Areas of Interest
Childhood adversity negatively impacts well-being, school performance, and health behaviors. To date, it remains unclear how adversity influences biology, diminishes human potential, and interacts with other factors that promote resilience. The goal of my research program is to decipher how the social environment alters neural development and how these alterations map onto affective functioning across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, developmental stages when rates of anxiety and depression markedly increase. To accomplish this goal, I pursue three interrelated lines of research: 1) chart age-related changes in affective neural circuitry; 2) link ecological conditions, such as violence exposure, parental neglect, and supportive relationships at school, to development of this circuitry; and 3) relate adolescent brain function to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and their response to effective treatments. By understanding these processes, we can develop more tailored prevention, intervention and treatment strategies that optimize developmental trajectories.
My teaching interests include developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience.