Alumni Profiles

Nathan Clemens, Ph.D, is an assistant professor of school psychology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Clemens received his Ph.D. in school psychology from Lehigh University in 2009.  While at Lehigh, Dr. Ed Shapiro and Dr. Lee Kern were instrumental in Dr. Clemens’ training and growth as a scholar.  Dr. Clemens’ areas of research and expertise include reading development and assessment, screening and progress monitoring of early academic skills, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to promote successful student outcomes. He has published research in journals such as Journal of Special Education, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Learning and Individual Differences, School Psychology Quarterly, and Reading Psychology.  Dr. Clemens was a recipient of the 2010 Division 16 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Psychological Association. To date he has secured over $1.6 million in external funding for research, including a recent grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education) and an early career grant from the Society for the Study of School Psychology.  

Kirra Guard comes to Lehigh University from Geneva, New York, where she grew up and attended college at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.  Working at various preschool centers and summer camps led Kirra to realize she wanted to pursue a career in education.  At Hobart and William Smith, Kirra participated in the teacher certification program for childhood and special education, and then stayed at the colleges to complete her Master of Arts in Teaching.  As part of her degree program, she completed a thesis that included empirical research on the effects of a therapy dog in the classroom.  Teacher training inspired Kirra to want to learn more about effective prevention and intervention programs for students with and at risk for disabilities and social-emotional difficulties.

Upon arriving at Lehigh University’s College of Education to study school psychology in 2009, she began working with Dr. Edward Shapiro in the Center for Promoting Research to Practice.  Her work with Dr. Shapiro has included participation in research funded by the Institute for Education Sciences to investigate the effects of professional development for teachers in the use of response to intervention practices for reading.  In addition, she has assisted in the supervision of school psychology trainees in the Ed.S. program as part of an Institute for Education Sciences training grant, and has worked with Dr. Shapiro and other graduate students to develop teacher rating scales of academic skills.  Kirra has served as the president and vice president of the Lehigh University chapter of the Student Affiliates of School Psychology and as a student representative to the American Psychological Association.  

Currently, Kirra is working as a graduate assistant at the Centennial School of Lehigh University while she completes her dissertation.  The purpose of her dissertation research is to evaluate a newly developed reading screening measure for first grade students, and is funded by a grant from the Society for the Study of School Psychology.  Next year, Kirra will complete her Ph.D. training with an internship at the Syracuse City School District in New York State.

Tamique Ridgard is a third year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at Lehigh University. Tamique first became interested in the intersection of education and psychology at Yale University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. After teaching high school Algebra for a year, Tamique began her graduate training at Lehigh University. Tamique’s broad interests include establishing integrated systems of care to better serve children from ethnic minority and low socioeconomic backgrounds. Her aim is to facilitate the collaboration of providers from educational, healthcare and community settings to positively impact the academic, mental health and physical health outcomes of young children. She is particularly interested in accomplishing these goals through prevention and early intervention work.

During her time at Lehigh, Tamique has earned a Master of Education in Human Development. At the beginning of her second year she was awarded the Student Affiliates in School Psychology Diversity Award through Division 16 of the American Psychological Association. Tamique also received a Graduate Student Research Grant during her second year to support her research exploring parent behavior during a shared science activity with preschool age children. Currently, Tamique is a trainee on the Pediatric School Psychology Leadership Training Grant, supported by the U.S. Department of Education. As part of this grant, Tamique is completing her practicum in various early childhood settings (ie., a kindergarten center, an Early Head Start program and a pediatric primary care center). She is also working with Dr. Patricia Manz on her “Little Talks” research grant, which is designed to support the language development of infants and toddlers in Early Head Start.