About me

Researcher in inclusive and special education, focused on the professional development of paraeducators.

I am an M.A. candidate in Education with a concentration in special education at Sonoma State University, advised by Dr. Elizabeth Ducy. For my thesis I am conducting a qualitative study of paraeducator professional development, interviewing up to twenty paraeducators in inclusive classrooms across the United States, with reflexive thematic analysis to follow.

Before returning to graduate study, I spent close to a decade in applied practice as a psychologist and inclusive education consultant in Russia and Kazakhstan. I directed one of the first inclusive kindergartens in Kazakhstan and developed a state-accredited training program that prepared more than a hundred educators and paraeducators for inclusive settings. That work shaped the questions I now study, in particular the gap between policies that promise inclusion and the preparation and support educators actually receive.

In 2023 I worked as a researcher at Aestima (Latvia), co-authoring three reports, one on artificial intelligence in the screening and assessment of autism and two on digital employment opportunities for autistic adults. I also curated the autism research knowledge base behind Aestima Superbot, an LLM-based research and evidence-synthesis tool. My earlier degrees are a Master's in Counseling Psychology from Saint Petersburg State University and a Bachelor's in Psychology from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, both completed with distinction and based on quantitative research.

My work returns to one question: how educators in inclusive classrooms build the knowledge their work demands, and how practical tools can support them. You can read about one such tool on the Projects page, see the fuller record on Experience, and find ways to reach me on Contact.

Research interests

• Paraeducator preparation and professional development
• Inclusive and special education
• Disability justice and critical perspectives on inclusion
• Education policy and the gap between policy and practice
• Educational technology and AI for educators
• Qualitative inquiry in education