Personnel

Shaina Munin

Shaina joined the lab in Fall 2020 after graduating from Johns Hopkins University with majors in Neuroscience and Psychology. Her graduate research aims to better understand the role of emotion in social interaction, with a focus on individual differences which may affect the experience, expression, and perception of emotion. She is additionally interested in the language individuals use to express emotions. 

Sydney Okland

Sydney joined the lab in Fall 2021 after graduating from Vanderbilt University with majors in English and Psychology. Her undergraduate research and honors thesis focused on how an individual's response to making a mistake is impacted by perceived observation from a peer. She is currently in studying social relationships and the different positive and negative experiences

that can occur within them.

Yanni Jiang

Yanni joined the lab in Fall 2023. She graduated from Wake Forest University with a major in Psychology and received her master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her undergraduate research and honors project focused on people’s pathological attachment style and their support-seeking outcomes. She is currently interested in exploring people’s individual differences in disposition and real-world social behaviors using brain imaging methods. 

Alaa Khader

Alaa joined the lab in Fall 2024. She has a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and master’s degree in Psychology from New York University. She was most recently a Research Coordinator at NASA’s Behavioral Health and Performance Lab, studying well-being and performance in human spaceflight. She is currently interested in exploring the neural basis of various social behaviors, such as within the context of digital media.  

Taru Flagan

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Taru completed her dissertation work on the ways in which emotion and motivation color information-processing and the neural systems that support this influence. In a series of publications, she discovered that the VMPFC plays a role in both emotional and motivational influence and that it likely supports preferential evidence accumulation to fulfill motivational goals. She currently works as a Research Scientist in the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab at the University of California, San Francisco.

Brent Hughes

Graduate Work

During his graduate training, Brent investigated the psychological and neural processes by which we perceive ourselves and other people, as well as the biases involved in these perceptions.  After completing a postdoctoral position at Stanford University, Brent has started his own lab in his position as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at University  of California, Riverside.

Gili Freedman

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

During her graduate training, Gili worked on a number of projects focused on understanding social rejection from the perspective of the source. She was specifically interested in trying to understand how people think about social rejection, how they do it, and whether they are doing it in a way that minimizes the damage done to their targets and their own reputations. She is currently an Assistant Professor at St Mary's College of Maryland.

Jamil Palacios Bhanji

NIMH/NIH Training Fellow  UT Research Fellow

During his graduate training, Jamil investigated the neural substrates of motivational influences on decision making. He is currently a Research Scientist at Rutgers University.

Hani Freeman

Graduate Work

Hani completed a project examining individual differences and hormone influences on social behavior.

Serena Brandler

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Serena entered the lab in Fall 2018 after receiving her B.A. from Rice University where she majored in Psychology, Cognitive Sciences, and Linguistics. Her honors thesis focused on testing the effectiveness of reappraisal training for students with test anxiety. Broadly, she is interested in authenticity, emotion regulation, and measurements of emotion.

Tehila Nugiel

Graduate Work

Tehila collaborated on a project  with the Beer Self-Regulation lab which investigated how the desire to see other people in a positive or negative light influences the operation of the Mentalizing Network.

Ana Rigney

Graduate Work

During Ana's time in the lab, she researched motivated perception of the self and other people. She drew on behavioral, fMRI and ERP methodology. We are fortunate that she has stayed local and works as a Data Scientist.

Pranj Mehta 

Postdoctoral Researcher

 In the lab, Pranj studied the neural mediators of the relation between testosterone and social decision-making. His current research focuses on the biological systems of  power, status, and dominance. After pursuing his interests with collaborators at Columbia University and Erasmus University and a stint as University of Oregon faculty, Pranj has moved to University College London.

Michelle Harris

Postdoctoral Researcher

Michelle was a postdoctoral researcher where she worked on projects aimed at understanding the operation of self-esteem and self-insight. 

Jessica Koski

Postdoctoral Researcher

Jess completed projects aimed at understanding the affective versus cognitive role of MPFC in social cognition. Her research found that many longstanding assumptions about the role of MPFC in social cognition were challenged once socioemotional associations of social targets were decoupled from actual knowledge about the social target.

Isabella McConley

Project Manager

Isabella assisted on a project examining task-based neural activation and resting state in relation to individual differences in socioemotional processing. She is attending graduate school at UNLV. 

Mirre Stallen

Visiting Graduate Student

Mirre conducted her Master's level research in the lab while visiting us from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (2005-2006). Her project examined the neural correlates of the affective and cognitive processes of prejudice.  Her research focuses on the neural systems involved in decision-making. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Leiden University.

David Chester

Lab Manager

Dave worked on several studies involving social-cognitive biases. After completing graduate school at the University of Kentucky's Psychology Department in Nathan DeWall's lab, Dave has started his own lab as an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Janell Fetterolf

Lab Manager

Janell worked on studies examining emotion and information processing. After completing graduate school at Rutgers University in Laurie Rudman's lab, Janell has gone on to work at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC.  

Mike Lombardo

Lab Manager

Mike was a lab manager when the lab was at UC Davis. In the lab, he worked on projects examining self-perception bias and emotion-cognition interactions using neuroimaging and special population methodologies. He got his PhD at the University of Cambridge in Simon Baron-Cohen's lab and is currently a faculty member in the University of Cyprus's Psychology Department. Mike's interests include social cognition and autism.