Joseph Wilson ’19
Joseph was a pre-medical student majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Public Health. His interest in developmental psychology began after learning about the Flint water crisis and the long terms effects of lead poisoning residents (especially children) would face. This interest prompted him to take Professor Hane’s Early Experience and the Developing Infant class, in which he studied the many ways early experiences and a child’s environment impact childhood development. Joseph wrote an honors thesis looking at the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the way people express emotion about childhood and react to stress.
Outside the lab, Joseph was an Admission Ambassador, First Grade Buddy and Science Fellow at Brayton Elementary, the co-president of BSTEM, and involved in the Williams Christian Fellowship, Gospel Choir, and Society of the Griffins. Currently, he is pursing a Master of Health Science (MHS) in Environmental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Abby Brustad ’19
Abby was a Psychology major and public health concentrator at Williams. Her interest in developmental psychology began from Professor Hane’s Early Experience and the Developing Infant course and her experience shadowing in the OBGYN clinic at SVMC and volunteering with the nonprofit organization Berkshire Nursing Families, where she was able to see topics from the classroom in a clinical setting. She assisted with Anika Mitchell’s thesis which looked at the FNI intervention, the ecology of the NICU, and maternal physiology. In addition, she completed her own senior thesis which examined the longitudinal outcomes of the FNI, specifically how emotional connection and intervention status interact to predict outcomes at child age four. Outside of the lab, she was a member of the Women’s Ice Hockey team. Currently, she is working as a research assistant in the Child Development Lab at the University of Maryland and studying to take her MCAT exam.
Maya Bracy ’19
Maya Bracy is a senior Psychology major with a concentration in Africana Studies, from Philadelphia, PA. Maya fell in love with the field of Psychology her sophomore year in PSYC 232 Developmental Psychology and PSYC 252 Psychological Disorders. During her time at Williams, she has worked in labs led by Professor Mariko Moher and Visiting Professor Eliza Congdon on projects related to cognitive developmental psychology. Maya’s passion for working with children extends beyond the lab. She has past experience working as an instructional assistant at a school specialising in early education of children on the Autism spectrum. Currently, she works part-time with the Northern Berkshire Early Intervention program in a weekly playgroup for toddlers at risk for and presenting developmental delays. Maya is excited to join Professor Amie Hane and the Early Eph Lab this year for her psychology thesis. Her research interests concern early experience and early intervention, specifically mother-child interaction and influences of early adversity on future developmental outcomes.
Maya has also worked in Dinning Services for the past 4 years, is a member of the Women’s Rugby team, and is on the BSTEM board.
Danielle Faulkner ’19
A Psychology major and Cognitive Science concentrator, Danielle got her start in research in the Early Eph Lab, where her work comprised coding NICU ecology and mother-child interactions via WECS. Since then, Danielle has expanded her research repertoire, conducting two empirical studies in Neuroscience investigating genetic and environmental mediators of stress sensitivity in rodents, as well as conducting an Honors Thesis with Professor Susan Engel that studied whether knowledge can facilitate 4-7 year-olds’ ability to invent a tool to solve a problem.
Danielle now works as the Lab Manager for the Cognition and Development Lab at Yale University, where she is thrilled to be pursuing a career in developmental psychology research.
Nikki Perez ’18
Nikki is a junior at Williams College pursuing a Dance major. While she would like to focus her undergraduate studies in Dance, Nikki plans on becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon. In middle school, she developed a love for neurology, which she began to explore at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis in the lab of Dr. Malcolm Ross Bullock her sophomore year of high school. Here, she investigated how cell replacement therapy may alleviate neurological deficits that occur as a result of traumatic brain injury in rat models. Her freshman year at Williams, Nikki worked in the lab of Dr. David Richardson to examine the levels of contamination present in the Hoosic river. She spent the summer of 2015 exploring the role of the cerebellum in movement in the lab of Dr. Kamran Khodakhah at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA. She plans to return to the MBL for the summer of 2016, where she will serve as a Course Assistant for the institution’s Neurobiology course and a Research Assistant in the lab of Dr. Khodakhah. She started working in Dr. Hane’s lab her sophomore year, so that she may examine infants and children on a human, rather than cellular, level. Outside of the lab, Nikki is an avid cyclist, and she would eventually like to explore how specialized athletic training, such as, dance, may increase neurological plasticity and development throughout life.
Elizabeth Salisbury ’18
Elizabeth is a junior pre-medical student majoring in chemistry, but she has a passion for psychology (and children!) as well. Developmental psychology was one of her favorite units in PSYC101 and one of her favorite courses this past year, and she is especially interested in how genetics and the environment interact and influence the development of children. On campus, she is also in Ephoria, an all-female a capella group, works as an EMT at Village Ambulance, and is a JA!
