Vanessa Bermudez

Vanessa Bermudez is interested in the design and evaluation of culturally-based educational programs aiming to improve school-readiness and school outcomes for children from underprivileged communities. She is also interested in the alignment of early childhood practices at-home and at-school that promote optimal learning, and the use of community spaces to engage families in conversations and activities that enhance cognitive and social development in children.

Vanessa earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Duke University and received her Master of Arts in Research and Experimental Psychology from San Jose State University. As an undergraduate student, she was involved in studies investigating young children’s numerical cognition and the effectiveness of game-based applications and contributed to meta-analysis reviews on the effects of tutoring and feedback on students’ academic achievement. For her master’s thesis, she collaborated with Stanford’s Language Learning Lab to investigate the contribution of siblings’ language exposure in predicting Spanish and English language outcomes in preschool-aged children. While working at Stanford, she also contributed to research on the relations between early language processing, parenting practices, and school readiness, as well as the evaluation of a community-based parenting program for Spanish-speaking parents.

Her research experiences centered on young children’s learning, deepened her interest in the development of evidence-based early childhood education programs, in different social contexts, that diminish educational inequalities for children from low socioeconomic status. Working with her advisor, Dr. Andres Bustamante, she plans to research the effectiveness of high-quality early child care and preschool in STEM outcomes, and community- and school-based initiatives to engage children in playful learning.