Historic faculty hiring: Meet Brianna Devlin

My research focuses on how to best support children’s early learning to benefit their later understanding of mathematics. That research has two strands. One looks at identifying different skills during early childhood that are predictive of later math learning. The second is developing, testing and unpacking early childhood instructional activities and interventions aimed at helping children to develop those skills from the first thread.

My undergraduate degree is in psychology. While I was pursuing my bachelor’s degree, I also worked part time as an early childhood educator — which turned into a full-time position in a preschool classroom after I graduated. I wanted to take my background in cognitive development and apply it to the kids in the classroom around me. While working in early childhood centers, I observed how opportunities to engage with high-quality STEM education differed at centers serving children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. That led me to begin to form the questions I focus my research on today.

After working as an early childhood educator, I became a cognitive psychology lab manager at the University of Notre Dame, where I managed studies on children’s development of mathematical cognition. I then earned my PhD in learning sciences at the University of Delaware, where I focused on early assessment and intervention for children who may experience math learning difficulties. After graduating, I worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Purdue University and then in the Prevention Science Institute at the University of Oregon. My postdoc work focused on school readiness play-based interventions and implementation science.

I saw the posting for this position and was excited because while my training has moved around a bit, I’m very interested in early childhood learning and instruction. When I visited the campus and interviewed for the role, I was really impressed by the strong relationship between the Department of Learning and Instruction and UB’s Early Childhood Research Center. I’m excited to be involved in the center's focus on research, teaching and community-facing work supporting parents and teachers.

You can see the commitment the Graduate School of Education and the university have to community engagement — locally and globally. In my first year here, I hope to focus on building relationships with community partners for my research. I want to make contacts and form relationships to learn more about what the schools around here are facing so I can determine which types of research questions can help our community. I want to focus on both having a local impact and generating broader knowledge along the way.

I'm also very excited about UB’s Top 25 Ambition. It was clear from my orientation and my first few months here that UB really does have the infrastructure in place to support impactful research and provides a ton of opportunities to grow.

My colleagues at the Graduate School of Education have been great to work with. They’ve greeted me with a warm welcome and have been very open about helping me make connections in the community and with local schools. I see a ton of opportunities for research and collaboration in GSE that could take my interdisciplinary background in education, psychology and human development and partner with other paradigms in education work.

It’s also been awesome working with UB students. I’m teaching two classes — one for PhD students and another course focused on math methods for pre-service teachers. Working with students has been a great way to get plugged into the area. They’re very open to sharing their experiences with student teaching, which has been a great way for me to learn more about Buffalo and its schools.

It’s great to join the university at the same time as so many other amazing colleagues. I was lucky to meet so many new faculty across the university’s different departments at our orientation. You can see UB’s commitment to growing diversity in faculty scholarship, background and experience. There are a lot of excellent research programs happening here, and I’m excited to be a part of it.

I’m also looking forward to the school’s future move to South Campus’s Foster Hall, which was the original home for GSE. You can see the investments the university is making to preserve the original building and provide opportunities for more public-facing work.

I’m loving it so far. I didn’t know how beautiful Buffalo was until I moved here. My partner and I relocated during the summer and have really enjoyed exploring the city’s parks, green spaces and architecture. I love being near the Niagara Gorge and so many other cool spots. I have a lot more to learn about the area, but it’s great to see all the growth and revitalization.