Marcia Barnes

Marcia Barnes is the Dunn Family Chair in Psychoeducational Assessment and a Professor of Special Education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, Department of Special Education. Her research focuses on understanding and addressing learning difficulties in reading comprehension and mathematics among children with neurodevelopmental disorders and those at risk for learning disabilities.

Her research interests include:

• Cognitive and linguistic processes in reading and math disabilities
• Development of assessment tools for inferential comprehension
• Design and evaluation of interventions for early mathematics and reading comprehension
• Co-occurring reading and math disabilities
• Technology-assisted and combined cognitive-academic interventions

Her work employs longitudinal studies, randomized controlled trials, and meta-analyses, and has been supported by federal funding from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her publications appear in top journals such as Scientific Studies of Reading, Journal of Educational Psychology, and Neuropsychology.

Marcia Barnes is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and a widely used book on learning disability identification and intervention. She leads the Barnes Lab at Vanderbilt, which is dedicated to improving outcomes for children with or at risk for learning disabilities through rigorous research.

• Ph.D. in Psychology, McMaster University, 1988
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Research Institute, The Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, 1988–1991

She advises students and leads research teams in the Barnes Lab, focusing on innovation in assessment and intervention for learning disabilities. While specific advisees are not listed, her federally funded projects suggest active mentorship and collaboration. Her lab explores future directions in technology-enhanced learning and integrated cognitive-academic supports.

The Barnes Lab conducts cutting-edge research on:

• Risk factors for co-occurring math and reading disabilities
• Intervention efficacy through randomized trials
• Development of novel assessment instruments
• Technology-assisted learning tools
• Longitudinal trajectories of learning difficulties