She received her Ph.D in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and held a prior faculty appointment at the University of California, Irvine in the School of Education. She examines both the basic science of relational reasoning, memory, and higher order thinking development, and mathematics and science classroom practices that support and build on these developing competencies. Dr. Richland is also a member of the Spatial Intelligence Learning Center, and was awarded a National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her work has been supported by a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation as well as grants from the Institute of Education Sciences, the Office of Naval Research, the National Institutes of Health, and the Spencer Foundation.