Dr. Lucía I. Méndez is a Co-PI of a newly funded interdisciplinary NIH five-year research grant, “More PEAS Please! Bridging the GAP Between Preschool and K-12 Learning Environments” awarded in collaboration with researchers from East Carolina University, North Carolina State University, and North Carolina A&T State University.
This grant supports the investigation of effective preschool science education approaches for underrepresented minority children. Dr. Méndez’ research focuses on cultural and linguistically responsive literacy-based approaches to academic language instruction for bilingual and culturally diverse preschoolers and the role of language in promoting school readiness skills, including literacy, early math and sciences.
She has extensive experience designing and implementing bilingual language-based literacy and early science interventions using shared readings, multimodal instruction, and technology for school readiness promotion in Latino Head Start preschoolers.