Matthew Lau receives the Distinguished Alumni Award
The Department of Educational Psychology's school psychology program is pleased to announce this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award, Matthew Lau! This award is intended to honor program alumni who have made exemplary contributions to the field through their professional practice and leadership.
Dr. Lau’s career embodies this purpose with his contributions ranging from providing direct service to students, to engaging in teaching and training, to promoting systems-level change, to conducting research. Dr. Lau received his PhD from the University of Minnesota school psychology program in 1997 and continues to be an enthusiastic and dedicated proponent of high-quality school psychology services. As a practitioner, Dr. Lau has served in the Minneapolis Public School district for over 10 years, delivering child-centered services from elementary to high school. His work as a practitioner has included consultation, implementation of prevention and intervention strategies, facilitation of groups to build students’ social skills, and development of systems to support students with varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Dr. Lau is also a leader in school psychology, serving as the Manager of Psychological Services in Minneapolis and training school psychologists, teachers, and principals. In this capacity, he has also supported the district’s implementation of the problem-solving model and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to meet students’ needs. Through this work, he has developed reference materials and data analysis processes to reduce bias in decision-making.
In addition to this extensive and impressive work in schools, Dr. Lau has also played a direct role in training future psychologists, previously serving as the Fieldwork Coordinator at the University of Minnesota and teaching graduate courses to school psychology students. Furthermore, his scholarly work has included numerous publications in areas such as Response to Intervention (RTI), assessment of English Language Learners, and implementation of a problem-solving model to meet students’ needs.
Dr. Lau’s work embodies the intent of this award: to recognize program alumni who have made outstanding contributions to the field and practice of school psychology. Given the breadth of scholarly activities among our alumni, each year the recipient of this award rotates between a school psychology practitioner and academic. The school psychology program is proud to present this year’s award to Matthew Lau, a dedicated practitioner of school psychology.