Raechel Soicher Joins TLL Research & Evaluation Team

Raechel Soicher Joins TLL Research & Evaluation Team

We are excited to welcome TLL’s newest member, Raechel Soicher, Ph.D., as Assistant Director for Research & Evaluation. Raechel will be working with faculty, staff, and students across campus to conduct research and evaluation projects at MIT. Leveraging her cognitive neuroscience and applied psychology background, Raechel examines teaching and learning practices grounded in cognitive and motivational theory.

Additionally, she conducts research through an Implementation Science lens – determining the contextual factors that support or impair the use of evidence-based pedagogical practices. Her research has been published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, Applied Cognitive Psychology, and the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, among others. She has supported implementation for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine regarding sexual harassment prevention programming in Higher Education and health professions education.

Raechel has been a faculty member and researcher at a variety of community colleges and universities across the country. Her passion for teaching excellence motivates her current position at MIT. She has taught undergraduate students in research methods, introductory statistics, brain & behavior, and introductory psychology courses. She has been the Principal Investigator on funded research projects investigating motivation in undergraduate methods and statistics courses and a meta-analysis of motivational characteristics related to success for students in entirely online courses.

Raechel earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Oregon State University (2020) and her M.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Davis (2009). She also earned two Bachelor’s degrees (Cognitive Neuroscience, Spanish Language & Literature) from the University of Florida (2007).

— Melissa Mangino, TLL