Contact Information
Research Areas
Biography
I am a graduate student in the Clinical/Community program. I did my undergraduate degree in secondary education and psychology at Northern Illinois University. There, I graduated with degrees in secondary social studies education and psychology. I briefly worked as a high school teacher before switching careers. After teaching, I worked under Dr. Laurie Wakschlag in the Developmental Mechanisms lab at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine in downtown Chicago before I started at UIUC for graduate school.
At The University of Illinois I am advised by Dr. Wendy Heller and Dr. Greg Miller in the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience of Psychopathology Lab. Additionally, I am an intramural graduate student researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health, where I work with Dr. Daniel Pine in the Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience.
Research Interests
My research interests are at the intersection of cognitive, clinical, and computational neuroscience. I utilize machine learning methods with neuroimaging data to examine mechanisms that support cognition and psychopathology, generally from a transdiagnostic perspective. Additionally, I have interests in neural network modeling as a method for investigating clinical mechanisms, models of cognition, neural function, and artificial intelligence.
Research Description
Current projects include:
- Using machine learning methods to examine common and distinct neural features in psychopathology and cognitive tasks
- Feature selection techniques for effective neuroimaging decoding
- Creating methods for bridging between and within-subjects neuroimaging datasets
- Using deep learning (convolutional neural network) methods for brain-age classification analyses
Education
2021 - University of Illinois - Masters of Science in Psychology
2016 - Northern Illinois University - Double Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and History (with Teaching Certification)
Awards and Honors
2021 - Instructor Rated as Outstanding – UIUC Graduate Teaching Assistant Spring Semester
2020 - Instructor Rated as Outstanding – UIUC Graduate Teaching Assistant Fall Semester
2020 - Instructor Rated as Outstanding – UIUC Graduate Teaching Assistant Spring Semester
2019 - Instructor Rated as Outstanding – UIUC Graduate Teaching Assistant Fall Semester
Courses Taught
PSYC 100 - Introduction to Psychology
PSYC 238 - Psychopathology and Problems in Living
PSYC 363 - Developmental Psychology Research Lab
PSYC 379 - Clinical Psychology Research Lab
MCB 460 - Neuroanatomy Laboratory
Additional Campus Affiliations
National Institutes of Health - National Institute of Mental Health - Graduate Student (2020-present)
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine - Research Assistant (2017-2019)