Nastasia is a third year Ph.D. candidate in Special Education in the department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Miami (UM). Nastasia is a former middle school special education teacher who worked closely with adolescents who struggle with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) and specific learning disabilities (SLD). Her teaching background led to her research interest in middle school transition experiences of students with disabilities in inclusive settings, with a focus on the academic and social emotional adjustment of students with disabilities as they transition to middle school. Nastasia has been a research assistant (RA) on Project Pathways since January 2023 and, as one of the RA leaders, drives many of the team research tasks, including organizing the team schedules and handling many data analysis tasks. In the capacity of research assistant at UM, she works on multiple research projects within UM’s Community and Educational Well-Being Research Center. Nastasia is also currently teaching a split undergraduate/master’s class focused on transition strategies to pre-service teachers, serving as a TA for a graduate level quantitative methods class, and is working with UM’s First Star Academy program which focuses on improving high school graduation rates for at-risk foster youth.