our team

Lab Members, Fall 2025

From left to right: Dr. Sabrina Perkins, Olivia Guarino, Anna Grace Gilbert, Ella McGlynn, and Jessica Garcia-Bastida.

Not pictured: Gia Cullens

Lab Director

Dr. Sabrina Perkins

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Dr. Sabrina Perkins (former last name: Thurman) B.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro; M.A., University of Tennessee; Ph.D., University of Tennessee) is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Elon University and Director of the Infant Development Lab.

Sabrina studies how infants acquire new motor skills, postures, and forms of locomotion, and how infants learn to use their bodies for manipulation and exploration of their environments. She is interested in the role of caregivers in those processes. She also studies the development of reaching, intermanual coordination, and hand preference.

Sabrina’s research has been published in professional academic journals such as Child Development and Developmental Psychology. She has presented her research at multiple professional conferences, including the Society for Research in Child Development, the International Congress of Infant Studies, and the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning.

In her leisure time, Sabrina enjoys reading, crochet, gardening, and planning her next landscaping/home improvement projects.

Undergraduate Research Students

Anna Grace Gilbert ('27)

Anna Grace is a Psychology major with a minor in Early Childhood Development. She is interested in studying hand preference and walking skills in infancy. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends and reading and is also involved in the theater department here at Elon.

Jessica Garcia-Bastida ('27)

Jessica is an Exercise Science major with a minor in Neuroscience. She is interested in pediatric physical therapy as well as the development of object retrieval in infants. She is a part of the Accelerated Pathways to PT and PA at Elon. She enjoys watching movies and shows with her friends and family, going to the gym, and crafting.

Gia Cullens ('26)

Gia is a Psychology major with a minor in Communications. She is primarily interested in working with infants and adolescents. During her free time, she enjoys reading, being outside, and spending time with her friends. She hopes to open her own therapeutic practice one day.

Elise Molloy ('28)

Elise is an Elon College Fellow with a Psychology major and a human service studies minor. She is interested in learning about infant cognition and the research process as a whole. In her free time, she enjoys playing on the women's club soccer team, spending time with friends and family, and being active.

Daniella Friedman ('28)

Daniella is a Psychology major with minors in Studio Art and Expressive Arts. She is interested in helping children thrive socially and emotionally in school environments and exploring the field of Art Therapy. In her free time, Daniella enjoys spending time with family and friends, drawing and painting, and taking long walks.

Former Research Students

Ella McGlynn ('26)
Olivia Guarino ('26)
Mariana Fernández ('26)
Zoe Klein ('26)
Rosie Gottleib ('26)
Maeve Durkin ('26)
Alie Shutze ('26)
Chloe Capone ('26, Outstanding Student in Criminal Justice Award)
Kenan Carter ('25, Seena Granowsky Outstanding Psychology Student Award)
Megan Parks ('25)
Kyla Zeldin ('25)
Parker Fairfield ('24, Elon College Fellow)
Rebecca "Becca" Rose ('23, Elon College Fellow)
Tiffany Pham ('23, Provost Scholar, Research Excellence in Psychology Award, Katharine duPont Weymouth Scholarship, Omicron Delta Kappa)

Hannah Higgins ('23)
Sofia Cordova ('22)
Grace Feiner ('21, Elon College Fellow, Rawls Scholar, Seena Granowsky Outstanding Psychology Student Award)
Noorhan Abu Khalaf (Alamance-Burlington Early College '21)
Alexandra Grillo ('20, Rawls Scholar, Research Excellence in Psychology Award)
Pamela Danko ('20)
Regan Fleischer ('20)
Dylan Crusan (’20)
Elena Cheek (’20)
Nicole Karabas (’19)
Rayven Young (’19)

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