Abigail Soloway ’18
Abigail is a junior psychology and music double major. She has been passionate about developmental psychology for the entirety of her academic career. She has volunteered at both schools and summer camps for children with a variety of developmental disorders. She also seizes any opportunity she can to interact with babies and children! Abigail is particularly interested in sociolinguistics, language acquisition, and the effects of music on the brain. She feels very fortunate to be a member of the Early Eph Lab team. Outside the lab, Abigail is a violinist in the Berkshire Symphony, conducts the Williams Opera Workshop, and is involved with Ephs Out Loud, an arts educational outreach program in the greater Berkshire area.
Gabby Suarez ’17
Gabby is a senior at Williams College and pursuing a major in psychology. After taking developmental psychology and further studying the importance of early experience and development in infants and in children, she has taken a strong interest in the study of early development as well as the importance of parent-infant mental health. Currently, she has taken an interest in the Adverse Childhood Experiences studies (ACES), which have linked a specific number of adverse childhood experiences to higher risks for poor health outcomes later in life. She plans to continue researching this topic as a senior thesis project and hopefully discover whether or not stress could be a biological mechanism for the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and severe health risks and diseases in adulthood. Gabby is also a member of the Williams Women’s soccer team, which recently won a national championship in the fall of 2015.
Maggie Dewey ’17
Maggie is a senior psychology major from Connecticut College with a strong interest in developmental, social and clinical psychology. She has always enjoyed working with children of all ages and is thrilled to be involved with the Early Eph Lab! Her past research experience has included identifying and assessing the effects of a mother’s experience during pregnancy on the child’s clinical development. The work being done in the Early Eph Lab only furthers her interest in working with children through a developmental lens.
Maggie also enjoys creative writing and music. At Connecticut College, she is involved in a capella, peer mentoring, and community outreach programs.
Rose Warner Miles ’17
Rose Warner Miles is a Psychology and English double major, with a concentration in Neuroscience. Having worked with animal models of anxiety in rats with Professor Betty Zimmerberg, she is excited to begin to concern some of her work with humans, particularly young people.
She is interested in mental health, namely in children and adolescents, and how it is affected by early relationships (i.e. with caretakers and peers). She hopes to focus on anxiety and eating disorders, two of her primary clinical interests. She is also interested in education.
Mai Mitsuyama ’16
A recent graduate, Mai was a Psychology and Japanese double major. She worked in Dr. Amie Hane’s lab since the winter of 2015 and completed an honors thesis that examined whether the positive effects of Dr. Amie Hane’s Family Nurture Intervention are sustained after discharge by coding videos of the Mother-Infant Interaction between 4-month (CA) infants and their mothers. Outside the lab, Mai was a member of the National Championship winning Women’s Varsity Soccer team, a TA for Intermediate Japanese and Developmental Psychology, and was the proud JA of Pratt 3 ’14-’15. She is now joining the Nurture Science Team at the Columbia University Medical Center to begin her career in developmental psychology research.
Kaitlin Dinet ’13
Kaitlin was a Psychology major and Neuroscience concentrator. She became interested in developmental psychology after working at a day care center. During her time at Williams, she worked on the Preschool Temperament Study, where she assisted with visits and helped with organizational tasks. She is interested in how both biological and environmental factors affect development. She has recently been accepted to the PhD program in child development at Harvard.
Yiqin Jiang ’13
Yiqin was a Psychology and Biology major and a Neuroscience concentrator, interested in maternal-infant interactions across different cultures and societies, as well as how this variability affects biological mechanisms. In the TERP Lab, she worked on data collection and coding of mother-infant interactions. After Williams, Yiqin was a strategy execution consultant at Palladium before earning her MBA at UPenn’s Wharton.
Julia Bender Stern ’13
Julia was a Psychology major. She has worked with children in many capacities—as a camp counselor, teacher, tutor, and volunteer in a Pediatrics unit—and became especially interested in developmental psychology when working with children with learning disabilities, autism and other special needs. She is interested in the factors that influence typical and atypical development, and she works on visits for the Preschool Temperament Study. After doing research at Boston Children’s Hospital Julia was accepted and is currently a medical student at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth University.
Amber Cardoos ’12
Amber graduated from Williams in 2012 as a Psychology major with a concentration in Neuroscience. In the Early EPH lab, Amber helped to recruit, schedule, and run visits for Project BABEE. Her thesis examined infant strategies of self-regulation during the six-month visits of Project BABEE. After graduating, she worked as a clinical research coordinator at the Depression Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, coordinating studies that investigated treatment for and etiology of adult depression. She is currently attending medical school at Brown University.
