Kathryn E. Swaim is a fourth year PhD student in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Program at NC State University. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research focuses on daily control beliefs, well-being, and physical symptoms in older adults with chronic conditions. She is passionate about understanding the daily experiences of those with chronic conditions such as cancer. 

Michael is a Ph.D. student in Lifespan Developmental Psychology at NC State. His MSc thesis in Neuroscience and Physiology examined the association between inflammation and depressive-like behavior following early-life stress in guinea pigs. He has since expanded this work by exploring the effects of sleep on inflammation, chronic health conditions, and cognitive health. More broadly, he is interested in the neurobiological mechanisms through which stress and adverse environmental conditions impact development across the lifespan.

Jayma is a second year Ph.D. student in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Program at NC State University. Before starting her doctoral studies, she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Winthrop University and her Master of Science degree in Applied Clinical Psychology from the University of South Carolina Aiken (USCA). Her master's thesis investigated yearning as the explanatory variable between attachment styles and reactions to death loss. She plans to extend this work by exploring grief in response to death loss through daily dairy designs. 

Sophie Southerland graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Science & Psychology. She joined the Community Health and Wellness Resource lab within the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at UNC as a research assistant in 2025. She has since assisted with their Access to Healthy Aging project, the Advancing Insights into Moral Injury study in partnership with VA Integrative mental health, and the Spectra Discovery study. Her research interests concern moral injury, aging, and memory. 

Kirstin Gilbert is a senior at NC State University majoring in Psychology with minors in Biology and Animal Science. She plans to pursue a Master’s degree with the goal of becoming a physician’s assistant specializing in neurology.  Her primary interest is in chronic conditions, specifically how stress and trauma impact their development. She is also a part of the Psychology Ambassadors Program and is an advocate for the chronic illness community. 

Julieta Pisa is a senior at NC State majoring in Psychology with a minor in Cognitive Science. She plans on pursuing a PhD in Cognitive Neuropsychology and go on to research human memory. Her research interests concern aging, memory, mental well-being, stress and memory-related illnesses. Additionally, she is a research assistant at Duke University and is currently working on processing fMRI data for a project observing insight.

Suzy Shafey is an undergrad at NC State, majoring in psychology and pursuing a minor in cognitive science. Suzy is interested in exploring all areas of psychology, but her primary interests concern interpersonal relationships, emotion, implicit memory, and neurocognition. After graduating, she hopes to pursue a PhD in cognitive psychology and establish her career in research. 

Reyyan was a doctoral student Lifespan Developmental Psychology program at NC State University. Reyyan worked as a school counselor for three years in a rural part of Türkiye, where she supported diverse student populations to foster well-being. She completed her dual Master’s degree, an M.Ed. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling, at Ohio University. Her research focused on well-being, happiness, views of aging, and the factors that shape positive outcomes across the lifespan. 

Shalini completed her PhD in Lifespan Developmental Psychology at NC State University. She holds a BS in Psychology and a MS in Health Psychology at the University of Hyderabad in India. She’s passionate about studying subjective aging, health, and well-being, and is also interested in exploring human-animal and human-plant interactions.

Lyndsey was a doctoral student in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology program at NC State. She earned her BS in Psychology from Liberty University, and her MS in Human Development and Family Science from East Carolina University. Lyndsey is also a Certified Child Life Specialist, and hopes to contribute to the field through her research in stress and coping.

Victoria completed her Ph.D. in Lifespan Developmental Psychology at NCSU in 2022. She earned her M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Radford University, and before that, she earned her B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Women’s and Gender studies from UNC Wilmington. Her research interests include how chronic illness can influence various psychosocial outcomes including how one copes with these diagnoses.

Xianghe (/C-i-ung H-ə/) completed her Ph.D. in Lifespan Developmental Psychology at NC State University in 2021. She earned her BA in Psychology from the University of Washington-Seattle, and her MA in Psychology (Psychometrics and Human Resource Management) from Beijing Normal University. While conducting psychological assessment and selection during her master’s, she developed an interest in intra-individual variability as well as inter-individual differences. She focuses on daily well-being of older adults, particularly in the relationship between subjective attitudes and perceptions about aging and cognitive functioning.

Emily L. Smith, Ph.D.

Emily completed her Ph.D. in Lifespan Developmental Psychology at NC State University in 2020. She is a graduate of Utica College in New York State where she completed her B.S. in Psychology.  Her research interests include daily and long term stress and coping mechanisms and their effects on deviant behavior.

Ling-Rui Zhang, M.S.

Ling-Rui completed Master's in Lifespan Development Psychology at NC state University in 2018. She completed her BS in psychology at Beijing Normal University in China. Her research interests focus on the dyadic daily stressors and coping in couples or people in relationship and their impact on people's daily well-being. She is also interested in the difference between Chinese and Americans.

Jennifer A. Bellingtier, Ph.D.

Jennifer completed her PhD in Lifespan Development at North Carolina State University in 2017. Her research interests focus on individual’s attitudes, beliefs, and feelings about their own aging, as well as how those beliefs develop and impact well-being. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany.