About Us

Cara Wylie, EdD – Principal Investigator

Cara is the Director of the eMINTS National Center and also Co-PI of the Talk to Read . Cara was a classroom teacher for 11 years in the St. Louis area before joining eMINTS in 2000. Since then, she has worked with teachers, administrators, and technology specialists through professional development and on-site support. She has many years of experience managing and implementing large U.S. Department of Education grants awarded to eMINTS at the University of Missouri since 2015.

Maggie Bunten Ed.S. – Professional Learning Specialist

Maggie is an experienced educator with 18 years in public education. She currently leads Talk to Read©, a $4 million U.S. Department of Education-funded literacy recovery initiative. Her work includes piloting the program in two Missouri districts and training educators across 14 districts to implement its innovative strategies.

Kirsten Tivaringe, Professional Learning Specialist

Dr. Kirsten Tivaringe has more than a decade of experience as a teacher, coach, curriculum designer, and professional learning consultant, and specializes in bridging research and practice through high-impact coaching and collaborative learning cycles that build teacher capacity and improve student outcomes.
Dr. Tivaringe is also an Assistant Teaching Professor of Literacy at the University of Missouri, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate literacy courses. She is passionate about learning alongside teachers in their classrooms and helping educators translate evidence-based practices into meaningful, sustainable instructional change.

Sam von Gillern, Co-Investigator

As the lead AI consultant for the Amplify Literacy initiative, Dr. von Gillern brings deep expertise at the intersection of literacy education and educational technology. As a faculty member and researcher at the University of Missouri, his extensive research and journal publications focus directly on AI literacy and the application of AI tools in educational settings to improve learning outcomes. His history of hosting professional development sessions ensures that teachers are thoroughly trained not just to use AI, but to integrate it meaningfully to support student achievement and differentiation.

Christi Bergin, Co-Investigator   

Christi Bergin EdS, PhD (Stanford) is Research Professor Emerita at Mizzou. She is former Associate Dean for Research, past chair of the national research group (AERA) for social-emotional learning and on the board of the international Relationship-Centered Education. She is an applied developmental psychologist. Her research focuses on prosocial behavior – or helping children become more kind, trustworthy, and cooperative – as well as teaching effectiveness. She directs the nation’s premiere Prosocial Development and Education Research Lab. She co-founded the Network for Educator Effectiveness to provide a research-based approach to teacher and administrator development designed to overcome the shortcomings of VAM and other approaches. With colleagues she has been entrusted with over $72 million in research funding by the US federal government. She has evaluated the effectiveness of dozens of school-based programs, she has published research studies on classroom engagement, teacher-student relationships, classroom discipline, prosocial behavior in school, and literacy. She is author of “Designing a Prosocial Classroom” (Norton).

Barri Bumgarner, Professional Learning Specialist

My work as a literacy professor, professional development leader, and founder of Westminster College’s 1:1 initiative focuses on supporting future and current teachers in integrating technology to improve instructional effectiveness, student engagement, and literacy outcomes. With a PhD in English Education and Digital Literacy and nearly two decades of experience designing and leading professional development, I have partnered with preschool, elementary, and secondary level educators as well as prepared future teachers across grade levels through district collaborations, the Missouri Writing Project, and higher education initiatives. I have led cross-content literacy efforts, campus- and district-wide 1:1 implementation, and technology-rich reading and writing workshops—including the development of the Digital Blue initiative, Apple Teacher training, sustained faculty professional development, and the instructional exploration of AI tools. Grounded in classroom practice and teacher development, my teacher educator work emphasizes instructional clarity, developmental appropriateness, and equity to ensure that technology integration strengthens teacher effectiveness and supports high-quality literacy instruction for upper elementary through high school learners.

Brandy Van De Riet, Professional Learning Specialist

As a consultant, Brandy partners with school districts throughout the state to design and deliver high-impact professional development, cultivate sustainable reading and writing workshop models, and elevate instructional practices to support student achievement. Driven by a deep commitment to systemic student support, Brandy also serves as a school psychometrist. In this capacity, she utilizes data-driven diagnostic insights to bridge the gap between educational assessment and classroom practice, ensuring that diverse learners receive the targeted interventions they need to thrive. Brandy brings specialized expertise through her extensive work with the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP). Her contributions include test writing, identifying and aligning priority standards, conducting rigorous content and bias reviews, and developing benchmark descriptors. This deep knowledge of state standards and assessment design allows her to help districts align their daily instruction directly with state expectations.

At the higher education level, Brandy serves as an adjunct instructor at the University of Missouri and as a facilitator for the Missouri Writing Project, where she helps prepare and mentor the next generation of educators. She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Missouri and completed her undergraduate studies at Hannibal-LaGrange University.

Amanda Olsen, Independent External Evaluator

Dr. Olsen is a faculty affiliate of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute and serves as the independent external evaluator for this project. As an applied methodologist, she has expertise in multilevel modeling, impact evaluation, focus groups, observations, interviews, and mixed-methods designs, which she applies to evaluate whether educational interventions are working as intended within and across schools and districts. She has received over $23 million from federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.

Joy Roos, Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Roos is a postdoctoral fellow of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute. She serves on the evaluation team for this project with Dr. Olsen. As a former practitioner, her work emphasizes the application of developmental science in real-world settings. She has extensive experience designing and conducting evaluations of school- and community-based programs, including statewide youth development efforts. Her expertise includes mixed-methods evaluation. She has worked on large-scale, federally funded projects to develop and evaluate scalable, classroom-ready tools that aid educators’ ability to support and monitor their students’ wellbeing.

Jerod Quinn, Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Quinn is a postdoctoral fellow of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute. He serves on the evaluation team with Dr. Olsen. He has worked in higher education for over twenty years, with most of that time in instructional design and faculty development serving as an assistant director and director across multiple universities. He is the author of three books on creating and humanizing online learning. He has earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with his academic work focusing on self-determined motivation, creativity in learning, quantitative measurement, and scale development.