Team

Team science is a core principle of the CARES Lab. We believe collaboration drives our best work, fostering an environment of healthy productivity. Our CARES team members are integral to the engine that keeps us moving forward, and the contributions of our current and former graduate and undergraduate students—through their ideas, time, and effort—are deeply valued and essential to our success. As lab director, Dr. Viana is committed to mentoring students in both their professional and personal development, helping them to discover their passions—whether in academia, research, medical settings, or other career paths.

Current Graduate Students

Danqi Li, B.A.

Email: dl22@tamu.edu

Stage in the program: 1st year.

Master's thesis: TBD.

Dissertation: TBD.

Danqi is a first-year Clinical Psychology doctoral student in the CARES

Lab. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and minor in Film

Studies in 2024 from Vassar College. Before beginning her doctoral

studies, she worked as a Research Coordinator at the Menninger

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of

Medicine. Her research interests include investigating mechanisms

underlying youth anxiety and co-occurring internalizing symptoms, and how

family and other contextual factors influence mental health outcomes in

youth from underserved backgrounds.

Emily Mallin, B.A.

Email: emily.mallin@tamu.edu

Stage in the program: 2nd year.

Master's thesis: Social performance among anxious youth: Integrating parental emotion socialization, psychobiology, and observed behavior.

Dissertation: TBD.

Emily is a second-year Clinical Psychology doctoral student in the CARES Lab. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas A&M University in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and English, and minors in Science Fiction & Fantasy Studies and Professional Writing. Her research interests center on how elements of the family context interact with cognitive-affective and biological mechanisms to shape the development of internalizing psychopathology, particularly during childhood and the perinatal period.

Dania Amarneh, M.A.

Email: dyamarneh@uh.edu

Stage in the program: 4th year.

Master's thesis: Cognitive predictors of internalizing symptoms in clinically anxious youth.

Dissertation: TBD.

Dania is a fourth-year Clinical Psychology doctoral student in the CARES Lab. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Houston in 2021, and subsequently worked as a Research Coordinator at Baylor College of Medicine in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program. Her research interests include investigating the consequences of early life stress and adverse childhood experiences on minoritized youth and families, with a focus on cognitive-affective factors that may compound or mitigate risk for internalizing psychopathology.

Mallory Raya Cotton, M.A.
Email: mrcotton@cougarnet.uh.edu

Stage in the program: 5th year.

Master's thesis: Racial socialization, racial identity, and internalizing symptoms: The underlying role of emotion suppression in Black youth.

Dissertation: TBD.

Funding: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Mallory is a fifth-year Clinical Psychology doctoral student in the CARES Lab. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Georgia in 2022 with a BS in Psychology and an AB in Sociology. Her research interests include internalizing psychopathological risk and protective factors, adverse childhood experiences, and sociocultural mechanisms underlying psychopathology among racial/ethnic minority youth and their caregivers.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Macy Ziehr

Macy is a senior Psychology major. She joined the CARES Lab to gain experience in psychological research and data collection, and to contribute to expanding knowledge surrounding pregnancy and mental health. After graduating, Macy plans to obtain her doctorate in Clinical Psychology. As a clinical psychologist, she aims to work with children, but she also hopes to positively impact those of all ages throughout her career. Outside of the CARES Lab, Macy enjoys photography, baking, and loving on her dog, Juno.

Former Graduate Students

Karina Silva, Ph.D.

Email: ksilva@cougarnet.uh.edu

Stage in the program: Postdoctoral fellow at Nicklaus Children's Hospital.

Master's thesis: Social and adaptive functioning deficits in children with anxiety disorders: The buffering effects of effortful control.

Dissertation: Acculturative stress and anxiety symptoms among Latinx children: The role of childhood anxiety sensitivity and parental emotion socialization practices.

Funding: Texas Psychological Foundation.

Jessica Hernandez Ortiz, Ph.D.

Email: jghern20@cougarnet.uh.edu

Current position: Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Master's thesis: Caregiver separation, resilience and peer attachment in recently immigrated Latinx youth.

Dissertation: Dimensions of adversity and psychopathology in immigrant Latinx youth: Examining the role of interpretation biases.

Funding: Texas Psychological Foundation.

Erika S. Trent, Ph.D.

Current position: Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

Master's thesis: Interpretive biases and childhood anxiety: The moderating role of parasympathetic nervous system reactivity

Dissertation: Adversity and childhood anxiety: Identifying parental and affective mechanisms.

Funding: American Psychological Association and American Psychological Foundation.

Haley Conroy Busch, Ph.D.

Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Modern Therapy, Houston, TX.

Master's thesis: Fearful temperament, social anxiety and depressive symptoms in clinically anxious youth: the role of catastrophizing cognitions.

Dissertation: Racial socialization and emotion dysregulation: Associations to internalizing symptoms and sleep disturbance in Black youth.

Funding: Texas Psychological Foundation.

Elizabeth Raines, Ph.D.

Current position: Psychologist, Chapel Hill Pediatric Psychology, Chapel Hill, NC.

Master's thesis: Effortful control, interpretation biases, and child

anxiety symptom severity in a sample of children.

Dissertation: Childhood anxiety: The contributions of effortful control, interpretation biases, and early life stress.

Funding: National Institute of Mental Health (F31).

Abigail Candelari, Ph.D.

Current position: Staff Psychologist and Assistant Professor at Dell Children's Medical Center, Austin, TX.

Master's thesis: Longitudinal relations between infant temperament and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms: The role of parental conflict tactics and intimate partner violence.

Dissertation: Single-session computer-delivered intervention for parental accomodation and overcontrolling behaviors: A pilot study.

Funding: Texas Psychological Foundation.

Emma Woodward, Ph.D.

Current position: Staff Psychologist, Anxiety Disorders Center, Child Mind Institute, New York, NY.

Master's thesis: Intergenerational emotion dysregulation: Older adolescent negative perception as a moderator.

Dissertation: Parental socialization of emotion and anxiety among Latinx youth: The role of emotion dysregulation and familismo.

Former Undergraduate Research Assistants

Emily Martin

Megan Peltier

Isabella Gutierrez

Liana Alonzo

Karla Mendez

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