Current Students
Meet our current graduate students.
LCN Students
Katherine Gamble (Howard) is a third-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 fifth 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 third-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
Jessica Simon (Howard) is a fifth-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
Chelsea Stillman (Howard) is a first year student in the Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience track. She received her BA in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry from Colby College in May of 2010. In her time at Colby, she worked in the Memory and Language and Child Development labs, where she developed an interest in studying how learning and memory processes change across the lifespan. At Georgetown, she will continue to study learning and memory from a developmental perspective. <<email Chelsea at cms264@georgetown.edu
HDPP Students
Natalie Brito (Barr) is a third-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. Her dissertation will examine cognitive flexibility in bilingual infants and toddlers. 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
Eunsoo Choi (Chentsova-Dutton) is a second-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
Elisabeth McClure (Calvert) is a first year student in the Human Development and Public Policy concentration.She is interested in how pre-school children learn from electronic media, including television, computer and video games, and cell phones. Prior to coming to Georgetown, she received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John's College, was an English Language Assistant at a high school in France, and worked as a lab manager in the Lifelong Brain and Cognition Lab at the Beckman Institute. <<email Elisabeth at em443@georgetown.edu
Melissa Richards (Calvert) is a first year student in the Human Development and Public Policy concentration. Her work at the Children’s Digital Media Center examines the ways that children can learn and benefit from using various types of media outlets. Melissa became interested in this subject area after working as a research assistant at Yale University’s Social Cognitive Development Lab, interning at a television station, and conducting undergraduate research on media’s effects on youth sleep patterns. She received her BA in Psychology and Sociology from the College of the Holy Cross in 2010. <<email Melissa at mnr25@georgetown.edu
Dual MPP/PHD Students
Beth Corrington (Phillips) is a fifth-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. Her dissertation will examine factors that effect the type, amount, and stability of child care arrangements for children in foster care, as well as the developmental (cognitive and social-emotional) impact of exposure to child care for these vulnerable young children. 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 «email Beth at mec87@georgetown.edu
Cristina Novoa (Moghaddam) is a third 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 third 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 second-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. 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.
