Alumni
Graduate Student Alumni
Anne Partika
Anne Partika graduated with her PhD in the Human Development and Public Policy program in the Psychology department in 2023, working under the mentorship of Dr. Anna Johnson. She is focused on identifying early childhood education programs and policies to best promote equitable outcomes for children. Her dissertation research focused on the role of bilingual supports in dual language learners’ development from preschool to elementary school.
Prior to Georgetown, Anne served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Slovakia and studied early childhood policy and program implementation at Child Trends, focusing mostly on childcare access and quality. Anne received her M.P.P. from the McCourt School of Public Policy and B.A. in Psychology from the College of Wooster.
Currently, Anne works as an Education Researcher at the Center for Learning & Development at SRI International.
Caitlin Hines
Caitlin Hines graduated with her PhD in the Human Development and Public Policy program in the Psychology department in 2022, working under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Ryan. Broadly, Caitlin is interested in how differences in parenting contribute to school readiness for different groups of parents and children. Specifically, for her doctoral research she focused on the daily effects of food insecurity on parent and child well-being. In 2018, she completed a Masters Degree in Public Policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy. Prior to coming to Georgetown, Caitlin received a Masters in Applied Developmental Psychology from George Mason University where she focused on the relationship between public pre-kindergarten programs and school readiness. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from The University of Texas.
Caitlin currently holds a postdoc position at the Pennsylvania State University.
Jane Hutchison graduated with her PhD in psychology in 2021, under the joint supervision of Dr. Deborah Phillips and Dr. Ian Lyons. Broadly, her research is focused on identifying factors that promote early numeracy and math development, specifically in the context of early childhood education. For her doctoral research, she investigated the underlying mechanisms that mediate the bi-directional relations between executive functioning (EF) and math, with the ultimate goal of understanding how this relation can be leveraged to support the co-development of both skills prior to kindergarten entry. Jane holds a Masters of Public Policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a B.A. in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Western Ontario.
Jane is currently a Senior Manager of Future Skills Research with the Conference Board of Canada.
Jane Hutchison
Owen Schochet
Owen Schochet graduated with his PhD from the Psychology Department at Georgetown University in 2021 working under the advisement of Dr. Johnson. His doctoral research used rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation methods to study the quality of two-generation publicly-funded early childhood education programs designed to the support school readiness and optimal development of at-risk children and the human capital and economic self-sufficiency of their parents. Owen completed a B.S. degree in 2012 in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester and subsequently worked as a Research Assistant and then Analyst studying early and elementary education programs and policies at Mathematica Policy Research. Owen completed a Master's Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy in 2018.
Owen currently works at Mathematica as a Human Services Researcher in the Division of Children, Youth, and Families.
Christina Padilla
Christina Padilla graduated from the doctoral program with a Ph.D. in psychology in 2019. Under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Ryan, her research focused on the role of parental investments and early care and education (ECE) experiences on children’s school readiness, as well as differences in investments between groups of parents, including parents differing by socioeconomic status (SES) and nativity status. Christina’s dissertation used the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) to examine variation in Head Start program effects on parenting behaviors and identifies features of Head Start programs that help to explain why some programs are more beneficial to parents than others. She is particularly interested in the role of parent outreach (sometimes called family engagement) and classroom quality in promoting these behaviors in the home. Christina additionally holds an M.P.P. from Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy and a B.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Johns Hopkins University.
Christina completed a fellowship as a Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Post-Doctoral State Policy Fellow in the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), and is currently a Research Scientist at Child Trends.
Anna Markowitz
Anna Markowitz graduated from the doctoral program with a Ph.D. in psychology in 2016, as well as an M.P.P. from the McCourt School of Public Policy in 2013.
Anna completed a postdoc at the University of Virginia and is currently an Assistant Professor in UCLA’s Department of Education.
Undergraduate Alumni
Daniela Mateo - ‘23
Stephanie Collins - ‘22
Sydney Parker - ‘22
Josephine Bryar - ‘22
Katie Woodhouse - ‘22
Olivia Mirek - ‘21