Current Students
Meet Our Current Graduate Students
LCN Students
Katherine Gamble (Howard) is a second-year student in the Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience track. She works in the Cognitive Aging Lab and is beginning research with healthy aging adults and implicit learning. She is interested in studying the effects of aging using functional and diffusion tensor imaging. Katherine received her BA in Psychology, with minors in Neuroscience and Biology from Gettysburg College in 2006, and her MS in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Florida in 2008. <<email Katherine at krg27@georgetown.edu
Anna Mikulak (Phillips) is in her fourth year of the Developmental Science program. Although she began the program with research interests in early immune response and autism, she has since combined her interests in developmental science and policy into a line of qualitative research. In collaboration with the FrameWorks Institute, Anna is working on a project that investigates the disconnect between expert discourse, media representation, and lay understanding of issues related to child mental health. Anna received a BA in psychology with a minor in cognitive science from Georgetown University in 2006. «email Anna at akm26@georgetown.edu
Eric Murphy (Vaidya) is a second-year student in the Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience concentration of the Psychology PhD program. His research investigates the neural mechanisms underlying emotion and attention, and particularly the effects that these cognitive systems have on each other. He uses functional neuroimaging techniques to study these cognitive processes in children with developmental disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. Eric received his BA in Biopsychology from Oberlin College in 2003, and his MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2004. <<email Eric at erm8@georgetown.edu
Devon Brost Oskvig (Walker) is a sixth-year student in the Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience concentration in the Psychology PhD program. She is a member of the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation/ Section on Functional Neuroanatomy at NIMH under the guidance of Dr. Miles Herkenham and the Georgetown University Integrative Systems Neuroscience Laboratory under the Guidance of Dr. Ben Walker. She is interested in the underlying neurobiology of developmental disorders, namely, autism. Specifically, she is investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which maternal immune activation during pregnancy alters fetal brain and behavioral development as related to autism. Devon reeceived a BA in Neuroscience and Psychology from Allegheny College in 2003 and an MS in Psychology from Georgetown in 2007. <<email Devon at drb38@georgetown.edu
Jessica Simon (Howard) is a fourth-year student in the Developmental Psychology PhD program with a concentration in Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research interests include the study of the biological bases of age-related differences in memory and in particular, implicit learning. Jessie's research uses neuroimaging techniques to investigate what cognitive and neural systems are impaired versus spared in healthy aging. Jessie received her BA in Psychology from Skidmore College in 2004. «email Jessica at jrs92@georgetown.edu
Melanie Stollstorff (Vaidya) is a fifth-year LCN student in Professor Chandan Vaidya’s research lab completing her dissertation this year. Her dissertation investigates the role of dopamine genes (COMT & DAT1) in modulating brain activation during logical reasoning in normal adults and in children with and without ADHD. She is interested in understanding some of the causes for individual differences in biases and emotions in reasoning. Melanie completed her B.Sc. degree at the University of Toronto, and her M.A. degree at York University. She has also conducted research at Boston University and the University of Massachusetts Medical School on the Neurobiology of Attention and Memory using both human and rodent models. «email Melanie at mls79@georgetown.edu
HDPP Students
Natalie Brito (Barr) is a second-year student in the Human Development and Public Policy Concentration. She is currently involved in a project that uses media to increase the quality and quantity of interactions between children and their incarcerated teen parents. Additionally, she is working on different studies looking at long-term memory from books and television and how to best present information in children's media in order to optimize learning and retention. Natalie received her BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia in 2005 and her M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the College of William and Mary in 2008. <<email Nataile at nhb3@georgetown.edu
Elizabeth Zack (Barr) is a fifth-year student in the Human Development and Public Policy concentration at Georgetown. She is involved in projects examining how children learn from 2D and transfer information to the real world and parent-infant interactions during media use. Beth holds a BA in Psychology from Gettysburg College and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology from the University of Melbourne in Australia, which she attended as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar. She was previously employed as a Junior Research Scientist in the Infant Action Lab at New York University. «email Elizabeth at eaz3@georgetown.edu
Dual Students
Eunsoo Choi (Chentsova-Dutton) is a first-year student in the MPP/PhD program. Her main research interests are in cross-cultural studies on emotional response and expression. Her previous work examined the unique mindset of Koreans in impression formation, which can be explained by their interdependent culture. Prior to coming to Georgetown, Eunsoo received her BA in English Literature from Korea University in 2006 and MA in Social Psychology from the same school in 2008. She has also worked as a research assistant in projects on gambling behaviors of Koreans at University of Korea. <<email Eunsoo at ec378@georgetown.edu.
