Victoria Coons

Victoria Coons is a Ph.D. in Education student specializing in Sociocultural and Community-based Approaches in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. She received her B.A. in Psychology from The University of North Carolina Wilmington, and her M.S.Ed. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research aims to understand access to higher education for disabled students. Her work centers on the critical role of identity, investigating how disabled students negotiate and navigate institutional systems to achieve their academic goals.

Education

• M.S.Ed., Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2024
• B.A., Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, 2021

Professional Experience

• Graduate Research Assistant, TELL Lab, University of Delaware, 2025-Present
• Graduate Research Assistant, Child’s Play and Development Lab, School of Education, University of Delaware, 2024-2025
• Research Consultant, Aptive Resources, 2024
• Senior Research Coordinator, IES Grant at The Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 2023-2024
• Teaching Assistant, Human Development, University of Pennsylvania, 2023
• Senior Research Coordinator, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2021-2023

Recent Honors and Awards

• Unidel Distinguished Graduate Scholar Award, University of Delaware, 2024
• Lydia C. Dunlap Scholar, University of Delaware, 2024

Publications

• Coons, V., Delgado, A, & Golinkoff, R. M. (2025, April). “There’s Something Beyond Just Being Able To Identify Hexagon”: Teachers’ Use and Perceptions of a Novel Visual Alphabet. Poster, Steele Symposium, Newark, DE, United States.
• Delgado, A., Işıkoğlu, N., Braley, M., Araya, F., Chen, S., Gonzalez, B., Coons, V., Wascheck, M., Gates, R., Gonsiewski, A., Mehr, J, & Golinkoff, R. M. (2025, April). Exploring playful parent-child interactions with a novel visual alphabet. Poster, Steele Symposium, Newark, DE, United States.
• Zosh, J. M., Ramirez, A., Coons, V., & Golinkoff, R. M., (2025, May [accepted]). Leveraging multi-generational video chat as a source of spatial language [Symposium presentation]. In L. Pagano (Chair), Out-of-school time tech: Supporting children’s STEM engagement through digital tools and conversations. Society for Research in Child Development biennial meeting, Minneapolis, MN, United States.