I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Dr. Schneider at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society annual meeting in San Francisco, California (USA) in April 2022. We shared a group meal and discussed what we had learned at the conference so far, in addition to life as scientists in academia. Virtually and at other conferences (including flux 2024!), I’ve kept in touch with Dr. Schneider since (for which I am very grateful!).

Dr. Julie Schneider is an Associate Project Scientist for the UC|CSU Collaborative for Neuroscience, Diversity, and Learning. In her own words, this job title means that Dr. Schneider gets to “collaborate with researchers throughout the state of California to create evidence-based, openly-accessible content for both in-service and pre-service educators that is aligned with state legislative policies. This content focuses on whole child development, providing educators with a more detailed understanding of how brain development and individual differences underlie children's abilities in the classroom, with actionable strategies teachers can implement that promote learning for all students.” This role seamlessly helps Dr. Schneider combat what she sees as one of the most pressing issues in our field of developmental cognitive neuroscience - “the growing mistrust of science within the broader sociopolitical climate”. She passionately urges all of us to come together as a scientific community to “generate clear, credible, and accessible evidence that speaks to real-world concerns” and build stronger networks beyond our academic “inner circle”, including researchers of course but also educators, families, clinicians, and community leaders. Dr. Schneider’s research interests, in her own words, lie in “experience-dependent neuroplasticity - how children’s environments shape their brain development and, in turn, their learning outcomes in school”. Soon after completing her undergraduate degree, Dr. Schneider began working with incarcerated adolescents who struggled with not only academics but communication as a whole. These experiences demonstrated to her the failures of educational systems in supporting these students, ultimately empowering her to try to fix these broken systems. Dr. Schneider views these individuals’ struggles not as individual deficits but instead “as a call to reimagine how we structure learning environments to be more equitable and inclusive”. And indeed this is what she is, boots on the ground, trying to do every day. 

Now that we’ve established Dr. Julie Schneider as a fantastic scientist and veritable mover and shaker, let’s talk about her flux symposium. Given her collaborative role creating evidence-based and equitable educational content, it only makes sense for her to have put together a symposium highlighting her work and others’ work in this space. Indeed, this symposium is “focused on bridging developmental cognitive neuroscience with educational practice and policy—a space [she] believe[s] holds immense potential for impact”. It brings together a panel of scientists who have leveraged “neuroscience to inform practices and policies to create systematic, meaningful change for children in real-world contexts”. The things we all aspire to do, the translatable science we want to conduct and implement - they’re pioneering. We have so much to learn from these scientists about how to conduct and translate relevant research, and I could not be more excited for this symposium.

First to speak in this symposium will be Dr. Dylan Gee from Yale, discussing the translation of “Developmental Neuroscience to Promote Social-Emotional Learning and Mental Health”. Then Dr. Jason Yeatman from Stanford will speak, discussing his wildly successful rapid online automatic reading assessment (ROAR) program in a talk entitled “A Bridge Between the Lab, Community, and Classroom”. Dr. Adam Green from Georgetown will speak next on “Classroom-Based Longitudinal Neural Change Predicts Far Transfer Better Than Tests and Grades: Implications for Curriculum Development”. Dr. Julie Schneider herself will comment on “Translating Neuroscience to Policy to Create Optimal Learning Environments”. To conclude the symposium, Dr. Jennie Grammer from UCLA will moderate what is sure to be an inspiring and empowering discussion about how to actually translate the science we do in labs into practice and policy. Dr. Schneider hopes that attendees walk away from this symposium “feeling empowered and with an understanding that, while leveraging developmental neuroscience to inform policies and practices is not easy, and should be approached very thoughtfully, that it can, and should, be done”. 

In addition to her science- and symposium- related talents, Dr. Schneider is also a wonderful mentor. Naturally, as a trainee, I jumped on this facilitated opportunity to ask her for some advice – which I’ll share with you all here. Dr. Schneider suggests seeking out interdisciplinary training and community partnerships (for her, in public policy, design and/or community health) as early as one’s career allows. She also advises building authentic, long-term partnerships with schools and communities as soon as possible, as this process of cultivating trust and mutual collaboration (understandably!) takes a while. Dr. Schneider also shared with me some inspirational, heartfelt words that I believe are worth publishing in full:

If you do pursue this work, I hope you give yourself permission to take your time and enjoy the process. A PhD is hard—it stretches you intellectually and emotionally—but it should also be fun and fulfilling. Be curious. Follow questions that excite you, even if they take you in unexpected directions. Explore collaborations, take risks, and soak up everything you can. And most importantly, stay grounded in why this work matters: to help build a better, more equitable world for children. 

Not unlike the hundreds of other conference attendees, Dr. Schneider is eagerly looking forward to Flux 2025. She is excited to hear from “leading voices across the field” in symposia and eagerly awaits the conversations she’ll have at the poster sessions. She’s also looking forward to the cultural night, in celebration of the community in which flux takes place, and seeing friends and colleagues in person who she doesn’t otherwise get to see regularly. And, last but not least, she says that “drinking a Guinness in Dublin doesn’t sound too bad either”. I look forward to all of those things as well - and sharing a Guinness, too!