Beth Corrington (Phillips) is a fourth-year student in the Dual MPP/PhD program. Her research interests include the effects of early education programs on subsequent academic achievement (particularly for minority and low-income children), as well as the effect of involvement with the child welfare system on subsequent child development. Her masters project examined the role of gender in the effects of participation in the Tulsa Oklahoma Pre-K Program on school readiness. In summer 2008 she interned at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, investigating DC and federal policies that affect the development of children involved with the child welfare system. Beth currently serves as the APA graduate student representative for Georgetown University. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 and her MPP from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in 2008. «email Beth at mec87@georgetown.edu
Hayley Daglis Cleary (Woolard) is a fifth-year student in the dual Psychology-Public Policy MPP/PhD program. Her research interests include adolescent decision making in legal contexts, juvenile crime, interrogation of juvenile suspects, and police interaction with youth. Her dissertation examines police interviewing and interrogation strategies with juvenile suspects. Hayley received BAs in Psychology and Russian Studies from the University of Virginia in 2004 and an MPP from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in 2007. «email Hayley at hd35@georgetown.edu
Amanda Exner (Calvert) is a third-year student in the PhD program. She is advised by Sandra Calvert in the Children's Digital Media Center, where she investigates the effects of "exergames" (video games that require physical activity) on children's physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional health. She previously conducted obesity-related research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Amanda received her BS in psychology with minors in nutritional science and sociology from Louisiana State University in 2007, and she received her MPP from Georgetown Public Policy Institute in 2009. «email Amanda at ale26@georgetown.edu
Alexis Lauricella (Calvert) is a fifth-year student in the joint Psychology-Public Policy program. She works with Sandra Calvert in the Children's Digital Media Center where she is studying how infants and preschoolers learn from various types of media. She developed an interest in developmental psychology and media through her undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her experience at Sesame Workshop. Alexis received her MPP from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in 2007. «email Alexis at arl7@georgetown.edu
Cristina Novoa (Moghaddam) is a second year student in the joint degree program in Human Development and Public Policy Her research focuses on the psychology of intergroup relations, particularly in immigrant-receiving communities. She is especially interested in the interaction between social functioning, cultural identity and policies of diversity management (assimilation vs. multiculturalism). Prior to coming to Georgetown, she worked as a research assistant at Yale University and volunteered with ESL middle school students in New Haven, CT. She received her BA in Psychology, graduating with honors, from Yale in 2006. <<email Cristina at cmn32@georgetown.edu
Sarah Vidal (Woolard) is a second year student in the Joint HDPP/MPP Program. Her research interests lie primarily within the fields of Psychology and Criminal Justice. More specifically, she focuses on adolescent development and juvenile delinquency. Prior to coming to Georgetown, Sarah worked as a Research Assistant and Interviewer in the Psychopathology and Criminal Justice Research Lab at the University of California- Irvine where she also received her BA in Psychology and Social Behavior and Criminology, Law, and Society in 2006. <<email Sarah at sjv6@georgetown.edu
Zach Warren (Moghaddam) is a first-year student in the MPP/PhD program, working on research related to youth development in Afghanistan. His previous work as a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School investigated the display rules of laughter and smiles among Afghan children as a measure for psychosocial well-being. Currently he supervises a national program for young entrepreneurs, based in Kabul, and is developing its baseline research for outcome measurement in 2010. Zach received his MDiv from Harvard Divinity School in 2007, and a B.A. in Human Development from Earlham College in 2003. <<email Zach at: zw35@georgetown.edu.
