Jenny Root, PhD, BCBA is an Associate Professor of Special Education in the School of Teacher Education in Anne’s College at Florida State University and Affiliate Faculty with the Florida Center for Reading Research.
In 2025, Dr. Root was selected to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers. Her research focuses on evidence-based instructional methods to promote meaningful academic learning for students with autism and intellectual disability through development and evaluation of academic interventions and supporting teachers to implement evidence-based practices. She has over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 15 invited book chapters related to assessment and instruction of students with disabilities. Her research has been funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, Organization for Autism Research, AERA, and Autism Science Foundation. She is currently a mid-career fellow on a William T. Grant Foundation Institutional Challenge grant, building capacity for engaging in research-practice partnerships.
Dr. Root prioritizes training and mentoring the next generation of teacher educators and education scientists. She has been PI or Co-PI on multiple federal personnel preparation grants, resulting in training of professionals at the masters and doctoral levels who have gone on to improve outcomes of students with disabilities and their teachers. She is currently Co-PD for FIREFLIES, an IES-funded interdisciplinary doctoral training grant and SPARC, an OSEP-funded doctoral consortium. She works with undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students in the General Curriculum Access lab and is currently recruiting doctoral students for Fall 2025.
Dr. Root was a special education teacher at a public middle school in North Carolina. She completed an undergraduate degree in Special Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she was a NC Teaching Fellow. She earned a masters degree in Special Education and graduate certificate in autism spectrum disorders at East Carolina University while she was a classroom teacher. She went on to earn her 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.
Dr. Root provides service to the field as an Associate Editor of research journals affiliated with professional organizations, including Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities (TASH), Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities (CEC DADD), and Teacher Education and Special Education (CEC TED). Dr. Root is a member of the Scientific Council for the Organization for Autism Research and has served on grant review panels for the Institution of Education Sciences and National Science Foundation.