee on a Learning Disabilities Innovation Hub Grant funded by the NICHD and is part of a project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences that focuses on instructional techniques to support students with dyslexia in reading complex words. Jordan is currently working on his dissertation, which focuses on how student and word characteristics influence the difficulty of words found in the subject areas in school.

Madison Kellenberger is a doctoral candidate studying special education in the Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at Florida State University, studying under Drs. Laura Steacy and Matt Cooper Borkenhagen. She is also an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Predoctoral Training Fellow through the Florida Center for Reading Research. She is broadly interested in how children develop word reading and spelling abilities and how this development can be accelerated for students who are at risk for or identified with dyslexia through the provision of certain types of instruction. Before attending Florida State University, Madison was a special and general education teacher in Florida public schools.

Uzair Ahmed Mughal is pursuing an M.S. in Data Science at Florida State University and works as a Research Assistant in the Learning and Teaching Mechanisms Lab at the Florida Center for Reading Research. He applies machine learning and deep learning, particularly natural language processing to develop reading assessment models. He designs cloud-based ML Ops pipelines, optimizes models with GPU acceleration, and implements modular microservices. He combines coursework in rigorous statistics and data mining with effective ETL workflows and automated deployments to advance impactful educational research.

Daniela Staton is a pre-baccelaureate researcher in the Learning and Teaching Mechanisms Lab. She is a high school senior with a passion for scientific research and education, with a particular interest in how children learn to read and how psychology and AI can support equity in health and education through early interventions, research-based tools, and a deeper understanding of learning processes. Daniela is currently running a study on how children in early elementary student’s (K and 3) implicitly represent phonemes and phonological structure in their categorization of letters in English.

Jordyn Thomas is a PhD student in the Reading Education & Language Arts program in the School of Teacher Education at FSU. Her research interests include exploring dyslexia among vulnerable populations with a focus on effective literacy interventions. Drawing on her experience supporting students in Title I schools, she has implemented targeted literacy instruction for struggling readers and is dedicated to addressing systemic educational inequities through research. A Southeast Florida native, Jordyn has shared her work at the Florida Literacy Association Conference and the Thurgood Marshall Teacher Quality and Retention Program Summer Institute.

Rebecca Vasile is a doctoral candidate in the School of Teacher Education in the Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at Florida State University and an Office of Special Education Programs fellow with the Florida Center for Reading Research. Through experiences in childcare settings and in research labs during undergrad, she developed an interest in language acquisition, how the nature of the environment impacts language learning from birth to age 5, and consequently, children’s later reading ability. She works with Drs. Sonia Cabell and Matt Cooper Borkenhagen on a research agenda that seeks to understand what components of the language learning environment relate to language development outside of direct instruction.