Former Undergraduate Research Assistants

Victoria Jackson

UNC Class of 2024

Victoria is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and double minoring in Chemistry and Spanish. In the summer of 2021, Victoria joined the Penn Lab as research assistant on the RAPID study. After undergrad Victoria hopes to attend medical school and later pursue a career as a pediatric neurologist. In her free time, Victoria enjoys dancing and thrifting.

Madeline Gray

UNC Class of 2023

Madeline majored in Psychology and minored in Neuroscience at UNC. She joined the Penn Lab in the summer of 2022 as a research assistant working on the PACE-Life RCT. After undergrad, Madeline plans to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a forensic concentration. Madeline enjoys painting, reading, and listening to true crime podcasts in her free time.

Jasmine Padgett

UNC Class of 2022

Jasmine majored in Psychology and minored in Cognitive Science. Jasmine joined the Penn lab in the Spring of 2019 and is interested in minority mental health and clinical psychology. During her time with the lab, she has worked on the BASS study, the PACE-Life study, and the Author-Race project. Jasmine is also a Ronald E. McNair scholar and recently completed a project examining race-related factors that influence cognition in Black women. In the future, Jasmine looks forward to pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, studying evidence-based therapies for people of color, and working in clinical settings. In her free time, Jasmine likes to stay active outdoors and visit her favorite local coffee shops!

Caroline Vincent

UNC Class of 2022

Caroline Vincent majored in Psychology and minored in Neuroscience. She is a research assistant in the MECCA and Penn labs. Caroline was recently accepted into the Honors Psychology program and will complete an honors thesis. During her time working in the Penn Lab, Caroline has worked on the BASS study, the author-race project, and the PACE-Life study. Caroline enjoys cooking and staying active in her free time.

Riya Thomas

Chaz Crosby

UNC Class of 2022

Chaz majored in psychology and minored in chemistry. She joined the Penn Lab in spring of 2019 with a strong interest in mental health disparities. She has worked on the BASS research study and the author-race research study. In the future, Chaz plans on going to medical school to become a physician.

Katherine Welch

UNC Class of 2021

Kate majored in Biology and Psychology with a minor in Chemistry. This is her third year in the lab, and she is working on the author-race study as well as completing her Honors Thesis looking at the use of daily diaries in first-episode psychosis. She is passionate about clinical psychology research and will be attending medical school after her undergraduate career. In her free time, Kate enjoys volunteering with free healthcare clinics in rural North Carolina.

Maya Parvathaneni

UNC Class of 2021

Maya majored in psychology and minored in studio art and chemistry. She joined the Penn Lab in the Spring of 2019 and has worked on the BASS research study. Maya hopes to go on to medical school after graduation to become a pediatric oncologist.

Joe Thompson

UNC Class of 2021

Joe is a psychology major. He is interested in biophilia and horticulture therapy. Specifically, he is interested in how they can be used to improve health outcomes of patients with schizophrenia and other severe mental health disorders as well as monitoring the physiological changes that occur when in nature, or gardening. Before college, he served four years in the United States Marine Corps, deploying overseas twice and attaining the rank of Sergeant. He plans to attend graduate school. In his free time he likes to ride bikes, drink craft beer, and go on self powered adventures.

Amore Allen

UNC Class of 2021

Amore is a Charlotte native. She majored in Psychology and minoring in Information Sciences. Amore joined the Penn Lab in the Spring of 2019 because of her broad interest in clinical psychology. Specifically, she wants to go into Artificial Intelligence or User Experience to create technologies that make human lives easier.

Alyes Chen

UNC Class of 2020

Cyan Bligen

UNC Class of 2020

Cyan graduated from UNC in 2020 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Korean. Following undergrad, she wishes to attend graduate school in Seoul, South Korea and become a professor. In her free time she enjoys listening to music, studying the Korean language, and writing.

