McNeil is Professor of Psychology and ACE College Professor at the University of Notre Dame. She directs the Cognition Learning and Development (CLAD) Lab and is a fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives. She is a member of the South Bend Community School Corporation’s (SBCSC) Restorative Justice in Education Advisory Council, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and an Associate Editor for the journal Cognitive Science. McNeil received a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon, a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and completed a postdoc at Yale. Her research focuses on cognitive development, with a special emphasis on mathematical cognition, symbolic development, concept construction, and problem solving. A key contribution of her work has been to show that seemingly minor differences in the organization and structure of learning materials can play a central role in shaping understanding of foundational concepts. She has received several awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and the Boyd McCandless Award from the American Psychological Association.