Judith Zorfass

Dr. Judith Zorfass, Principal Investigator for Project ASSIST, has been at EDC since 1986. Since that time, in her role as Associate Center Director, and more recently as Senior Director of Strategic Planning, she has directed projects that focus on research, curriculum design, software production, staff development, and dissemination via articles, books, videos and Web sites.

Her work has concentrated on helping general and special education teachers ensure that students with disabilities succeed in the general education classroom. Within this context, she has focused on the role that technology plays in supporting students. Much of her work has revolved around middle school change. Dr. Zorfass earned her doctorate in 1983 from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Based on a decade of research, drawn from work with schools across the country, she is the author of "Teaching Middle School Students to be Active Researchers," a book published by ASCD in 1988. She is the lead author of Make It Happen! and the Search Organizer software, products that help teachers and students in middle schools integrate technology into an inquiry-based curriculum. Apart from her professional life, she is very busy enjoying her three grandchildren, Hannah, Nathan, and Sam.

Lori Digisi

Dr. Lori DiGisi, Project Director for Project ASSIST, was at EDC from August 1994 to February 2000.

Prior to Project ASSIST, she was the methodologist for the Pathways for Learning project, also funded by OSEP to enhance content learning by students with disabilities. Her research interests focus on reading strategies, the analysis of the change in students' academic and social functioning over time, and measuring the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning. She has developed case studies of effective teaching of students with special needs in mainstream settings.

Outside of EDC, Dr. DiGisi was the literacy consultant for the Microcosmos Project at Boston University where she worked to embed literacy activities and modifications for children with special needs to the new edition of the Microcosmos curriculum. Dr. DiGisi earned her Ed.D. in Reading, Language, and Learning Disabilities from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she conducted research on how children learn from science texts and the integration of inquiry-based science and literacy instruction.

Dr. DiGisi spent the majority of her teaching career in urban schools in such roles as high school special educator, a Chapter 1 resource teacher in the middle school, and as an inclusion teacher in second and third grade classrooms. She has taught students with reading disabilities from kindergarten through adulthood at the Harvard Reading Laboratory and in private practice. She has also taught courses in literacy and special education at Lesley College, Wheelock College, Boston University, and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Joe Martinez

Dr. Joseph Martinez, Research Associate for Project ASSIST, has been the science resource person. He has contributed to the development of the Action Reflection Process and the Action Reflection Tool. He has also been directly involved with the data collection and analysis.

Prior to EDC, Dr. Martinez worked at the Microcosmos Project of the Boston University School of Education on a three-year National Science Foundation-funded professional development program directed at middle and high school science teachers. Recently, he completed a doctoral program at the Boston University School of Education. His dissertation concerned the professional development of science teachers. He is also interested in informal science education; he contributed to the initial evaluation of the Boston Computer Museum's Web site and to the evaluation of a curriculum developed by the Boston Transportation Museum.

Dr. Martinez also has a Master of Arts in Teaching degree, in science education, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology, both from Boston University. His original science interest was in vertebrate zoology. He has ten years experience in exotic animal husbandry, having worked for both the Boston and the New York Zoological Societies, and continues to engage in field studies of a herpetological nature.