
OUR TEAM
Our interdisciplinary team combines expertise in educational theory, mathematics education, and computer science computational research in social media data analytics.

Zixi Chen
Zixi Chen is a doctoral candidate in Measurement and Quantitative Methods program of College of Education, Michigan State University. Her research interests include social network analysis and longitudinal data analysis in educational settings.
zixichen68@gmail.com

Yuqing Liu
Yuqing Liu is a doctoral candidate in Measurement and Quantitative Methods at the College of Education, Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the diffusion of innovation, gossip behavior in organizations, and teacher’s resource seeking behavior.
liuyqphilly@gmail.com

Jordan Tait
Jordan Tait is a doctoral student in Measurement and Quantitative Methods at the College of Education, Michigan State University. His research interests include social network analysis and statistics education.
taitjord@msu.edu

Daman Chhikara
Daman Chhikara is a doctoral student in the Education Policy Program of College of Education at Michigan State University. His research interests include examining teacher quality, teacher-student relationships and student achievement in different social contexts.
chhikar2@msu.edu

Xiuqi Yang
Xiuqi Yang is a visiting student at Michigan State University and an undergraduate in sociology at Shandong University, China. Her research focuses on sociology of education, with specific attention to student achievement analyses and children's educational expectations in varying social contexts.
soc.xiuqiyang@gmail.com
Our Approach

Branda Peck
Branda Peck is a graduate of the Elementary Education program at Michigan State University. Her focus and recent certification is in Integrated Sciences, K-8. She started working with the project last summer and has recently rejoined to help as the project continues to expand.
branda.peck@gmail.com

Nicole Donzella
Nicole Donzella is an undergraduate economics major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was a research intern for the project a few summers ago, and has come back to help further expand the research into more states.
nicoledonzella@unc.edu

Brianna Canedo
Brianna Canedo is a graduate of the Elementary Education program at Michigan State University and has her endorsement in Integrated Science. Currently she is working as a 4th grade teacher in Michigan. She has been on the research team for four years working across many different projects, which has helped her grow in her profession.
canedobr@msu.edu

Sa'Vaughn Noble
Sa'Vaughn Noble is an undergraduate psychology student in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. In past research projects, he has been involved in collecting and analyzing information related to ideologically motivated offenders that commit crimes on the dark web.
noblesav@msu.edu

Ashley Widner
Ashley Widner is a senior at Michigan State University graduating in May with a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a minor in Youth in Society. Her focus has been on at-risk youth; she plans to work as a Foster Care Specialist after graduation.
widneras@msu.edu

Emma Israels
Emma Israels is an undergraduate psychology student at Michigan State University. Her research interests include examining various aspects of today’s society and how they may be impacting youth.
israelse@msu.edu

Adrienne Hu
Sihua Hu is a post-doctoral researcher working with Dr. Cynthia Coburn at Northwestern University. She is a founding member of the Teachers in Social Media team and interested in the intersection of teachers' curation and mathematical practices across virtual and physical spaces.
sihua.hu@northwestern.edu

Dr. Corey Drake
Corey Drake is Professor and Director of Teacher Preparation at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the preparation of elementary teachers to teach mathematics to diverse groups of students across diverse contexts. Recent work has been published in the Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, and Educational Researcher.
cdrake@msu.edu

Hamid Karimi
Hamid Karimi is a Ph.D. student in the department of computer science and engineering at Michigan State University. He is interested in machine learning, deep networks, NLP, misinformation on social media, and social network analysis.
karimiha@msu.edu

Tyler Derr
Tyler Derr is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University. His research interests are in data mining and social network analysis with a focus on social networks having both positive and negative links.
derrtyle@msu.edu
We use qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine teachers' engagement in social media and virtual spaces.

Collaborators
Alan Daly, Ph.D.-University of Southern California San Diego
Christine Greenhow, Ph.D.- Michigan State University
Martin Rehm, Ph.D.- PH Weingarten
Frank Cornelissen, Ph.D.-University of Cambridge
Mark Berends, Ph.D.- Notre Dame University
Bill Carbarnaro, Ph.D.- Notre Dame University
Diana Brandon, Ph.D.- Charleston Southern University
Ann Marie Mapes- Michigan Department of Education
Teachers in Social Media Alumni
Amanda Opperman- Michigan State University
Yun-jia Lo, Ph.D.- University of Michigan
Brianna Canedo- Michigan State University
Andy Jurasek- Michigan State University
Emily Emrick- Teach for America 2019 corps member- Indianapolis
Kimberly Jansen, Ph.D.- Middle Tennessee State University
John Lane, Ph.D.- Michigan State University
Study of Elementary Mathematics Instruction
Peter Youngs, Ph.D.- University of Virginia
Kristen Bieda, Ph.D.- Michigan State University
Serena Salloum, Ph.D.- Ball State University
Epistemic Network Analysis Team
David Williamson Shaffer, Ph.D.- University of Wisconsin
Drew Huang- University of Wisconsin
Sara Tabatabai-University of Wisconsin
Brendan Eagan- University of Wisconsin