The MENG Lab Director
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Dr. Zhiling Meng
Dr. Zhiling Meng
I am the director of the MENG Lab. I am an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. My research integrates developmental science, data-driven evidence, and policy analysis to strengthen the learning systems that support young children and their families, particularly for multilingual learners. Through an interdisciplinary approach, I strive to generate actionable insights that promote equity in early education systems and nurture the holistic development of all children.
My work has been published in top-tier journals and funded by the American Educational Research Association and the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education.
I completed my doctoral training in Education Policy at the University of California, Irvine, and my postdoctoral training at the Ohio State University. I hold a master's degree in public policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University and a bachelor's degree in business from Johnson & Wales University.
I am very excited to discuss research and collaborate on projects to promote child development. Feel free to contact me for collaboration!
Dr. Ela Sumeyye Secim is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Manager in the Department of Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she coordinates and supports the state-funded Strengthening Early Literacy in Partnership (SELP) project. Her research focuses on early literacy development, children's reading motivation, language acquisition, picture books, the home literacy environment, and the use of generative AI in early literacy. Before joining UNLV, she was a Visiting Scholar at The Ohio State University's Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, where she contributed to the IES-funded STAR 4 project and used eye-tracking to study preschoolers' visual attention to print. She previously served as Assistant Professor, Department Chair, and Preschool Center Director at Amasya University in Türkiye.
She earned her Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education from Hacettepe University and her B.E. from Middle East Technical University. She is excited to contribute to the Meng Lab's work on early learning, language development, and equity for young children and families.
Graduate Student Researchers
Shinia Wade is a first-year doctoral student in Special Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and a Graduate Assistant working with Dr. Zhiling Shea. She holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from UNLV.
Shinia has professional experience in early intervention and family child care quality improvement, where she supports young children, families, and early childhood educators. Her work has shaped her interest in connecting research and practice in early childhood settings.
Rosa Rudd is a Graduate Student Researcher in the Meng Lab and a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She has dual master’s training in Management Information Systems and Cybersecurity from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In the Meng Lab, Rosa works with Dr. Zhiling Shea on research related to early childhood education, educational data, and the long-term effects of Pre-K programs. Her work centers on large-scale data analysis using Stata and supporting research that examines educational outcomes, long-term learning patterns, and equity for young children and families.
Jiacan He is the Lab Manager of the Meng Lab and a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds a strong quantitative background in applied microeconomics, causal inference, and data analysis, with research interests spanning education policy, labor markets, and social inequality. Her work combines large-scale administrative data, survey data, and econometric methods to study how institutional environments and policy interventions shape individual outcomes. As a Lab Manager in the Meng Lab, Jiacan supports the design, implementation, and analysis of research projects related to educational practices and student development. She looks forward to contributing to collaborative, interdisciplinary research that bridges economics, education, and policy.
Yuemeng Wang is a doctoral student in Educational Psychology (Special Education) at the University of Connecticut. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, she earned her M.S. in Educational Sciences from KU Leuven in Belgium and her B.A. in English from Shandong University. Her work focuses on equitable Tier 1 PBIS/MTSS implementation and inclusion in general education. She is also interested in leveraging large language models to enhance teacher preparation and professional development in support of these goals.
Siyuan Chen is a PhD student in Curriculum and Educational Leadership at William & Mary. Her research focuses on the intersection of teacher education curriculum design and artificial intelligence, with a particular interest in how AI applications can support educator development and school leadership. She is dedicated to shaping future-ready curricula that integrate smart technologies to enhance the teaching and learning experience. Prior to W&M, she earned her MA in TESOL fron USC and BA in English from Shanghai University. With both quantitative and qualitative research background, she looks forward to bridging technology and education in the Meng Lab.
Qilin Zhou is a graduate researcher working at the intersection of machine learning, language technologies, and human-centered AI. She works with the University of Chicago Knowledge Lab and Argonne National Laboratory on developing scalable retrieval-augmented generation systems, tools for interpreting large language models, and document-intelligence methods applied to policy data. Her broader interests focus on how AI systems process and support language development, with applications in early learning, educational assessment, and child-language understanding. She has collaborated with clinicians, educators, and public-sector partners on projects involving language development, trauma-informed assessment, and multilingual information extraction, and she is excited to contribute these perspectives to ongoing work in the Meng Lab.
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