Lauren Bryant

Faculty Development Fellow

Lauren Bryant was born and raised in Northern Virginia, but has been in Blacksburg long enough that she now considers it home. She arrived in 2002 to get her undergraduate degree and has never left. She received her bachelor's in Human Development and her master's in Educational Psychology from Virginia Tech, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology.

Lauren became interested in human learning while working as a Day Treatment Therapist for two years in Giles County. Working with low-income first graders with behavior problems in a public school setting led her to ask what methods could help disadvantaged students learn and develop motivation for learning. Her curiosity piqued, she returned to Virginia Tech as a graduate student.

Lauren joined CIDER in 2010, and is the co-chair of CIDER's Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, a conference dedicated to the scholarship of teaching and learning and offers free registration to participants. She is also involved in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education as well as the Formative Evaluation Program offered by CIDER. Her research interests are in student motivation and individual differences, as well as educational research methodology, specifically mixed methods.

Despite her graduate student status, Lauren maintains a life outside of graduate school. In her free time she enjoys a daily walk with her significant other and two dogs. The four of them can often be seen lapping the Drillfield or taking up way too much space on the Huckleberry Trail. She also enjoys cooking local food, exploring new cities and simply being outside.

111 Hillcrest Hall (0453), Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-6823  |  cider@vt.edu