Chelsey Barrios ’12
Chelsey is a Psychology and American Studies double major at Williams. In the Early EPH lab, Chelsey currently recruits, organizes, schedules, and runs visits for Project BABEE, in addition to other lab research tasks. Chelsey is fascinated by the factors that influence behavioral development from infancy through childhood, and especially the quality of mother-child interactions and maternal caregiving behaviors. Her senior thesis focuses on infant sensitivity to discomfort during the neonatal visit of Project BABEE. After graduation, Chelsey enrolled in the Ph. D program at the University of Maryland.
Sydney Tooze ’12
Sydney was a Psychology and Studio Art double major at Williams. In the Early EPH lab, Sydney is currently learning how to run visits for Project BABEE. Sydney is interested in early development, and especially the interactions of the mother-infant dyad. Her Independent Study will focus on collaborating with Chelsey Barrios to code neonatal responses to bathing. After graduation, Sydney plans to take a year off to coach crew before applying to post baccalaureate programs in medicine to pursue her interest in Obstetrics and Gynecology or family medicine.
Ashley Turner ’12
Ashley is a Psychology and the project coordinator for Project BABEE. Ashley chose to be a psychology major because she is interested in the scientific relationship between the human body and mind. Her research in developmental psychology gives her an opportunity to interact with infants and learn about infant behavior and emotions. Ashley’s interest in developmental psychology stemmed from her desire to pursue pediatric medicine. She attended Boston College School of Social Work.
Sarah Weber ’11
Sarah graduated in 2011 as a Psychology major and Neuroscience concentrator. She became interested in how environmental inputs before and immediately after birth affect infant development and behavior. During and after her time at Williams, she worked with Dr. Hane and her colleagues at the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University to examine mother-infant interactions in and out of the neonatal intensive care unit. Today Sarah works in banking, where she researches biotechnology companies that are developing new drugs for neurologic and psychiatric disorders. She will begin her MBA in Healthcare Management at Wharton this fall.
Ellen Ramsey ’11
Ellen graduated from Williams in 2011 as a Math and Psychology double major. She first became interested in developmental psychology when she was assigned to the Mother Baby Study as a Research Assistant at Harvard’s Health and Psychophysiology Lab. For her senior thesis, Ellen worked with Dr. Hane on the Preschool Temperament Study, which examines individual differences in children’s emotional responses and mother-child interactions. After graduating from Williams, Ellen worked at a financial services consulting firm and will be pursuing an MBA at the Booth School of Business this fall.
Erin Altenburger ’11
Erin graduated from Williams in 2011, cum laude and All-American as part of the Swimming and Diving team. After graduating, she worked at Massachusetts General Hospital for two years as study coordinator in the Trichotillomania Clinic and Research Unit of the OCD and Related Disorders Program, working under Dr. Nancy Keuthen. In 2013, she started a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at The Ohio State University, working with Dr. Jennifer Cheavens. She is currently working on her dissertation on the impact of validation and invalidation on treatment outcomes in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. She hopes to graduate this spring and is excited for what post-grad life holds!
Emily Barrios ’10
Emily graduated from Williams in 2010 with highest honors in psychology, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and magna cum laude. She is particularly interested in the interaction between children’s physical and mental health, and the integration of mental health care into medical practice. After graduation, Emily worked as a Research Assistant with Nathan Fox studying behavioral inhibition and child development at the University of Maryland. She also spent a year doing Child Neurology research at Children’s National Medical Center before completing medical school at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently a Pediatrics Resident at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Alexandra Hoff ’09
Alexandra graduated from Williams in 2009 with a B.A. in Psychology (Honors) and a French Certificate. For her honors thesis, she studied physiological reactivity and regulation in children during on-line peer play. She then worked as a Research Assistant at the National Institute of Mental Health, collaborating with Dr. Nathan Fox of University of Maryland and Dr. Daniel Pine of NIMH on their longitudinal research utilizing brain imaging to investigate temperament and anxiety. In 2017, Alex earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she completed her dissertation on parent involvement in cognitive behavior therapy for child anxiety under the mentorship of Dr. Philip Kendall. She completed her clinical internship at WellSpan Health in York, Pennsylvania and is now living back in Philadelphia. Alex is currently completing a clinical postdoctoral fellowship at Nemours A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware, focused on providing integrated behavioral health services at their pediatric primary care sites. Upon completing her fellowship in August 2018, she will remain at Nemours as an attending psychologist on the primary care team.
