Michael McCarthy

Michael F. McCarthy, Ph.D., is an education scholar and Postdoctoral Associate in the Education Collaboratory at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine. His work brings together artificial intelligence, disability studies, social and emotional learning, inclusive education, and educational policy to improve how disability and inclusion are understood, measured, and discussed in schools and public systems. 

Grounded in both scholarship and lived experience as the brother of a woman with intellectual disabilities, Dr. McCarthy’s research centers children with disabilities, their families, and the often-overlooked experiences of siblings. His doctoral dissertation at the University of Rochester examined emotional functioning and emotional intelligence among neurotypical siblings in families of individuals with intellectual disabilities. 

His broader scholarship focuses on inclusive SEL, disability representation, rights-affirming discourse, and ethical uses of AI to identify ableism and strengthen accountability in education and policy. He has published in Child Development, Review of Educational Research, Remedial and Special Education, and Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, with work recognized as highly cited and widely downloaded. 

Dr. McCarthy has taught research methods, disability and schools, mixed methods research, educational inequality, and AI-assisted discourse analysis. He earned his Ph.D. in Education, with a specialization in Teaching, Curriculum, and Change, from the University of Rochester; an M.A. in Global Development and Peace from the University of Bridgeport; and a B.A. in History, with a minor in Human Rights, from the University of Connecticut.