I am an associate professor at The Ohio State University at Newark. My field is special education, my discipline is applied behavior analysis, and my area of interest (both teaching and research) is dyslexia. I have been in the position Since 2005, having graduated from the doctoral program in special education-applied behavior analysis at the Columbus Campus of The Ohio State University in that same year. I came to higher education after years of experience teaching in the public schools, having taught typically developing children and children with high incidence disabilities in both suburban and urban middle school and high school settings.
In the education department here at Ohio State Newark, I primarily teach general educators (early and middle childhood) pre-service teachers, though I also teach in-service teachers who are seeking professional development and/or a master’s degree. We do not have a special education program at our campus, but we do offer some special education courses.
I am always interested in advising/mentoring undergraduate or graduate students interested in education research. Undergrads who are enrolled here at Ohio State Newark can contact me via my email (hessler.16) or call my office phone at 740-364-9544. If you are interested in a getting a master’s degree at Newark campus, please see the information at https://newark.osu.edu/academics (scroll down to and click on Education). Feel free to contact me.
I am available to advise graduate students on the Columbus Campus as well, if you wanted to get your master’s degree in special education and you find your research interests align with mine. Contact me at hessler.16@osu.edu.
RESEARCH
My research agenda has primarily focused on improving academic outcomes for students with learning disabilities and ADHD and those at risk for being identified as having a high incidence disability. More recently, I have focused on examining the the multisensory component of the structured literacy approach to teaching students with dyslexia.