School of Education

Education

• Ph.D. in Risk and Prevention in Education Sciences, University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development, 2007
• Master of Social Work (clinical track with emphasis on children, families and communities), Florida State University School of Social Work, 1991
• B.S. in Social Work (clinical focus), Florida State University School of Social Work, 1990
  
  

Research interests

• Systemic influences on early childhood development
• Developing and implementing contextually relevant interventions
• Understanding and shaping equity creating policies and programs
  
  

Career highlights

• Advisor for international research with the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank and the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)
• Founder and leader of the CASTL Caring Service project
• Nominated for the Casteen Diversity-Equity-Inclusion Leadership award
• Creator of the online Early Childhood Concentration that serves two degree options for future educators
  
  

Recent publications/projects

• LoCasale-Crouch, J., Nelson, B., Moon, R., *Zhang, Y., Gurka, K.,*Deeken, G., Taylor, M., Duyile, B., & Chernyavskiy, P. (in press). Locality of residence and perinatal health: An ecologic study using the Child Opportunity Index 3.0 in Virginia. Pediatrics Open Science.

• *Dean, M., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Chang, C.N., *Zhang, Y., *Camp, A., *Bontrager, B., & Nelson B. (in press). Change in early disability identification rates since COVID-19: Location matters.

• *Robinson Myers, J., Liu, X., Rudasill, K. & LoCasale-Crouch, J. (in press). Gender racialized education: Parental expectations and the academic trajectory of Black males.

• Chen, Y., Zhou, Y., Hu, B. Y., & LoCasale-Crouch, J. (2025). Profiles of Chinese preschool teachers’ evaluation beliefs: Associations with teacher characteristics and knowledge of teacher-child interactions. Early Childhood Education Journal.

• LoCasale-Crouch, J., Lenahan, T., Shea, Z., Whittaker, J., *Zhang, Y., Duyile, B., Xu, Y. & Williford, A. (2025). Examining the relationship between community resources and early identification for special education: Variation by child race and/or ethnicity. Prevention Science. 26, 999–1009.

• *Guan, L., Hu, B. Y., LoCasale-Crouch, J., & He, M. Y. (2025). Understanding Chinese pre-service preschool teachers’ experiences with the MMCI course and coaching: A multiple case study. Early Childhood Education Journal.

• *Wang, J., *Hankour, K., *Zhang, Y., LoCasale-Crouch, J., & Whitehill, J. (2025). Classroom observation: Evaluating Instructional Support automatically in classrooms for young children. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 273(83), 93.

• Turnbull, K.L.P., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Kerr, S., Moon, R.Y., Hauck, F.R., & Colson, E.R. (2025). Maternal-reported sleep health for kindergarteners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Children’s Health Care, 1-21.

• Fang, J., Hu, B., Guo, Y., Li, Y., Chen, Y. & LoCasale-Crouch, J. (2025). The relation between school climate and Chinese preschool teachers’ occupational commitment: The mediation role of job satisfaction. Early Childhood Education Journal, 53, 791-798.

• Turnbull, K.L.P., Jaworski, B., Cubides Mateus, D.M., Coolman, F.L., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Moon, R.Y., Hauck, F.R., Kellams, A., & Colson, E.R. (2025). Maternal perspectives on COVID-19 kindergarten learning impacts: A qualitative study. Discover Education, 4(1), 34.
  
  

Bio

Jennifer LoCasale-Crouch, Ph.D. conducts research on the supports and systems that influence children during their early home and school experiences and how we can best enhance those experiences in contextually sensitive and responsive ways, particularly for minoritized children and those from families with limited financial resources. Her areas of expertise include identifying community investments and policies as well as adult beliefs, skills and behaviors that support children’s development, professional development that enables caregivers to engage in more effective interactions, and ways to implement such programs with high degrees of fidelity and quality. In addition to a strong record of dissemination for both research and practice audiences, her work in the design and implementation of early childhood studies considers varying cultural and geographic contexts involving research collaborations across six continents.

Curriculum Vitae