People
Assistant Professor
Role: Director
Research Interests: Gene-environment interplay, prenatal experiences, physiological responses to stress, pubertal development, parenting and parent-child relationships, development of behavior problems and substance use.
Current Graduate Students
Role: Tara is a sixth-year graduate research assistant
Research Interests: Tara is interested in psychological resilience in minority populations and those at socioeconomic and cultural disadvantages, and the link between family environment factors (particularly parenting) and resilient outcomes in youth from high-risk communities.
Current Projects in the BDL: Tara is expanding her focus to understand the role of puberty for adolescent adjustment. She is leading the AgSEED project and a meta-analysis on secular trends in pubertal timing.
Advisor: Drs. Zoe Taylor and Kristine Marceau
Funding: Tara has been funded in part by Dr. Marceau’s K01 and AgSEED grants.
Role: Olivia is a fourth-year graduate research assistant
Research Interests: Olivia is interested in stress response system programming, prenatal experiences and pubertal development. She is also interested in incorporating biomarker data and utilizing genetically informed designs in her work.
Current Projects in the BDL: Olivia is leading data management, cleaning, and preparation for EGDS and MCPP.
Advisor: Dr. Kristine Marceau
Funding: Olivia is funded by Dr. Marceau’s EGDS R01 grant, and is the teaching assistant for Multilevel Modeling (HDFS 627, Fall 2021).
Role : Amy is a second-year graduate research assistant
Research Interests: Amy is interested in the biological (i.e., hormones and genetics) and social (i.e., family and friendships) factors that influence adolescent alcohol initiation and subsequent use. They are particularly interested in researching how biological and social factors interact with gender and racial minority experiences in the development of adolescent alcohol use behaviors.
Current Projects in the BDL: Amy is examining the longitudinal effects of other-sex friendships on alcohol use in early adolescence (6th through 8th grade).
Advisor: Drs. Kristine Marceau and Valerie Knopik
Funding: Amy is funded by Dr. Marceau’s and Knopik’s start up accounts.
Role : Nikolina is a second-year graduate research assistant
Research Interests: Nikolina is interested in the prenatal development and how it is affected by maternal behavior, environment, and genetics. She is also interested in placental phenotypic and genotypic characteristics and their possible relationship with infant health outcomes.
Current Projects in the BDL: Nikolina is exploring how placental morphology is linked to placental methylation.
Advisor: Drs. Kristine Marceau and Valerie Knopik
Funding: Nikolina has been funded by Dr. Marceau’s K01 grant, and Dr. Marceau’s and Knopik’s start-up accounts.
Role : Hazel is a second-year graduate research assistant
Research Interests: Hazel is interested in the interactive roles of early adversities and biological factors in developmental problems (e.g., substance use) among adolescents. She is also interested in online (SNS use) and offline peer interactions in shaping adolescents’ development.
Current Projects in the BDL: Hazel is conducting behavioral genetic analyses to understand genetic and environmental influences on different forms of bullying and how they relate to substance use in adolescence.
Advisor: Drs. Kristine Marceau and Valerie Knopik
Funding: Hazel is funded by Dr. Knopik’s and Marceau’s start-up accounts and EGDS.
Role : Sohee is a first-year graduate research assistant
Research Interests: Sohee is interested in the joint effects of genetic factors and early life (from the prenatal period to the first few months of life) stress on children and adolescent’s development (physical and mental health). She is also interested in how possible hardships may be regulated with familial factors like parenting.
Advisor: Drs. Kristine Marceau and Valerie Knopik
Funding: Sohee is funded by Dr. Knopik, and as a teaching assistant for Diversity in Individual and Family Life (HDFS 280, Fall 2021).
Graduate Student Alumni
Emily Rolan
Emily graduated with her PhD in May, 2020. She is currently a Post-doc at Michigan State University with Drs. Kelly Klump and Kristin Culbert.
Gregor Horvath
Gregor graduated with his MS in May, 2020. He is currently a Research Associate at Rogers Behavioral Health in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
Aura Mishra
Aura graduated with her PhD in August, 2020. She is currently a Post-doc at the University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill with Dr.s Kathleen Mullan Harris, Carolyn Halpern, and Allison Aiell.
Undergraduate Students
*Poster Presenter; +Paper coauthor
Current Students
Julia Kramper*
Elena Stanczykiewicz*
Madi Gritton
Kali Negussie
Katherine Price
Abby Regacho
Brooke Lipscomb
Ava Vande Corput
Kaetlyn Dressendorfer
Alumni
Sarah Arnold*+, Development and Family Studies, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 3 semesters: Spring 2020-Spring 2021
Sarah Jackson, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Summer Stay Scholar, 3 semesters: Summer 2020-Spring 2021
Elsa Johnson, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 2 semesters: Spring 2020-Fall 2020
Savannah Hottle*+, Biology, 9 semesters: Summer 2017-Spring 2020
Katarina Wujek, Biology, 5 semesters: Spring 2018-Spring 2020
Alishia Elliot*+, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 3 semesters: Spring 2018-Spring 2020
Radhika Sahai*, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Summer Stay Scholar, 3 semesters: Summer 2019-Spring 2020
Annie Thompson, HDFS data mine, 2 semesters: Fall 2019-Fall 2020
Maya Kumar*, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 3 semesters: Fall 2018-Fall 2019
Kayla Stradford*, Biology- Genetics, Summer Stay Scholar, 4 semesters: Summer 2018-Spring 2019
Shuyu Gao*, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 3 semesters: Summer 2018-Spring 2019
Brittany Gelhausen, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 3 semesters: Summer 2018-Spring 2019
Laura Galles*, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 3 semesters: Spring 2018-Fall 2019
Alyssa Gorzelnik, HDFS data mine, 1 semester: Fall 2019
Claire Demerly, HDFS data mine, 1 semester: Fall 2019
Rosie Mannin+, HDFS, 3 semesters: Spring 2017-Spring 2018
Olivia Clem*, Psychological Sciences, OUR Scholar, 4 semesters: Fall 2017-Spring 2018.
Harlie Lane*, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, OUR Scholar, 3 semesters: Summer 2017-Spring 2018
Shreya Swaminathan, Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 2 semesters: Spring 2018-Fall 2018
Emily Field, Nursing, 2 semesters: Spring 2017-Fall 2017
Heather Lange, Psychological Sciences, 2 semesters: Summer 2017-Fall 2017
