Meet Our Team
Staff
With 36 years of experience, Jon (he/him/his) is a long time Early Childhood Special Educator and public-school administrator for early childhood programs; including special education, child find services, and family literacy programs. Jon and the family moved to Louisville Kentucky in 2000 where he held appointments with the National Center for Family Literacy, Bellarmine University, and the University of Louisville. Jon earned promotion and tenure (May 2018) during his six-year appointment with the University of Cincinnati, and again as an Associate Professor of Education at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. As of 2023, Jon has returned to the University of Louisville as director of the ECRC.
Jon’s research and teaching focuses on issues relating to family impact on very young children’s emergent literacy development; factors pertaining to children’s social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment to schooling; and applications of Motivational Interviewing (MI) in educational contexts. Jon is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and is trained in the use of the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) code. Jon works with a highly successful research consortium, whose current research is funded by Institute of Educational Sciences and includes adaptations of the First Step Next early intervention program for preschool-aged children (R324A150221) and children with tertiary behavior challenges in primary classrooms (R324A090237 and R324A150179), as well as the development of educational interventions utilizing MI in various contexts (R324A190173).
Dr. Jill Jacobi-Vessels (she/her/hers) (PhD, University of Louisville, 2008) has seventeen years of experience in administering children’s programs, including five years working with U.S. Army Child Development Services and two years as the Director of the University’s Early Learning Campus. She helped to conduct a large-scale longitudinal Reading and Math study, a longitudinal Scale Up Mathematics Intervention study, and assessed brain responses to auditory and visual stimuli using event related potentials to measure latency and amplitude. Her research interests include kindergarten readiness through play-based learning and drama, pre-and in- service teacher development, preschool learning trajectories in mathematics, and classroom quality and the effects on children’s achievement.
Michele Hemenway Pullen (she/her/hers) is an educator with a background in Psychology and Counseling, Waldorf Education and Learning and Behavior Disorders in addition to Early Childhood. She has taught and trained teachers in Early Childhood and Elementary/Middle School education for over thirty years. Her background in Waldorf Education has led her to implement courses for teachers in how to embed the Arts for improved learning and development in children. She is a Campaign for Black Male Achievement Beloved Community Fellow which is active in the Louisville community and nationally and has written social justice curriculum for 18 years. She formerly coordinated the Early Childhood Department at Ivy Tech Community College which is where she came to appreciate the Child Development Associate process that she currently works with at the Early Childhood Research Center.
Madisyn Hunt (she/her/hers) is a master’s student in the College of Education and Human Development studying Special Education with a concentration in Applied Behavior Analysis. She earned her undergraduate degrees in accountancy and psychology from the University of Notre Dame, where she discovered her interest in early childhood education through developmental psychology courses. For the past four years, Madisyn has worked with children in a variety of settings, driving her passion for creating individualized learning experiences that are rooted in equity and inclusion. She currently serves as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Early Childhood Research Center and plans to pursue a career practicing ABA after completing her master’s degree. In her spare time, Madisyn enjoys hiking, crocheting, and spending time with her cat, Tom.
Jennifer Lee is a unit business manager at the Early Childhood Research Center and Department coordinator of the Special Education, Early Childhood & Prevention Science at the College of Education and Human Development
Katherine Jordan is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville and staff member of the ECRC team.
Practice Associates
Betty Doyle (she/her/hers) grew up in Bardstown, KY and moved to Louisville to attend the University of Louisville for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. She obtained a B.S. in Elementary Education, and Special Education with a concentration in Learning and Behavior Disorders. She received her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education. Since a M.Ed. is her highest level of education, she's plain old "Betty," not Dr. Doyle, and all of her students (and many others) refer to her as “Ms. Betty” in the spirit of early childhood education. Before coming to U of L as an employee, she was a first grade teacher in Meade County. She started at U of L as a research assistant in 1993, working on the grant that eventually lead to the B-5 teacher certification in Kentucky. She worked as a research assistant on various grants for several years, before becoming a full-time faculty member in 2003.
Dianna Zink (she/her/hers) is a trainer and curriculum specialist for Child Development Associate degree trainings through the University of Louisville/Ohio Valley Education Consortium (OVEC) Partnership grant. She has developed 120 hours of curriculum and instructed Child Development Associate candidates in all areas of competency for certification through the National Association of Education of Young Children. Dianna provides support throughout the process, developing the professional portfolio, observing candidates as part of their final assessment and providing support for their final written exam.
Dianna has worked multiple roles within early childhood, including the director of the Early Learning Campus and other early childhood centers, as well doing some consulting work as well.
Research Associates
Fellow Statement
Dr. Carla Vidoni’s academic and professional path has been deeply rooted in early childhood physical education (PE). She began her career teaching PE in an early childhood education center in São Paulo, Brazil, and although she later taught across all grade levels, she consistently maintained her early childhood PE teaching position for ten years, reflecting a lasting commitment to movement and play in the early years.
In her early faculty role in higher education, Dr. Vidoni taught motor development and directed a campus-based lab that welcomed Head Start children for weekly movement sessions facilitated by university students. While her current teaching focuses on methods and content in elementary physical education and movement education for early childhood and elementary teaching majors, her passion for early childhood continues to guide her work.
Her research, particularly in fair play and social behaviors, has evolved over the years, but always with a strong emphasis on the value of physical activity and play during early childhood. Dr. Vidoni is an active member of the AIESEP Early Years Special Interest Group and collaborates with early childhood physical education scholars around the world, engaging in global conversations and initiatives to advance developmentally appropriate practices.
Symposium in Sand Play:
Dr. Carla Vidoni co-chaired an international early childhood symposium alongside Dr. Ingunn Fjørtoft (University of South-Eastern Norway) in the International Association of Physical Education in Higher Education (AIESEP), at University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. The symposium was led by Dr. Susanna Iivonen (University of Eastern Finland), who convened scholars from Finland, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, China, Spain, and the United States to explore the role of sand play in early childhood education. The symposium focused on the global mapping of children’s sand play environments, aiming to better understand how such play supports—or inhibits—children’s physical activity and holistic development. Dr. Vidoni’s presentation, co-authored with Dr. Nadia Valentine (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), examined cross-national similarities and differences in children’s sand play activities in Brazil and the U.S., contributing to the broader discussion on how sand play may influence children’s movement repertoire.