Emily Winterich-Knox

UNC Class of 2020

Emily graduated in 2020 with majors in Psychology and Sociology and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Her primary research focus in the Penn Lab was examining the interaction of experimenter race and performance on neuro- and social cognitive batteries, and its implications for racial disparities in schizophrenia diagnosis. She is interested more broadly in how social inequities influence psychological functioning and the implications in different institutions, such as the education system. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, and listening to live music. Emily is currently an advisor through the Carolina College Advising Corps at Walter M. Williams High School in Burlington, NC. After completing this two-year program, she plans to attend graduate school.

Ali Wiggins

UNC Class of 2019

Ali grew up in a small, rural community in East Texas, then moved to Seattle, WA in 2014. In 2015, she began her formal education studying Humanities at Seattle Central College, and developed an interest in public health and biosocial health systems. In the Fall of 2017, Ali transferred to UNC to double major in Psychology and Public Health, and minor in Neuroscience. She engaged in projects on Schizophrenia and racial relationships, walking treatments, and supporting students on campus with mental illness. In the future, she looks forward to researching stress and socialization in vulnerable communities and outcomes in Schizophrenia.  In her spare time, she loves yoga, spending time with her cat, Oliver, and making music with her friends.

Omega Roberson

Omega is a junior at UNC majoring in psychology. She has been a member of the Penn Lab since the fall 2018 semester. Following undergrad, she hopes to pursue a graduate school degree in clinical psychology.  She enjoys working with other UNC organizations, writing, and spending time with friends.

Bethany Garrison

UNC Class of 2019

Bethany graduated from UNC in 2019 majoring in psychology with minors in creative writing and medical anthropology. She was in the lab for three semesters, working on SCOPE data entry, NET transcriptions, and RAISE therapeutic alliance ratings. In her free time she enjoys riding horses, spending time outdoors, and writing poetry.

Sydney James

UNC Class of 2019

Sydney James graduated UNC in 2019 majoring in psychology with a minor in statistics. Currently, she is extending her research work in psychosis as the lab manager of the UGA Clinical Affective Neuroscience (CAN) Lab under Dr. Gregory Strauss. Her primary research interests involve examining mechanisms underlying negative symptoms and functional outcomes in schizophrenia. In the near future, Sydney plans to pursue a clinical psychology PhD and hopes to continue conducting research in severe mental illness.

Janelly Durr

Janelly Durr is a senior at UNC, majoring in biology and double minoring in chemistry and neuroscience. From the time she joined the lab in the summer of 2016, Janelly assisted with SCOPE data entry, NET transcriptions, and a menagerie of other tasks.  In addition to that research, she assisted with ICAT, working towards being certified for heartbeat error checking. In her spare time, Janelly enjoys drawing, playing the violin, kayaking, boxing with the UNC boxing club, and volunteering in the neuroscience department of UNC hospitals.

Sydra Siddiqui, BS

UNC Class of 2018

Sydra will be working as a medical assistant to gain clinical exposure before applying to medical school. As far as participation in the lab, Sydra was responsible for data entry for ICAT and the ICAT Control Study.

Sofia Edelman, BA

UNC Class of 2018
El Futuro, North Carolina

Caroline Jennings, BS

UNC Class of 2017
Owner of Word of Web (Greenville, South Carolina)

Caroline is the Owner of Word of Web, a web design firm that creates sharp, easy to edit websites for budget-conscious businesses. On the side, she helps companies design, develop, test, and market digital products. Although Caroline is no longer studying Psychology, she is continuing her passion for mental health by serving on the board of Mental Health America of Greenville County. She hopes to use her understanding of psychology and neuroscience to improve public outreach programs, spearhead creative educational campaigns, and bring awareness of mental health to local schools.

Austin Gragson, Ed.M.

UNC Class of 2017
Capacity Building Manager, Boston College, Boston MA

Hasan Mustafic, BA

UNC Class of 2017
Research Coordinator at UNC Chapel Hill

Hasan graduated from UNC in 2017 with a BA in psychology and a minor in film. He spent four years in the lab, and worked on a variety of studies that helped him achieve a better understanding of research. He is broadly interested in brain-behavior relationships and neuropsychological assessments. Hasan is currently working as a research coordinator at NC TraCS, and plans to attend graduate school in the future.

