Educational Psychology at Illinois

We are so proud of our incredible staff and faculty in Educational Psychology! Join us in celebrating our awardees:

Julie Ann Kellogg received the Staff Excellence Award, recognizing her exceptional in work in support of the our college and department.

Dr. Kaylin Ratner was named a Hardie Faculty Fellow.

Dr. Chris Napolitano was named a College of Education Distinguished Senior Scholar.

Dr. Lin Chen and Dr. Melissa Morgan were awarded the College of Education Public Engagement Award.

What a hard-working and dedicated group of collaborators and scholars. Thank you all so much four commitment to the College of Education and especially to the Department of Educational Psychology!

Are you interested in how systemic structures impact our current world? Curious how societies and people with different cultures can live together and the theories behind this? Join us in the Fall 2026 for the newly revamped EPSY 202: Exploring Cultural Pluralism. We will explore these questions plus the various “isms” that plague our society and how they might be addressed.

Register now!

We’re #7 in the nation and we’re just getting started. 💙🧡 We are so proud to be ranked among the best Educational Psychology graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report 2026. Shoutout to our incredible students, staff, and faculty for making this program what it is.

Learn more about incredible departments by clicking the link in our bio!

Reflecting on good days! We had a great time at the Grad Student Visit Day at the beginning of the month. EPSY PhD admitted students, current students, and faculty got together to connect and break bread at Pour Bros.

Welcome future EPSY Students and future Illini!

Join us in congratulating Dr. Taiylor R. Rayford! Dr. Rayford has received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division E (Human Development). Her dissertation "Hope for the Best, Expect the Worse: A Framework for Understanding Belonging Fulfillment among Black Graduate Students" explores the emerging construct of "belonging fulfillment" through the lens of Black graduate students. So proud!

We’re excited to share that the Self and Psychological Well-being (SAP) Lab will be attending the SPSP 2026 Annual Convention!

If you’re attending , come see us at our talks and posters!

So great to see our faculty doing incredible things across the globe! Professor Kiel Christianson kicked off his sabbatical with two invited talks at Charles University in Prague, Czechia. One talk was on the cognitive processes underlying rereading, and the other was on the phenomenon of Auditory Perceptual Simulation (APS), or imagining a voice in your head, during silent reading. He also served as an outside reader for a dissertation defense.

On February 10th, Developmental Sciences doctoral student AJ Espinoza moderated a Fireside Chat with Developmental Sciences Assistant Professor Dr. Aixa Marchand.

Dr. Marchand’s research examines how social, cultural, and familial contexts shape students’ educational experiences, with a focus on families and youth of color. AJ's research interests are centered around critical consciousness (CC) development among adolescents, with a specific focus on CC development among mentors such as teachers and parents.

This informal conversation, moderated by doctoral student AJ Espinoza, offered space for dialogue, reflection, and audience questions.

Our Counseling Division is excited to introduce the opening of the Healing, Training, and Research Clinic!

They are now accepting new clients for in-person weekly counseling and community psychoeducation workshops from January–May 2026.

🔗 Click here to learn more or request services: https://cphealing.education.illinois.edu/

Alumni spotlight! Dr. Taiylor R. Rayford has recently been spotlighted by the Society for Research in Child Development. In this spotlight, Dr. Rayford discusses her recent project "Using belonging fulfillment to understand the psychosocial development of Black graduate students." Read more here: https://www.srcd.org/node/2965