COLLEGE OF

Education and Human Development

Rising Alumni

2026 Rising Alumni Award Recipient: Na Zhang

Dr. Na Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut. She directs the Family Resilience and Mindfulness Empowerment (FRAME) Lab, which develops, evaluates, and implements mindfulness-based family interventions to promote mental health and well-being among high-risk families.

2026 Rising Alumni Award Recipient: Tara Kulkarni

Dr. Tara Kulkarni is a school psychologist and a tenure track professor at Cal State Monterey Bay. She helps schools use data to support decision making and intervention planning to improve literacy and math outcomes within multi-tiered systems of support. This is closely related to her research, which focuses on closing educational disparities of children in schools, especially of students with disabilities, and other underserved groups (e.g., multilingual students). Her expertise in assessment and measurement supports my commitment to high leverage practices that inform intervention and equitable outcomes.

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