IES Blog

Institute of Education Sciences

Introducing the 2024-2025 Open Science Interns from the Virtual Student Federal Service Program

This year, we have four student interns who are joining IES from the U.S. Department of State’s Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) Program. These doctoral student interns are the first cohort of IES open science interns to work together collaboratively. They will be supporting NCER and NCSER in understanding and communicating about research in education and special education. Under the mentorship of two IES program officers, Helyn Kim and Amy Sussman, the interns will use and refine their knowledge and skills of education research to help us communicate about our work and investments to the broader public, including those who can use the information for practice or policymaking. We asked the interns to tell us about themselves, their research interests, their goals for this internship, and a fun fact.

Stephanie Estrera, Florida State University

Hi y’all, I am a third-year PhD student in developmental psychology at Florida State University and an IES predoctoral fellow. Prior to moving to Tallahassee, Florida and starting my PhD, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin (hook’em!). In 2018-20, I was an education volunteer with Peace Corps Philippines, which is an experience that has deeply influenced my current research interests and goals.  Broadly, I am interested in using behavioral genetic methods to examine the direct role of a child’s environment on their reading outcomes. Some of my current work is focused on children’s reading motivation, measurement of family stressors, and the role of the home and school environments on children’s reading development. I believe that the way forward in producing relevant and replicable research is through open science and transparency collaboration. Currently, I am a member of the LDbase team, an NIH-funded data repository and open science resource for educational and developmental science communities.

One of my goals during this internship is to learn best practices for research dissemination for education stakeholders outside of the scientific community. The work conducted by education researchers affects the everyday American, but it can be a challenge to make those findings understandable. As a researcher, I believe it is the scientific community’s duty to disseminate our work in a way that resonates with other educational stakeholders so we can move forward and improve education for all. I'm excited for this internship, because I think it will be an excellent opportunity to hone and practice my science communication skills.

Fun Fact: Outside of my work, I am an ocean-enthusiast and Open Water SCUBA certified! Some of my favorite marine life encounters include whale sharks, manatees, sea turtles, octopuses, and the humble box fish (my favorite reef fish).

Heidi Hines, University of California, Irvine

I am a third-year PhD student in education at the University of California, Irvine. Before starting my PhD program, I worked in the public school system as a school psychologist. My experience as a school psychologist and observing the prevalence of reading difficulties among children led me to become interested in researching early literacy instruction and intervention. My research interests include early literacy for all students, especially those with disabilities. I feel compelled to learn more about research in early literacy and make this research easily accessible to the public to help guide instructional practices.

One of my goals in this internship is to learn more about the strategies used to disseminate research and how those strategies are implemented. Another goal is to increase my skills in sharing research in a practitioner-friendly manner. I’m excited about this internship opportunity as it will provide hands-on experience collaborating with experts and disseminating research.

Fun Fact: I love to run! I ran cross country and track throughout high school and college. I’ve continued to run since then, and I’ve completed 6 full marathons and over a dozen half marathons.

Audra Johnston-Zamora, University of Oregon

I am currently a second-year PhD student at the University of Oregon in the department of special education and clinical services. My educational pursuits have very much been influenced by my own difficult upbringing and experiences in the foster care system. During my own journey towards well-being, I learned about trauma-informed practices, the neurobiological implications of exposure to trauma during early childhood, and the evidenced-based interventions that may serve to buffer those life-long implications. Since then, whether I took on the role of a classroom teacher, coach to other educators, or future researcher, my “why” is and always will be to create a loving, compassionate, healing educational space where all children (and even adults) can thrive.

Through my experiences with this internship, my goal is to develop my communication and research skills. Until recently, even as an educator, I was hardly exposed to empirical research or taught the skills needed to truly understand it. Yet, so many wonderful advances and knowledge about best practices can be understood through research. In this internship, I plan on strengthening my ability to concisely synthesize critical information taken from research studies in an effort to address the research to practice gap.

Fun Fact: I am a Disney fanatic! One year I spent a total of 22 days at Disneyland Park with my family. I have numerous Disney tattoos and dresses, and I can recite the songs and dialogue for Beauty and the Beast from beginning to end.

Bhabika Joshi, Vanderbilt University

I am currently a third-year PhD student in special education at Vanderbilt University, with a focus on quantitative research, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, and autism. I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and have previously served as senior director of clinical services. I earned my master’s in applied behavior analysis and special education from Vanderbilt University in 2020 and hold dual undergraduate degrees in English and communication sciences and disorders (speech language pathology) from The University of Texas at Austin, with a concentration on autism research. In 2018, I undertook a Fulbright fellowship in Nepal, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

My research is driven by a deep passion for advancing knowledge in the autism community, including advocating for families and caretakers of children with autism and identifying culturally responsive avenues of support for families and children with autism.  During this internship, I look forward to deepening my understanding of quantitative research methodologies and exploring how they can be applied to support culturally and linguistically diverse children with autism.

Fun Fact: Outside of my professional pursuits, I enjoy reading, writing, hiking, and exploring new places. I am currently training for a trek to Everest Base Camp in December 2024.


This blog was produced by Helyn Kim (helyn.kim@ed.gov), NCER program officer, and Amy Sussman (amy.sussman@ed.gov), NCSER program officer.