Ali M

Substitute Teacher

Sep 2024 - Present • 1 yr 11 mos

• Worked with high school students across a wide range of support needs, including neurodivergent students and students with physical, intellectual, and multiple disabilities. • Collaborated with PE teachers, special education instructors, counselors, and administrative staff to implement IEP goals, behavior plans, and communication supports. • Documented observations of student behavior, engagement, and regulation in ways relevant to behavioral coding, clinical observation, and student support. • Manage instruction across general and special education classrooms, often in short-notice placements. • Use structured communication, flexibility, rapport-building, and de-escalation strategies with students across developmental and learning needs. • Build trusting relationships with students across diverse backgrounds and support needs, becoming a consistent mentor and role model students feel comfortable approaching for academic, social, and personal support.

Research Assistant

Sep 2024 - Present • 1 yr 11 mos

• Supported development of a research partnership spanning colleges and research topic areas between GMU and a $170 million/year federal government contractor-nonprofit in the disability employment space. • Organized project planning materials, presentation content, research-track summaries, and partnership communication language. • Contributed to framing a job coach burnout and retention project, including burnout risk, recovery, turnover, staff support needs, and potential data sources for earlier intervention opportunities. • Prepared for upcoming work collecting interview data and helping create and adapt a semi-structured interview protocol based on initial findings • Reviewed the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders for eligible studies and extracted information about regions of study for autism and developmental research tracking. • Logged research hours and maintained structured Excel tracking for article review and categorization. • Supported a PI-led study on adolescent emotional and behavioral regulation in a university research lab environment. • Collected and coded behavioral data during structured adolescent-parent interactions while maintaining high inter-rater reliability. • Applied CITI training to maintain confidentiality and ethical standards in data handling.