NCID-3252
Taormina (Tara) Lepore
Post-Graduate Fellow
Western Michigan University, Mallinson Institute for Science Education
Education/Degree:
1 Integrative Biology Integrative Biology (University of California Berkeley)
About
Dr. Lepore is a disabled, neurodivergent, queer, Jewish-Sicilian, and first-in-family paleontologist and STEM education equity researcher with expertise exploring disability equity in STEM college environments. Her background is in a mixture of paleobiology and STEM education research, and her dissertation focused on perceptions of accessibility and disability in college evolutionary biology courses, along with mammalian dental biology. She incorporates Universal Design for Learning and other equitable pedagogical methods into her teaching and research, and is curious about attitudes and perceptions which keep people in - or out - of STEM. She is also interested in neurodivergent groupwork and active learning in college science classes, as well as field science equity and the impact of field courses.
Current Work
People with disabilities, including neurodivergent people - autism, ADHD, and so on - are sometimes made to feel like they don't belong in science environments like labs and workspaces. This is true in college science classes, too. Dr. Lepore is working on better understanding what helps neurodivergent and other disabled people feel like they belong in science college classes, and in science in general. To do that, she will talk with instructors and students about their experiences in the classroom, and help instructors and students develop a more welcoming atmosphere which acknowledges disability needs within class environments. This is building on other work Dr. Lepore has done to ask non-disabled students what they think about accessibility and disability in their science classes.
Research Area Keyword(s)
Critical Disability Theory, universal design for learning, Neurodivergence, Secondary Science Courses, Paleontology