Gatlin defends dissertation

Brandy Tenille Gatlin successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on June 17, 2015 at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. The dissertation was titled “Relations among Elementary Students’ Use of Dialect and Concurrent and Subsequent Reading Outcomes.”  The study involved a quantitative analysis of the frequency of second and third graders’ nonstandard dialect use in both oral and written language samples in comparison to their individual reading outcomes.
The dissertation defense was the culmination of a rigorous training program through the Florida State University College of Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training fellowship through the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Brandy will be graduating with her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Special Education on August 8, 2015 in Tallahassee, Florida. Upon graduation, Dr. Gatlin plans to continue research in literacy, including both reading and writing, particularly for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to instruct and assist in the development of teacher preparation programs at the university level.
Dr. Gatlin is the daughter of former Hardeman County residents Steve Gatlin and Curtistine Owens Gatlin, and the granddaughter of Agnes "Dorothy" Owens. She is a graduate of Jackson Central-Merry High School and previously received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida State University in Emotional Disturbances and Learning Disabilities.  Dr. Gatlin worked as a special education teacher in Pembroke Pines, Florida for seven years before moving on to pursue her doctoral degree.