The Lavender Lab 

PI Name: Ethan Mereish

Mission: The Lavender Lab, led by Dr. Ethan Mereish, conducts NIH-funded research on the psychological, social, and cultural determinants of suicide, substance use, and other health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We also focus on identifying factors and interventions that promote resilience among LGBTQ and BIPOC adolescents and young adults. We leverage multiple methodologies, including experimental laboratory and experience sampling methods, as well as qualitative methods. 

PI Background: Dr. Mereish completed his doctoral training at Boston College, a clinical psychology residency at Harvard Medical School, and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Brown University. 

Lab Contact Email: lavenderlab@umd.edu

PI Email: emereish@umd.edu

BEAD Lab

PI Name: Lea Rose Dougherty

Mission: We hope that our research can improve 1) identification of youth who are experiencing emotional problems or are at risk for developing mood disorders as early as possible; 2) our understanding of the multiple and complex causes of mood problems across development; and 3) the development of new ways of assessing, preventing, and intervening in youth mood problems to alter developmental trajectories.

PI Background: Dr. Dougherty's research focuses on developmental psychopathology, particularly mood disorders in children and adolescents. She has published over 100+ scientific papers and was awarded the APS Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions and the UMD Excellence in Research Award.

Lab Contact Email: bead-lab@umd.edu

PI Email: ldougher@umd.edu

Shackman Lab

PI Name: Alexander Shackman

Mission: The overarching mission of our lab is to have a deep impact on the intersecting fields of clinical, affective, and personality neuroscience. To that end, we strive to perform innovative studies that can lead to significant discoveries, to disseminate our discoveries as widely as possible, and to mentor trainees to become top-notch scientists.

PI Background: Dr. Shackman is a professor in the Department of Psychology (Clinical and CNS Area Groups), core faculty member of the interdepartmental Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS) Doctoral Program and the Maryland Neuroimaging Center (MNC), and Director of the Affective and Translational Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Maryland. 

PI Email: shackman@umd.edu

Caip Lab

PI Name: Andres De Los Reyes

Mission: Our work leverages the tools of measurement validation to attain certainty that instruments like clinical surveys and interviews produce precise and accurate estimates of mental health phenomena like anxiety, depression, ADHD, parenting, and peer relations.

PI Background: Dr. De Los Reyes received his Ph.D. in 2008 from Yale University. He began his career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland at College Park. Within 10 years, he was promoted up the ranks to Full Professor with tenure. He serves as Director of the Comprehensive Assessment and Intervention Program, where he has provided research training to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students

Lab Contact Email: caipumd@gmail.com

PI Email: adlr@umd.edu

Neurocognitive Development Lab

PI Name: Tracy Riggins

Mission: Our research investigates the development of cognitive abilities, such as memory, in young children. We are especially interested in how changes in these abilities are related to brain development. We use multiple tools to address this issue including studying children’s overt behavior and their brain structure and function.

PI Background: Dr. Riggins received her Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in pediatric neuroimaging at the University of California, Davis and the University of Maryland, School of Medicine in Baltimore. The goal of her research program is to provide better understanding of the neural bases of cognitive development, particularly in the domain of memory

Lab Contact Email: kidbrainstudy@gmail.com

Maryland Child and Family Development Laboratory

PI Name: Jude Cassidy

Mission: Studying socio-emotional development from infancy through adolescence, with an emphasis on attachment and family relationships, and social, cognitive, and regulatory mechanisms through which children’s early family experiences come to influence later well-being and relationships

PI Background: Shortly after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, Dr. Cassidy received the Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association in 1991. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association.

Lab Contact Email: mdchildfamilylab@gmail.com

Social Learning and Decisions Lab

PI Name: Caroline Charpentier

Mission: We are interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying how people learn in social contexts. This can involve observational learning (learning from observing another person), learning about another person (for example, learning their preferences and attitudes), social influence (how does other people’s preferences and attitude influence one’s own), and strategic learning (think of any two person game where one’s choices affect the other player and vice-versa).

PI Background: Dr. Charpentier completed her postdoctoral training with John O’Doherty at the California Institute of Technology, where she also collaborated with Ralph Adolphs and Dean Mobbs. Her research, focusing on the neuro-computational mechanisms of social learning, has been funded by the Wellcome Trust and the National Institute of Mental Health.

