Alumni

Graduate Student Alumni

Samantha Steimle

Samantha Steimle completed her PhD in the Psychology Department in 2024 under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Ryan. Her research focuses on analyzing the unique stressors and challenges that low-income families and children face, and exploring policies and interventions that can help mitigate them. Her dissertation work examined the effects of different cash-related policies distributed during the pandemic on families' economic and psychological well-being. Prior to coming to Georgetown, she worked as a research assistant at MDRC. She received her Masters in Public Policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy and her B.S. in Psychology from Fordham University.

Sam is currently a National Poverty Fellow through the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty, in residence at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).

Anne Partika

Anne Partika graduated with her PhD in the Human Development and Public Policy program in the Psychology department in 2023, working under the mentorship of Dr. Anna Johnson. She is focused on identifying early childhood education programs and policies to best promote equitable outcomes for children. Her dissertation research focused on the role of bilingual supports in dual language learners’ development from preschool to elementary school.

Prior to Georgetown, Anne served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Slovakia and studied early childhood policy and program implementation at Child Trends, focusing mostly on childcare access and quality. Anne received her M.P.P. from the McCourt School of Public Policy and B.A. in Psychology from the College of Wooster.

Currently, Anne works as an Education Researcher at the Center for Learning & Development at SRI International.

Caitlin Hines

Caitlin Hines graduated with her PhD in the Human Development and Public Policy program in the Psychology department in 2022, working under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Ryan. Broadly, Caitlin is interested in how differences in parenting contribute to school readiness for different groups of parents and children. Specifically, for her doctoral research she focused on the daily effects of food insecurity on parent and child well-being. In 2018, she completed a Masters Degree in Public Policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy. Prior to coming to Georgetown, Caitlin received a Masters in Applied Developmental Psychology from George Mason University where she focused on the relationship between public pre-kindergarten programs and school readiness. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from The University of Texas.

Caitlin currently holds a postdoc position at the Pennsylvania State University.

Jane Hutchison graduated with her PhD in psychology in 2021, under the joint supervision of Dr. Deborah Phillips and Dr. Ian Lyons. Broadly, her research is focused on identifying factors that promote early numeracy and math development, specifically in the context of early childhood education. For her doctoral research, she investigated the underlying mechanisms that mediate the bi-directional relations between executive functioning (EF) and math, with the ultimate goal of understanding how this relation can be leveraged to support the co-development of both skills prior to kindergarten entry. Jane holds a Masters of Public Policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a B.A. in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Western Ontario.

Jane is currently a Senior Manager of Future Skills Research with the Conference Board of Canada.