College of Education

Dr. Anondah Saide is a developmental psychologist with a mixed-methods research approach. Dr. Saide’s research program spans two distinct but related areas. The first pertains to the complex interplay between culture and cognitive development. For example, Dr. Saide seeks to understand how family background influences children’s reasoning about religious (e.g., God), scientific (e.g., germs), and existential (e.g., death) concepts. By extension, Dr. Saide examines how cognitive biases may enhance or constrain the learning of cultural concepts.

The second area of her research program examines how cultural concepts become components of worldview commitments (e.g., political, religious, moral) in adulthood and the socioemotional correlates (e.g., anxiety) of those commitments. Dr. Saide's scholarship is committed to promoting transparency, diverse perspectives, and public engagement in the scientific process. Dr. Saide’s scholarship can be found in journals such as Cognitive Science, the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, the Journal of Cognition and Culture, and Frontiers in Psychology.

Anne N. Rinn, Ph.D. is Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology and Professor of Educational Psychology and Gifted Education. She has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Houston and a doctorate in Educational Psychology from Indiana University. Her research is related to the social and emotional experiences of gifted individuals and the psychosocial skills necessary for the development of academic talent. She has published around 100 journal articles and book chapters, as well as two textbooks: Social, Emotional, and Psychosocial Development of Gifted and Talented Individuals (Rinn, 2020) and From Giftedness to Gifted Education: Reflecting Theory in Practice (Plucker et al., 2017). She was co-editor of the Journal of Advanced Academics from 2017-2022.

Pamela Peak earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of North Texas. Dr. Peak has spent more than 30 years working in various capacities in area school districts, but all with students with special needs. Her research focuses on the development and use of educational assessments to reduce the disproportionality of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education and pre-/in-service teacher preparation. She has developed widely used assessment instruments including the Test of Early Written Language, Third Edition (TEWL-3) and Young Children’s Achievement Test, Second Edition (YCAT-2).

Professor Hull came to UNT from Baylor University in 2007 and presently coordinates the Research Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics PhD program in the Department of Educational Psychology where he teaches courses in advanced measurement and psychometrics including Classical Test Theory, Generalizability Theory, and Item Response Theory. He also has methodological research interests in experimental and quasi-experimental design and analysis of field trial studies in education, and has more than 25 years of experience conducting program evaluations of educational programs and interventions. His substantive interests include Positive Youth Development and STEM education based on more than 30 years of work in STEM education, and with youth and adolescents in developing countries in the Caribbean region. He was named a Fulbright Scholar in 2019 for this PYD and methods work in evaluation and held a visiting appointment at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.

Sue Young finished a bachelor’s degree at TCU while working full-time for the Neeley School of Business, and after graduating as a TCU Development Officer. She started working at UNT in 1998, and has worked for the North Texas Community College Consortium, the Faculty Senate, the Bill J. Priest Center for Community College Education, and currently for the KHPR Dept.

Sue endowed the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Ally Scholarship here at UNT, and was among the core group that started the UNT Ally Program, which later paved the way for the UNT Pride Alliance, a gender & sexuality resource center and a safe space for all. Sue has served as a UNT Staff Senate Executive Officer, has won multiple university diversity & volunteer awards, the UNT Staff Excellence Award, and is a member of the UNT President’s Council.