PI Email: ccharpen@umd.edu

The University of Maryland Diversity and Intergroup Relations Lab

PI Name: Linda Zou

Mission: Our research examines how dynamic changes to the United States’ contemporary racial landscape have impacted the ways in which racial discrimination occurs, when, and why. 

PI Background: Dr. Zou received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2019. Her current research interests include the role of immigration in shaping modern U.S. race relations, and the effects of changing demographics and growing racial and cultural diversity.

PI Email: lxzou@umd.edu

Counseling Psychology Research 

PI Name: Karen O'Brien

Areas of Interest: Vocational Psychology of Women and People of Color, Domestic Violence and Dating Violence, and Death, Dying and Grieving

PI Background: Dr. O'Brien is a counseling psychologist who strives to make a difference through my work as a scholar, professor, and therapist. Currently, her research focuses on education regarding communication about death, dying and grieving. 

PI Email: kmobrien@umd.edu

Dynamical Systems Lab

PI Name: Paul Hanges

Areas of Interest: We conduct research on leadership, personnel selection, culture, diversity in the workplace, complexity and dynamical systems, and measurement. Our work has contributed to the U.S. Military, U.S. Congress, GLOBE project, and more.

PI Background: Dr. Hanges is Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Maryland and is also the academic director of the university’s new MPS (Master’s in Professional Studies) in IO Psychology program. Originally from New York City, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Akron in 1987.

PI Email: phanges@umd.edu

UMD ADHD Program

PI Name: Andrea Chronis-Tuscano

Mission: The mission of the Maryland ADHD Program is to: (1) provide comprehensive, empirically-based assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with ADHD and associated behavior problems; (2) conduct clinical research that advances our knowledge about the assessment and treatment of ADHD; (3) educate parents, schools, and the community about empirically-based assessment and treatment for ADHD (i.e., dissemination); and (4) train the next generation of child clinical psychologists in evidence-based assessment and treatment practices.

PI Background: Dr. Chronis-Tuscano received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and completed a clinical internship at the University of Chicago. She joined the faculty of the University of Maryland-College Park in 2002. Dr. Chronis-Tuscano directs the Maryland ADHD Program.

PI Email: achronis@umd.edu

Family Involvement Laboratory

PI Name: Natasha Cabrera

Mission: Parent-child relationships, children's social and emotional development in different types of families and cultural/ethnic groups, school readiness, fatherhood, predictors of adaptive and maladaptive parenting, and translation of research into practice and policy.

PI Background: Dr. Cabrera is a professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College of Education. Previously, Dr. Cabrera held an expert appointment in the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Development (NICHD).

Lab Contact Email: rpkaran@umd.edu

PI Email: ncabrera@umd.edu

Cognition and Development Lab

PI Name: Lucas Payne Butler

Mission: We are primarily interested in two different research trajectories: (1) Children’s Early Social Cognition (e.g., how they leverage their social relationships in order to learn about the world); (2) Children’s Early Numerical Cognition (e.g., how they come to understand mathematical functions, like relative magnitude and order of operations).

PI Background: Education- Stanford University, Ph.D. in Psychology, 2012, Stanford University, M.A. in Psychology, 2009, Harvard University, A.B. cum laude in Psychology, 2005

Lab Contact Email: cogdevlab@umd.edu

PI Email: lpbutler@umd.edu

Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory

PI Name: Patricia Alexander

Mission: The Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Lab (DRLRL) is dedicated to the study of psychology in teaching and learning. Under the guidance of Patricia A. Alexander, the lab supports the research programs of Dr. Alexander and her team of graduate students.

PI Background: A former middle-school teacher, Dr. Alexander received her reading specialist degree from James Madison University in 1979 and her Ph.D. in reading from the University of Maryland in 1981. Her research focuses on literacy and reading comprehension, learning and academic development, critical and relational reasoning, epistemic beliefs, and expertise.

PI Email: palexand@umd.edu

Early Childhood Interaction Lab

PI Name: Geetha Ramani

Mission: In our research, we examine the benefits and unique processes of learning through joint play and activities with peers and adults, and their importance for constructing effective educational practices with young children.

PI Background: Dr. Ramani is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. Before coming to University of Maryland in 2008, Dr. Ramani received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Carnegie Mellon University.  

PI Email: gramani@umd.edu

Li Lab

PI Name: Anna Li

Mission: The Li Lab studies the neural mechanisms of drug addiction. Our main focus is on examining the neurobiology of drug relapse and craving. To achieve this, we use various methods, including behavioral pharmacology, biochemistry, and molecular biology, in combination with animal models of relapse in rats. 

