Maya Provençal

Maya Provençal is a doctoral student in Developmental and Psychological Sciences at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She earned her B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience from Duke University in 2023, and is a recipient of the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship.

Maya's research examines the intersection of early childhood development and the structural and ecological conditions that shape it. She is broadly interested in how systems-level forces, including neighborhood resources, historical disinvestment, and access to early care and education, shape young children's everyday experiences.

Prior to beginning her doctoral training, Maya served as the Research Coordinator for the MAGIC Project in the SPARK Lab, where she led community partnerships across diverse educational settings, organized the national network of research collaborators leading this work, and contributed to the design and validation of performance-based assessments of young children's learning-related skills. 

Maya is currently reading The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, which she had aimed to complete before the 25th anniversary release in theaters, but simply couldn't finish on time.