Jenny Root Receives PECASE Award

Jenny Root ’10 has been selected as one of about 400 scientists and engineers to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Dr. Root is an associate professor of special education at Florida State University and affiliate faculty with the Florida Center for Reading Research. The PECASE award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.

Root completed an undergraduate degree in Special Education at UNCW’s Watson College of Education, where she was a NC Teaching Fellow. She holds a master’s degree in Special Education and graduate certificate in autism spectrum disorders from East Carolina University and a PhD in Special Education with emphasis on severe disabilities and applied behavior analysis from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she was a Snyder Fellow and OSEP Special Education Leadership Scholar.

She began her career as a classroom teacher of middle school students with disabilities at Leland Middle School in Brunswick County. As a faculty member in Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at FSU, she focuses her research on instructional methods to promote academic learning for students with autism and intellectual disability.

“Jenny was an outstanding student,” said Dr. Lou Lanunziata, associate professor of Special Education at the Watson College. “She began conducting applied research as an undergraduate student, even co-authoring an article with Professor Linda Mechling (now retired) that was published in Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities (ETADD) in 2011. WCE’s special education faculty are delighted to see Jenny receive this prestigious recognition of her contributions and commitment to the field of special education.”

The PECASE awards were announced by the White House on February 14: President Biden Honors Nearly 400 Federally Funded Early-Career Scientists. Root’s award was announced by Florida State University on January 17: Associate Professor Jenny Root receives prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.