PI Background: Dr. Li is a neuroscientist who studies the brain and molecular mechanisms underlying drug craving and addiction. She earned her Ph.D. from Rosalind Franklin University and completed her postdoctoral training at the National Institute on Drug Abuse before joining the University of Maryland’s Department of Psychology in 2018.

PI Email: annali@umd.edu

Mix Lab

PI Name: Kelly Mix

Mission: Our research focuses on how children learn mathematics. We use cognitive psychology methods and theories to examine children's learning at home and in school. We aim to generate insights into learning that can help teachers target instruction more effectively, and engage students who may have difficulty learning through conventional approaches.

PI Background: Dr. Mix began her academic career in the Psychology Department at Indiana University (1996-2005), and later served on the faculty in College of Education at Michigan State University (2005-2016), where her work centered on applying the ideas from developmental psychology to educational practices. Her current research focuses on the development of mathematical cognition and number concepts in young children.

PI Email: kmix@umd.edu

CDL: Child Devlopment Lab

PI Name: Nathan Fox

Mission: Our research focuses on multiple facets of socio-emotional development. We study cognitive, social and emotional processes and are interested in the observation and measurement of attention, memory, as well as emotion expression and social experience. Our lab specializes in linking these psychological processes to neural activity through brain imaging methods such as EEG, ERP, and functional neuro-imaging.

PI Background: Areas of research are temperament; development of emotion and emotion regulation; developmental psychophysiology; infant cognitive/social development

PI Email: fox@umd.edu

Hola Stem Lab

PI Name: Jimena Cosso

Mission: A lab dedicated to advancing equity in early STEM learning for dual language learners (DLLs) and their families. Our work investigates how young children’s language experiences, especially in bilingual and multilingual contexts, shape their understanding of mathematics and science. 

PI Background: She is an Assistant Professor in the Human Development program at the University of Maryland. She was born and raised in Argentina. She came to the US to pursue my master’s degree in Comparative and International Education at New York University. Then, she did her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research Methodology at Purdue University.

Lab Contact Email: holastem@umd.edu

Laboratory for the Neurodevelopment of Reading and Language

PI Name: Donald Bolger

Mission: Our research focuses on key issues of reading from a neurobiological, cognitive, and educational perspective. The primary goal is to understand brain development with respect to reading and language and how impairment and remediation are reflected in the cortex.

PI Background: Dr. Bolger studies how the brain learns to read and what are the cognitive and neural bases of reading and language ability and disability. The core of his research focus is on these key issues of reading from neurobiological, cognitive, developmental and educational perspectives.

PI Email: djbolger@umd.edu

Laboratory of Cognition & Emotion

PI Name: Luiz Pessoa

Mission: We employ behavioral and functional MRI methods to study interactions between cognition and emotion/motivation. Our view is that brain systems are highly interactive and that modular approaches to understanding the mind-brain are fundamentally problematic.

PI Background: He is a professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park. My research focuses on understanding how emotion and cognition interact with each other both in terms of the brain and behavior.

PI Email: pessoa@umd.edu

Language, Experience, and Development (LEAD) Lab | UMD College of Education

PI Name: Rachel Romeo

Mission: We specialize in studying language and literacy development, but we are also interested in executive functioning, socioemotional cognition, and mental health across development.

PI Background: Dr. Romeo received her BA in Psychology and Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011, and then received a Fulbright Fellowship at University College London where she completed a MSc in Language Sciences. She earned her PhD in 2018 in the joint Harvard/MIT Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, during which she also completed clinical training in Speech Language Pathology at the MGH Institute of Health Professions.

PI Email: romeo@umd.edu

(RACC) Lab

PI Name: Fanita Tyrell

Mission: The RACC lab is committed to conducting research on how different processes of risk and protection support or undermine the identity de​velopment, adaptation, and health outcomes of youth and families from adversity-exposed, ethnic-racial minority, and immigrant backgrounds. Because culture and context matter, our lab studies what and how different cultural and contextual experiences such as cultural socialization, family values, and parenting practices strengthen pathways to positive development and maladaptation. 

PI Background: She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology, with a minor in quantitative methods at the University of California, Riverside. Following doctoral training, she c​ompleted postdoctoral fellowships at the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. Her research and scholarship have been funded by the Ford Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, Society for Research in Child Development, and American Psychological Foundation.

PI Email: racclab@umd.edu