Bio

Joanna A. Christodoulou, EdD is an Associate Professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, MA. She also holds positions as Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She works at the intersection of education, clinical, and research contexts. She leads the Brain, Education, and Mind (BEAM) Lab, which studies the brain and behavior links underlying reading development and difficulty, as well as co-occurring challenges in attention and math. Current research themes include individual response to intervention, remediation and compensation in struggling learners, and summer reading growth. Across these themes, socioeconomic status (SES) is a lens through which the lab evaluates reading outcomes in the context of a learner's background, resources, and community. The vast majority of research examining the underpinnings of reading disability (RD), its developmental profile, and potential interventions has been conducted in convenience samples of mid- to high-SES children. The vast majority of research examining the underpinnings of reading disability (RD), its developmental profile, and potential interventions has been conducted in convenience samples of mid- to high-SES children. Our recent research extended findings of the relation between SES and abilities in language and literacy to a sample of children with RD and identified SES-related differences in response to reading intervention. At baseline, higher SES correlated with greater vocabulary and greater cortical thickness in bilateral perisylvian and supramarginal regions. Within the intervention group, lower SES was associated with both greater reading improvement and greater cortical thickening across broad, bilateral occipitotemporal and temporoparietal regions following the intervention. Treatment responders, compared to treatment non-responders, exhibited significantly greater cortical thickening within similar regions. These findings indicate that effective summer reading intervention is coupled with cortical growth, and is especially beneficial for children with RD who come from lower-SES home environments. Dr. Christodoulou was awarded the 2014 award for Transforming Education Through Neuroscience Award from the Learning & the Brain Foundation and the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, and has received funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.