Research Team

As an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Arizona, I work with undergraduate and graduate students teaching the Childhood and Adolescent Development, Psychological Measurements in Education, Motivation in Learning and Development, and other introductory educational psychology courses both in-person and using innovative and interactive eLearning formats online.

My research focuses on various aspects of social-emotional development and well-being including the role of teacher-student relationships, understanding student experiences of failure, and exploring how students and teachers cope with stress and trauma associated with COVID-19. The goal of my research is to identify practices that support healthy, successful experiences for all learners.

ejpope@arizona.edu 

Dr. Marla Franco serves as the Vice President for Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Initiatives at the University of Arizona (UA). She has worked in higher education for over 20 years at public universities in California and Arizona, having served in various roles within academic and student affairs to champion greater college access and degree attainment among underserved and minoritized students, which strongly informs her work today.

Dr. Franco led efforts that resulted in the UA becoming the first four-year public university in the state of Arizona to be federally recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education in April 2018. She is now working across the university to develop a centralized vision for maximizing this designation in a way that truly benefits students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members from diverse backgrounds. This federal distinction has widespread implications for the UA, the greater Tucson community, and the state of Arizona.

marlafranco@arizona.edu

My training is in statistics, psychometrics, and research methods used in social (psychology, education), life, and medical sciences. My graduate training and professional experience includes creating, evaluating (reliability, validity, item characteristics), and improving exams, surveys, questionnaires, and other types of measures of knowledge, attitudes (e.g., preferences, satisfaction, motivation, goal orientation), and behaviors. My own research involves designing and conducting surveys, interviews, and focus groups. I have eight years of experience teaching and applying the best practices most commonly used in program evaluation, educational assessment, and market segmentation. As an instructor, I frequently discuss sophisticated methods and results with a variety of audiences, from content experts with no methodological training to fellow statisticians and psychometricians. My passion is to design, collect, and analyze data and data tools in ways that provide meaningful insights to clients. To contact me about working together, please email me at

monicakerbacher@gmail.com.