Emily Bass, BA

UNC Class of 2017
Research Assistant at The University of Texas at Dallas

Emily Bass graduated from UNC in 2017 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in General Anthropology. She volunteered in the Penn Lab for 3 years as a undergraduate research assistant. In the lab, she completed SCOPE transcriptions, data entry for SCOPE, Horyzons, and ICAT, RAISE-ETP therapeutic alliance ratings, and volunteered at the OASIS clinic helping with social skills group therapy sessions. During her senior year, she successfully defended her honors thesis on predictors of the RAISE-ETP therapeutic alliance ratings for Individual Resiliency Training. She is now working at UT-Dallas as a research assistant under Dr. Amy Pinkham continuing her passion for schizophrenia research. In her free time she likes to write, go on hikes, spend time with the abundance of pets her family owns (7 dogs total and 1 cat), watch Netflix, exercise occasionally, and try new recipes and restaurants.

Isabelle Lanser, BA

UNC Class of 2016
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles

Isabelle is currently a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. Broadly, she is interested in the physiology of stress response systems in schizophrenia as they relate to cognitive and social cognitive deficits in this population. During her time in the Penn Lab, Isabelle worked on several projects studying social cognition in schizophrenia, including her honors thesis, which examined the structure of a novel measure to assess social cognition and functioning in schizophrenia.

Ben Twery, BS

UNC Class of 2016
M.D. Candidate, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Ben graduated from UNC in 2016 with a B.S. in biology and minors in chemistry and cognitive science. For two years he worked under Arun Nagendra in the Penn Lab studying how race-related factors impact social cognition in African Americans. The knowledge, experience, and mentorship he gained from Arun, Dr. Penn, and the whole Penn Lab are already proving valuable in many aspects of his career. Ben is an M.D. candidate in the class of 2022 at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is currently conducting his own research examining the impact of patient-provider race concordance on patient’s willingness to achieve management goals.

Paul Julian, BS

UNC Class of 2015
JD Candidate at University of Colorado Law School

Paul graduated from UNC-CH in the Spring of 2015 with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Creative Writing. After working in the Penn Lab for all four years of his undergraduate career, changed directions to attend law school at the University of Colorado in the Fall of 2015. In his first and second years in law school, Paul clerked for judges in the 20th Judicial District and County Courts. Combining his interests in writing, movies, psychology, and contracts, Paul hopes to specialize in Media and Intellectual Property Law after law school.

Kagan Griffin, MPH, RD

UNC Class of 2015 & 2019
Maternal Child Health Epidemiologist and Lead PRAMS Coordinator, Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public and Behavioral Health

Kagan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015 with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Chemistry. After working in prostate cancer research for two years, she decided she missed UNC so much she went back for her Masters in Public Health with Registered Dietitian training at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She graduated from that program in December 2019, and moved across the country to Reno, Nevada. She now works for the state of Nevada in the Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health section, providing epidemiological assistance to the section for the Title V Block Grant and other projects, as well as coordinating a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pregnancy surveillance study focused on collecting data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and after pregnancy. She has fallen in love with Nevada (especially the mountains, lack of humidity, and the casino culture), but will always be a proud Tar Heel!

Alex Edwards, BS

UNC Class of 2015
MSW Candidate at the University of Denver, Colorado

Alex graduated from UNC in 2015 with a BA in psychology and minors in the PPE (Philosophy Politics and Economics) program, and in Art History. She worked with the Penn lab for all four years of her undergraduate career, and completed her Senior Honors Thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Penn. The experience Alex gained as an undergraduate research assistant for the Penn Lab inspired her to pursue a career with a mental health focus. She is currently starting her first year as a Masters of Social Work student at the University of Denver, and hopes to receive licensure as a Clinical Social Worker in order to conduct therapy in a medical or mental health setting.

Emily Haddock, BA

UNC Class of 2014

Emily graduated from UNC in the Spring of 2014 with a double major in Psychology and Communication Studies. She is currently living in Charlottesville, Virginia, nannying for her nephew while her sister begins a career as a dermatologist in the area.  Emily plans to continue working for her sister through the fall and enjoying the scenery, excitement, and opportunities that Charlottesville and UVA have to offer.

