Mary Field Leak

Mary Field Leak 

Mary Field Leak is a Master of Education candidate in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College. Her research focuses on reading comprehension and literacy interventions for students with reading disabilities, particularly the intersection of text inference and technology-supported reading instruction.

Currently, Mary Field serves as the Lab Manager and Research Assistant in BrittanyLee N. Martin's research group, where she contributes to the Connecting Text by Inference and Technology (Connect-IT) project. In this role, she supports research examining evidence-based approaches to improving reading comprehension and inference skills for students with reading difficulties. Through this work, she hopes to develop a strong technical foundation in research coordination, data collection and management, and educational research methods.

Before beginning her master's program, Mary earned a Bachelor of Science in Educational Studies from the University of Arkansas. During her undergraduate studies, she gained extensive experience working with elementary students through classroom internships, substitute teaching, and one-on-one structured literacy intervention for students with dyslexia.

Mary Field’s long-term goal is to bridge the gap between academic research and evidence-based educational practice by becoming a reading interventionist and educational researcher who develops and implements effective literacy interventions for students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities