My areas of expertise include social and affective neuroscience, particularly understanding emotions such as empathy and how they relate to aggression, altruism, violence and psychopathy. My research is aimed at understanding aspects of human social interactions, emotional functioning, and empathy using cognitive neuroscience methods, with a particular focus on emotion and nonverbal communication.

At Georgetown, the research I conduct with my collaborators includes studies with adolescents and adults that incorporate neuroimaging, cognitive and behavioral testing, and pharmacology techniques.

I received my B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1999 and my Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2004. In my undergraduate and graduate work, I used experimental laboratory research in healthy adults. I was trained to conduct research using neuroimaging, pharmacological, genetic, and neurocognitive techniques in both healthy adults and adolescents and with adolescents with conduct problems during my post-doctoral fellowship in the Mood & Anxiety Program at the National Institute of Mental Health from 2004 to 2008.