About Me

My academic and research journey began at the University of Minnesota where I studied Child Psychology at the Institute of Child Development (ICD). I joined Dr. Megan Gunnar’s laboratory early in my undergraduate career. Through this early lab experience and my coursework at ICD, I became interested in how early life stress might re-wire important emotional, regulatory, and physiological systems in the body. In the Gunnar lab, I worked on studies examining pubertal recalibration of the HPA axis, immune functioning in internationally adopted youth, and children’s dyadic behavior with peers. I also contributed to a community-based research project at the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery, collecting behavioral data for three years. Following graduation, I worked as a study coordinator in the Research in Adolescent Depression (RAD) Lab at the University of Minnesota, led by PIs Dr. Kathryn Cullen, MD, and Dr. Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, PhD. As the coordinator for the BRIDGES (“Brain Imaging Development of Girls' Emotion and Self”) study, I facilitated all study visits, giving me direct experience with neuroimaging (fMRI) methods, clinical assessments, and behavioral tasks including eye-tracking. I enrolled in graduate school at UC Davis under the advisement of Dr. Cam Hostinar in her Social Environment and Stress Lab. Broadly, my research examines the influence of the social and physical environment on children’s stress biology. I am interested in processes that may alleviate the negative effects of stressful experiences on youth, such as social buffering and supportive, synchronous parent-child interactions. My dissertation research examines biobehavioral synchrony as a predictor of cognitive development (through a meta-analysis). A second aim of my dissertation research examines trajectories of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) in youth before and during the pandemic, and how parent-child interactions may buffer stress during the pandemic. I am expected to graduate during the 2024-2025 academic year and am interested in postdoctoral opportunities.

Outside of the lab, I enjoy riding my bike, baking sourdough, gardening, taking sunset walks, and exploring California with my friends and family.