Dr. McNeal is Auburn’s College of Science and Mathematics Molette Endowed Professor and the Director of the Geocogniton and Geoscience Education Research Lab. She is a Discipline-Based Education Researcher and conducts research in the field of geoscience education/geocognition to investigate geoscience teaching and learning challenges in formal and informal settings. Her work employs psychomotor tools (e.g., eye-tracking, pupillometry, and skin biosensors), psychometric tools (e.g., concept inventories and pre-post surveys), and open-ended approaches (e.g., interviews, concept-maps, etc.) to measure people's engagement, conceptual understanding, and perceptions about the Earth. Her work has included a focus on climate change education where she has worked to (i) understand how stakeholders use actionable science products, (ii) understand how people engage with climate related visualizations and information, and (iii) create assessments and evaluate educational climate change curriculum at the 7-20 grade levels. McNeal has been awarded over $20M in external research funding and has published 50 peer reviewed articles in more than 20 different journals.