Kelly Madden ’09
“Shortly after graduating from Williams in 2009, Kelly moved to Washington, D.C. to work for United States Senator Judd Gregg. After his short stint on the Hill, Kelly moved to Boston in the fall of 2010 to start a Master’s in Counseling with a specialization in Sport & Performance Psychology at Boston University. Kelly finished his Ed.M. in the spring of 2011 and immediately enrolled into the Doctoral Counseling program at BU, again specializing in Sport & Performance Psychology.
At BU, Kelly was awarded the Glenn Fellowship, one of the highest awards given in the School of Education. During his graduate work, Kelly has presented at the North Atlantic Sport Psychology Conference, Association of Applied Sport Psychology National Conference, and has been published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. He served as an instructor at Boston University, and held Adjunct Professorships at Emmanuel College, Mount Ida College, and Stonehill College teaching Introduction to Psychology, Adolescence, Personality Theories, and Sport Psychology.
Kelly co-founded Commonwealth Performance Group, a performance psychology consulting firm helping individuals and teams to excel. Currently, Kelly is working on his dissertation, which seeks to understand the role and impact of college sport captains, and is a member of Kotter International, a change leadership consulting firm based in Cambridge, MA.
Kelly resides in South Boston, where plays ice hockey, rugby, and enjoys making treks to the suburbs to spend time with his family, especially his 1 year old niece and nephew.
Willa Marquis, ’09
Willa graduated from Williams in 2009 with Highest Honors in Psychology, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Magna Cum Laude, and Dean’s List. From June 2009 through May 2011, Willa worked as a Research Assistant at the Columbia University Medical Center in the Department of Behavioral Medicine for Dr. Catherine Monk, whose research investigates the effects of prenatal stress, anxiety, and depression on fetal and infant development. She is now a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at UCLA in Dr. Bruce Baker’s laboratory. Willa works with Dr. Baker on his Collaborative Family Study, a NICHD-supported longitudinal study of young children, with and without intellectual disability, and their families.
Claire Monroy, ’09
Claire received her B.A. in Psychology with concentrations in Neuroscience, International Studies and Spanish in 2009. After graduating, she worked in social services, advocating for underserved families in her hometown of Santa Barbara, and providing behavior analysis services for individuals with developmental disabilities. In 2011, Claire spent one year as lab technician at the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2012, Claire moved to the Netherlands to begin her PhD at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, where completed her dissertation in developmental cognitive neuroscience with Dr. Sabine Hunnius and Dr. Sarah Gerson. After completing her thesis in 2016 (titled “Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Action Sequence Learning”) Claire was awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship from the NIH to continue her research as a postdoctoral fellow on action processing and motor development in deaf infants, before and after cochlear implantation. Claire is very grateful for her early experiences as a scientist in Prof. Amie’s lab, which got her started down her path.
Lauren Philbrook ’09
Lauren completed a B.A. in Psychology with a Neuroscience concentration from Williams in 2009. Her experience conducting an honors thesis project in the Early Eph Lab sparked her interest in examining early caregiving influences on child physiological and developmental outcomes. In 2015 she received her doctorate in the Human Development and Family Studies program at Penn State University, studying the longitudinal associations between parenting and child sleep and cortisol regulation. Recently she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Auburn University, where her research focus broadened towards examining the interplay between broader sociocultural context, child regulation, and child achievement and adjustment. During the 2017-2018 school year she was fortunate to return to Williams as a visiting assistant professor of Psychology. She began working as an assistant professor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department at Colgate University in the summer of 2018.
Michael Kirwan ’08
After Williams, Mike Kirwan (’08) received his M.A. in Human Development at the University of Maryland and went on to work in early childhood research and policy for the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. After two years, he moved to New York to manage a $10M annual portfolio of early childhood grants at the Robin Hood Foundation. He recently completed his M.B.A. at Columbia Business School and is working as a strategy consultant in Atlanta. Michael’s thesis was entitled “Developmental and individual differences in reward processing across childhood and adulthood.”
Nicole Tetreault Troop ’08
Nicole earned a B.A. from Williams in 2008, with majors in Psychology and Biology and a neuroscience concentration. She conducted an honors thesis on maternal prenatal stress and infant physiology. Nicole has put her long term career goals in the field of midwifery on hold, and is currently a certified yoga instructor residing in North Adams, MA. She and her husband Corey welcomed their first child in August of 2010. Nicole enjoyed her time as a work at home mother to her son Elliot, and now has a more thorough appreciation of the practical application of her studies in the Early EPH Lab. She now works as a registered nurse at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center as well as with Berkshire Nursing Families.