Kavindya Thennakoon

Kavindya Thennakoon is a doctoral student in the Developmental and Psychological Sciences (DAPS) program with a cross-specialization in Learning Sciences and Technology Design (LSTD) at Stanford University. She is also a recipient of the EDGE Doctoral Fellowship. Kavindya received an MSc in Learning, Design, and Technology from the Stanford School of Education in 2021, where she was a dean’s fellow. She received an MA in Anthropology and Cinema and Media Studies from Wellesley College, MA, in 2019. Prior to joining the SPARK Lab, she worked on Google’s LearnX team and founded Tilli, a play-based social-emotional learning tool used in South Asia. 

At the SPARK Lab, Kavindya aims to explore Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), particularly looking at domains like self-awareness, executive function, and empathy. She also has an interest in stealth assessment design and child-caregiver relationships in the context of measuring SEL outcomes.