Alumni

The PhD in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program opened its doors to the first class of Ph.D. students in Fall 2013. The ground-breaking program is thrilled to recognize the students who have graduated and/or successfully defended their dissertation and are on the way to graduation.

Dr. SaraBeth Sullivan

Alumna, PEN

Dissertation: “Do expert signers recruit signed phonology processes while solving single digit multiplication problems?”

Graduation: 2022

Current Position: TBA

Dr. Sullivan (Dr. Ilaria Berteletti, Advisor) worked in the Numeracy and Educational Neuroscience (NENS) lab with Dr. Berteletti.

Her dissertation work focuses on how the use of a visual language such as American Sign Language (ASL) impacts the neural networks for multiplication fact retrieval. She has conducted behavioral, EEG and fMRI studies to further explore this topic, aiming to contribute to closing the gap of knowledge in numerical cognition in how deaf signers process arithmetic.

Dr. Sullivan came to Gallaudet University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a Minor in Special Education from High Point University in High Point, North Carolina. She completed cognitive neuroscience summer rotations with Dr. Daniel Hyde at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and with Dr. Charles Nelson at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. 

Dr. Sullivan served as a Research Intern with the Learner Variability Project at Digital Promise and has continued translational work with education-focused organizations to advocate for deaf students. She hopes to continue her translational work towards educational equity in her post-graduate endeavors.