Yusra Iftikhar, PT, DPT

UNC Class of 2014
Physical Therapist

Morgan Alexander, BS

UNC Class of 2012
Research Coordinator, Frolich Lab, UNC Chapel Hill Medical School

After graduating with a double-major in Psychology and Mathematics from UNC in December 2012, Morgan Alexander spent 6 months in limbo before securing a job in Durham, NC as a Data Monitor at NeuroCog Trials.  Morgan examined the data for some of the largest clinical trials in the world, some of which are testing the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical therapies for the treatment of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Additionally, she is trained to certify raters to administer certain cognitive batteries, such as the MCCB, and will have the opportunity to certify raters across the globe.  In 2016 Morgan joined the Frolich Lab at UNC Chapel Hill Medical School as a Research Coordinator.  She is interested in how novel treatments, such as brain stimulation, can alleviate symptoms for individuals suffering from severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and PTSD. In her free time she obsesses over photography, trains her pet rats, and daydreams about graduate school in clinical psychology.

Janitra Venkatesan Shah, MD

UNC Class of 2012
Family Medicine Resident Physician, Pennsylvania

Janitra graduated from UNC in 2012 with a B.S. in Psychology and minors in Biology and Chemistry. She worked with the Penn Lab for three years and worked under the mentorship of Dr. Penn to complete her senior thesis in Psychology. Following graduation, she worked as an 8th grade Science teacher at KIPP Charlotte during her time with Teach for America in Charlotte, NC. She received her M.D. from UNC SOM in 2018 and is currently a family medicine resident physician at Forbes Family Medicine in Pennsylvania.

Kristen Coconis, BA

UNC Class of 2012

Freelance Designer and Art Director, Chicago, IL

Kristen Coconis is proud to be the only native North Carolinian in her family! She graduated with honors from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May of 2012 with a B.A. in Psychology, and minors in Spanish for the Professions and Dramatic Art. She worked in the Penn Lab as an undergraduate assistant for two years. Prior to that, she worked in a child development lab, but she realized her passion lied in schizophrenia research. After graduation she moved to Chicago to teach 2nd grade as a Teach For America corps member. She attended Second City for improv, and—after 2 years of teaching—Chicago Portfolio School for design. She currently works in advertising as a freelance designer and art director. She enjoys visiting museums, learning about architecture, and traveling.

Alexis Georgeson, BA

UNC Class of 2012
Quantitative Psychology Doctoral Candidate at UNC Chapel Hill

Alexis worked in the Penn lab from 2010-2012 and graduated in 2012 with a BA in psychology and linguistics.  She now works as a data analyst at SouthLight, inc., a non-profit mental health and substance abuse agency in Raleigh, NC.  SouthLight provides outpatient and residential MH and substance abuse treatment for adolescents and adults and mainly serves clients receiving Medicaid or state funds.  Alexis is currently pursuing her PhD in quantitative psychology at UNC Chapel Hill; her research interests include item-level data analysis, longitudinal modeling, and measurement.

Adrienne Albano, BA

Years in Penn Lab: 2009-2011

Adrienne graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County(UMBC) in 2007 with a BA in psychology. She worked two years at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center(MPRC) as a Study Coordinator for multiple genetic and clinical research studies on schizophrenia and related disorders. She then worked at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill(UNC) as a Regulatory/Clinical Research Coordinator for an adolescent autism research group and later as a Clinical Research Associate for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group(ACTG). Her ongoing interest in schizophrenia led her to volunteer as a research assistant in Dr. Penn’s lab. She spent about two years assisting with ratings for the RAISE project and other miscellaneous tasks. She continues to work part time remotely for UNC’s ACTG while her husband serves in the United States Airforce.  They have two daughters, Aria and Kaiya.

