The Education Collaboratory at Yale launched in July 2023. To learn more about our work, we are spotlighting all the dedicated team members of our lab, highlighting their work and what brings them to our team's mission to advance the science and practice of SEL.
What is your role at the Education Collaboratory?
I am the Lab Manager for the Education Collaboratory at Yale. At the lab, I manage all administrative tasks, including hiring and staffing, human subject research protocols, partnership development, and sponsored project administration. I also support in the training of our postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars as well as our Collaboratory wide DEI work. More recently, I have been supporting with fundraising.
What brought you to the field of Social Emotional Learning (SEL)?
My training is in public health with both my bachelor’s and master's from Southern Connecticut State University. My interests throughout my studies broadly ranged from topics around mental health, including psychological disorders and physical safety, to reproductive and physical health. During my undergraduate studies, I began working as a class manager for a program called Cooking Matters CT, which provides adults and children with the skills to shop and cook healthy meals on a budget. This ultimately led me to UConn Extension where I managed a statewide federal program focused on reducing childhood obesity in underserved communities. Throughout my appointments, I have maintained a focus on learning and serving under resourced and marginalized communities. As a first generation Mexican American, Jewish woman, the complexity and nuance of my intersectional identity has personally become more important and a part of the work that I strive to be a part of.
In 2018 I applied to a newly formed position to support the research administration of Dr. Chris Cipriano, then Director of Research at the YCEI. Now as a self-sustaining lab within the Child Study Center (the Education Collaboratory at Yale), I am so proud to support the influential work our researchers and partners are conducting around social emotional learning (SEL) in service of all students toward a future of equitable and inclusive education. I am grateful to be able to bring my whole self into work each day and grow alongside my colleagues as we explore complex and at times divisive topics. Chris often says “Linda took a chance on me”, but I would argue she took a chance on me.
What line of research do you find the most interesting/intriguing in the field right now?
I find the divided sociopolitical climate surrounding SEL and what that means for students in real time fascinating and terrifying. The conversations, or rather disputes, are antithetical to what SEL serves to demonstrate – truly listening to each other, understanding our emotions and how they impact our choices and behaviors, and working together towards a common goal of supporting all children in schools. My hope is the work developed as a result of research-practice partnerships can help answer critical questions and bridge divides desperately in need of restoration across our society, now more than ever. To that end, one project I am deeply proud to be a part of is Project Flourish. Along with our partners, Trajectory of Hope and Urban Assembly, Project Flourish exists to identify and eliminate inequity, racism, and other exclusionary practices in SEL research, programming, and policy. Although my role does not put me in schools with students on the daily, from behind the scenes supporting our partners I have witnessed the evolution of SEL implementation and what it really takes to do the work. The case studies from our SEL Specialists are one important window to provide great exemplars for what supporting students, especially those most at risk of being impacted by inequities, racism and other exclusionary practices, can look like.
What energizes you outside of work?
My kid.