(she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology within the College of Education at the University of Maryland College Park and the Director of the LEAD lab. She is also faculty in the interdisciplinary program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, holds a courtesy appointment in the department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, and is a member of the Language Science Center, the Field Committee in Developmental Science, and the Brain Behavior Institute. Dr. Romeo is interested in how children’s early experiences influence their brain and cognitive development, and how we can leverage those findings to inform education, clinical practice, and social policy. Dr. Romeo received her BA in Psychology and Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011, and then received a Fulbright Fellowship at University College London where she completed a MSc in Language Sciences. She earned her PhD in 2018 in the joint Harvard/MIT Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, during which she also completed clinical training in Speech Language Pathology at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. Dr. Romeo holds the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech Language Pathology from the American Speech Language Hearing Association, and is licensed to practice in Maryland. She also completed postdoctoral training in neurodevelopmental disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology before coming to Maryland. Outside of the lab, Rachel is a slow-but-steady long distance runner, loves to try new foods but is an abysmal cook (just trust her), and is still trying to make her cats internet famous. She can be reached at romeo@umd.edu. 

For more information, please visit Dr. Romeo’s lab website: https://education.umd.edu/leadlab