Lauren Catalano, PhD

UNC Class of 2010
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park

Lauren worked in the Penn Lab from 2008-2010 and graduated from UNC in 2010 with a B.A. in Psychology. She subsequently worked as a research assistant at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on various schizophrenia research projects with Dr. Gunvant Thaker and Dr. Gregory Strauss. Lauren earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park under the mentorship of Dr. Jim Gold and Dr. Jack Blanchard, after completing a clinical internship at the Baltimore VA/UMD. Her graduate research focused on negative symptoms and social reward processing in schizophrenia using EEG/ERP and behavioral methods. Her postdoctoral work will expand upon this line of research to examine factors that reduce social motivation in schizophrenia. Lauren has co-authored manuscripts published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Schizophrenia Bulletin, and Schizophrenia Research. She is a member of the Society for Research in Psychopathology.

Sierra Carter, PhD

UNC Class of 2010
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Georgia State University (see website here)

Dr. Carter graduated from UNC in 2010 with a B.S. in Psychology and minor in Social and Economic Justice. She worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Penn lab for two years. She graduated with a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia in 2016. She also completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Clinical and Community Psychology at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on racial health disparities and investigating how psychosocial and contextual stressors (i.e., racism, trauma, and socioeconomic factors) can affect both mental and physical health outcomes for underrepresented and marginalized populations across the life course.

Bianca Brooks, PhD

UNC Class of 2010
Postdoctoral Fellow, Marcus Autism Center, Atlanta, GA

Bianca graduated from UNC in 2010 with a B.A. in Psychology and a double minor in Social and Economic Justice and Spanish for the Professions. During her time at UNC, she worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Penn lab for two years.  Bianca recently completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at Georgia State University in a developmental neuropsychology lab focusing on the early detection of autism in toddlers. As a graduate student, she received a fellowship designed to promote research on individuals with developmental disabilities in underrepresented populations.  Bianca is currently employed at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, GA as a postdoctoral fellow. Her interests include helping families of low socioeconomic status to navigate early intervention services after receiving a diagnosis of a developmental delay.

Caroline Oates Leonczyk, MA

UNC Class of 2010
Medical/Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

Caroline graduated with a B.S. in Psychology from UNC-CH in 2010. She was an undergraduate research assistant in the Penn lab for three years as well as the Clinical Affective Neuroscience (CAN) lab in her senior year. In her time with the Penn and CAN labs she assisted various studies on schizophrenia and autism. Following graduation, Caroline worked as a research analyst at Vanderbilt University in Elizabeth Dykens’ Prader-Willi and Williams syndromes research lab. Currently, Caroline is a doctoral student in the Medical/Clinical Psychology program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her primary interest is in neurodevelopmental disabilities. Caroline continues to be involved in research on Autism Spectrum Disorders and is embarking on a new project on neurodevelopmental outcomes of children born extremely prematurely.

Kate McIntyre, MPH, MSW, CSWA

UNC Class of 2009
Senior Director of Integrated Health Centers, Cascadia Behavioral Health, Portland Oregon

After graduating from UNC, Kate moved to Oregon to begin her work in community mental health. She currently works as a Program Manager for Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, a non-profit mental health agency in Portland, Oregon. The program is a large residential setting that focuses on assisting clients who are recently discharged from the state hospital to transition to more independent housing. Kate now has her Masters of Public Health and Masters of Social Work.

Katherine Brewer, BA

UNC Class of 2008

Mary Keeley Plisco, PhD

UNC Class of 2004

Director of Research and Associate Professor at Richmont Graduate University, Atlanta, GA

Dr. Plisco earned her B.A. degree in Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Both her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are from the University of Florida’s Clinical and Health Psychology Graduate Program. She completed her internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Emory University’s School of Medicine and Training Program in Professional Psychology. Dr. Plisco then joined the faculty of Richmont Graduate University in Atlanta, GA as an Assistant Professor of Counseling. Her specializations include anxiety, depression, and child and adolescent counseling. Dr. Plisco is also employed as a licensed clinical psychologist for Hope Counseling Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia where she works with children, adolescents, and adults.

