Jianxian Zhou
Chair
Jiaxian Zhou is a full-time professor of educational neuroscience at the Department of Educational Psychology and a visiting professor of the School of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University. She founded the Center for Educational Neuroscience in 2010 at East China Normal University, a leading comprehensive research university in China emphasizing teachers’ education. In 2020, she was elected as Deputy Director of Learning Science Committee of Shanghai Education Society. She also served as Vice President of the Learning Sciences Division of China Association of Higher Education since 2022, where she has organized various meetings and workshops for education practitioners, university students and outstanding young scholars.
While she was doing her PhD at East China Normal University in 2001, she has focused her research on Educational Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary field few had thought about at that time. After earning her PhD degree with a thesis on Education Neuroscience, she completed two postdoctoral fellowships: one at State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University under the supervision of Professor Qi Dong, and another at Harvard Graduate School of Education under the supervision of Professor Kurt Fischer. With an integrated background in psychology, neuroscience, and education, she has worked as a faculty member cycling through all these three fields at above three leading universities, spending more than 5 years in each discipline. She employs neuroimaging tools such as fMRI, fNIRS, and ERPs, to investigate the effectiveness of teaching methods and apply the findings to policy and practice.
Learn more about
jxzhou@psy.ecnu.edu.cn
Analia Marzoratti
Program Chair
Analia Marzoratti, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research scientist at Boston College. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Science at the University of Virginia, with training in neuroscience ([f]MRI, EEG) and psychology. Her research examines how students’ unique environments and lived experiences influence the ways their brains support their learning from early childhood into adulthood, with the goal of identifying strategies to more equitably meet diverse students’ learning needs. Her current work focuses on understanding undergraduates’ digital environments, particularly their use of generative AI, and how these experiences relate to neural signatures of internal attention and social processing during collaborative learning.
marzora@bc.edu
Feliza Mercado
Secretary
Dr. Feliza Mercado is an instructional technologist and early career scholar dedicated to advancing pedagogy in online learning environments. Currently, she serves as the Program Manager for Education and Workforce Development at the NSF Center for Advancing Sustainable and Distributed Fertilizer Production (CASFER), where she leads the strategic integration of emerging technologies to enhance community engagement and educational outreach.
Dr. Mercado holds a doctoral degree in Instructional Technology from Texas Tech University. Her research agenda is centered on the Community of Inquiry framework, with a specific focus on how online learning environments can support knowledge co-construction and cultivate social presence. Additionally, she investigates the intersection of social media and teacher professional development.
Beyond her institutional work, Dr. Mercado is an active leader within the 熊猫视频Brain, Neurosciences, and Education (BNE) SIG. After serving as Web Content Editor and Digital Social Outreach Officer since 2023, she now serves as the group's Secretary, where she works to increase member communication and foster a supportive, inclusive environment for scholarly growth.
feliza.mercado@ttu.edu
Kay Brocato
Treasurer
Kay Brocato is an Associate Professor of Education Foundations. She has worked with vulnerable children, families, and citizens of the rural South as a faculty member since 2002. Her interviews, focus group discussions, home and classroom observations, plus data from use of State and Trait Anxiety Instruments (STAI) and other anthropomorphic measures with her service participants have revealed that language acquisition, vocabulary attainment, and fluency of spoken word can serve to facilitate significant upticks in healthier, higher-quality school experiences for learners and family members. These healthier higher quality outcomes as experienced by learners and families are strongly correlated with academic advancement as measured by standardized and performance assessments, as well as increasing levels of educational matriculation. Brocato has forged global relationships with pre-school through doctoral level educators and institutions in Europe, Asia, and Central American, as well as locally where she serves on the Executive Board of the largest Early Head Start-Head Start program provider serving 3342 children and 2884 families across 14 counties in her home state.
While working in classroom management research, Brocato recognized data trends that impacted high school completion for those participants who were displaying particular language activation patterns consistent with a learner's ability to socially engage. When teachers and learners in classrooms would engage in specific ways and would thickly and richly describe emotional paradigms-- similar to the findings of Immordino-Yang and colleagues-- fewer incidences of off-task, disruptive, and/or infracting behaviors occurred. Additionally, notations of increasingly healthier classroom and citizenship behaviors occurred as measured by individual points of autonomy, agency, and action. Brocato’s work at the cross sections of Classroom Management, Learning Studios (like those of Montessori schools), Social-Emotional engagement and human body self-awareness has brought her to leadership in the Brain, Neuroscience, and Education SIG of AERA. Brocato has attended formal fMRI training provided by neuroscientists from Virginia Tech, Harvard School of Medicine, and University of Georgia. She routinely connects her inquiry to cutting edge neuroscience research through 熊猫视频BNE SIG sibling organizations like International Mind Brain Education Society and the Center for Educational Neuroscience seminar series broadcasts. Kay can best be reached in WhatsApp, GroupMe, WeChat, or SMS Messaging at +16623129703.
kaybrocato@icloud.com
Kristin Simmers
Student Member-at-Large
Kristin (Kris) Simmers is a PhD student at the University of Connecticut, interested in how teachers' knowledge and perception of the brain and learning impact their practice and learner outcomes. She is also a member of the Lab2Classroom lab, collecting and analyzing EEG data to better understand attentional fluctuations in educational settings. Kristin was a teacher for 16 years (in 4 countries) and holds an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction and M.S. in Elementary Education. As the Graduate Student at Large, she prioritizes making the SIG a high value opportunity for all graduate students and often shares new opportunities and resources to the BNE SIG's Twitter account.
Doctoral Student in Educational Psychology, University of Connecticut
Cognition, Instruction & Learning Technology; CT Institute for Brain and Cognitive Science Graduate Student Affiliate; Science of Learning and Art of Communication Trainee
Pronouns: she/her/hers
kristin.simmers@formanschool.org