About Us
Deanna Friesen, PhD.
Dr. Deanna Friesen is the principal investigator of the Bilingualism, Education and Reading Research Lab. She is an associate professor at Western University. She is committed to conducting research that advances educators' ability to teach reading skills to all students in their classrooms.
Olivia Ward
Olivia is a third year PhD student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program. Her doctoral research seeks to better understand the reading comprehension of different groups of children and adults.
Allison Horsley
Allison Horsley is a first-year Ph.D. Candidate in the School and Applied Child Psychology program. Her master’s thesis examined educators’ knowledge and confidence about teaching students with exceptionalities. Her previous Bachelor of Education degree and experience as a teacher have enabled her to work with students with diverse needs and abilities. She strives to create supportive learning environments for all students and aims to provide support for teachers in need. Allison aspires to work as a school psychologist, providing support to educators, staff and students. Through her work, she hopes to advocate for practices that ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed.
Pascale Gendron
Hi everyone! My name is Pascale and I am currently in my second year of my master's degree in School and Applied Child Psychology. I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology and teacher's college at Laurentian University, in Sudbury, Ontario. My current thesis works examines learning support teachers’ (LSTs) use of the psychoeducational report and how its information informs their practice. Some of my other research interests include early intervention and programming considerations in retaining students with learning needs in French Immersion programs, emotional literacy programming within schools, and decision making and cognitive load considerations when consulting with educational professionals.
Olivia Butler
Hi everyone! My name is Olivia Butler and I am in my fourth year of an Honours Specialization in Psychology and a Major in French Studies at Western. My research is focused on examining educators' perspectives of teaching literary in French education. I am focused on identifying what obstacles French educators may face in the implementation of new recommendations for evidence-based literacy practices, recommended by the Ontario Human Rights Commission Board in their Ontario Right to Read Inquiry Report.
Chloe Wang
Hello! My name is Chloe, a third-year Honors Psychology student. As a volunteer in the lab, I’ve been working on an eye-tracking study that investigates exercises for collocation learning, focusing on data collection from second-language English users. If you’re curious about any of our ongoing projects, we’d love for you to participate and enjoy the experience with us!
Former Lab Members
