Educational psychology student, alumnus receive national awards

An alumnus and current doctoral student in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s  Department of Educational Psychology received recognition from national professional organizations.

Shlon Smith (Ph.D. ’24), a doctoral candidate in the school psychology program, was awarded the 2023 Presidential Award from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). The award recognizes exceptional service to children and school psychology.

“I am humbled to receive this award from the current NASP president Dr. Celeste Malone, who has been a true inspiration,” Smith said. “I engage in this work because I love students and want to see them excel in every aspect of their life. I never would have imagined that I would be recognized for doing something that I wake up excited to do each day.”

Jiawei Xiong (M.S. ’20, Ph.D. ’22) won the Brenda Loyd Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) for his dissertation, titled “Exploratory Process Data Analysis in the Mixed-Format Assessment: Using Reservoir Computing and Topic Modeling.”

The award recognizes an exceptional dissertation by a doctoral candidate in educational measurement and is named for Brenda Loyd, a scholar in the field.

“I’m excited to receive such prestigious recognition,” Xiong said.