Felice Reddy, PhD

UNC Class of 2006
Assistant Research Psychologist at the University of California at Los Angeles

Felice worked in the Penn lab from 2004-2006 and graduated from UNC in 2006 with a B.S. in Psychology. She received her Master’s and Doctorate degrees in psychology from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln under Dr. Spaulding and completed her clinical internship at the West Haven VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Her doctoral research focused on social cognitive and neurocognitive treatments for schizophrenia. In 2012, Felice accepted a position as a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA and the Greater Los Angeles VA MIRECC where she works in Dr. Michael Green’s lab with the support of the VA’s Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment. Since joining the Green Lab, she has continued to be involved in treatment outcome research for social cognitive interventions and is also investigating motivation and effort in the context of negative symptoms. Felice is also interested in rehabilitation and recovery-oriented approaches to serious mental illness and has published program evaluation and outcome data on peer-run services and holistic interventions.

Candice Creasman Mowrey, LPC, NCC, PhD

UNC Class of 2005
Licensed Professional Counselor, Creasman Counseling, PLLC, Raleigh, NC

Dr. Mowrey received her BA in Psychology in 2005 from UNC-Chapel Hill.  She participated in the Psychology Honors program under Dr. Penn, completing her thesis on sub-clinical autistic traits and social cognition.  After graduating, she worked for the Autism Society of NC for a year before returning to UNC for a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling and Psychology.  Candice was lucky enough to work with Dr. Penn again as a graduate intern at OASIS, where she provided individual and group counseling for young adults with psychotic disorders.  She is now a Licensed Professional Counselor and completed her doctorate in Counseling and Counselor Education at North Carolina State University. As a doctoral candidate, her research examined the impact of mindfulness training for individuals experiencing disenfranchised grief. Dr. Mowrey currently has a private practice in Raleigh, NC. When she’s not working, Candice enjoys cooking, kayaking, running, and basically any activity that gets her outside.  She has tried to shift her Tarheel loyalties to the Wolfpack, but has had little success.

Casey Calhoun, PhD, MA

UNC Class of 2005

Casey worked in the Penn lab during the spring of 2005, and he graduated from UNC the same year with a B.A. in psychology. In his post-baccalaureate years, Casey worked in several full-time research assistant positions at different universities, including UNC, SUNY Buffalo, and the University of Virginia. He obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Florida, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the clinical psychology program at UNC Chapel Hill. His research broadly considers the effects of peer relations and social cognition on adjustment in childhood and adolescence. Casey’s most recent work examines the effects of negative peer experiences on adolescents’ biological stress regulation. He also maintains a continued interest in exploring the conceptual and methodological issues regarding inter-rater discrepancy scores.

Sana Sheikh, PhD

UNC Class of 2004
Clinical Fellow, Bipolar Clinic and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Sheikh graduated with honors from UNC Chapel Hill in 2004. She went on to complete her PhD in social psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and then took an assistant professor of psychology position at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK. To better incorporate her research with the practice of psychology, she left St Andrews to pursue respecialization in clinical psychology at Suffolk University. In 2014, Dr. Sheikh accepted a position as a Clinical Fellow at the Bipolar Clinic and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her scholarly interests span social and clinical psychological perspectives on emotion and morality.  Her main line of research concerns the nature of emotion as they arise in social and cultural contexts as well as the etiology, manifestation, and remediation of disorders in which the two are often prevalent, such as depressive and bipolar disorders.  Her interests also include gender and identity formation and conflicts among Muslim British and American youth. During her free time, she enjoys working as a radio jockey in India.

Bethany Wangelin, PhD

UNC Class of 2004
Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina; Staff Psychologist, VA Medical Center, Charleston, SC

Dr. Bethany Wangelin received her BS in Psychology in 2004, and she completed her Undergraduate Honors Thesis under Dr. Penn, examining the relationship between fusiform gyrus volume and emotion perception in first-episode schizophrenia. Her work with Dr. Penn was a major catalyst for her interest in studying emotion and the brain in psychological disorders. After graduating from UNC, Bethany completed a research assistantship at the Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention at the University of Florida. She completed her MS and PhD at the University of Florida, specializing in emotion neuroscience and anxiety disorders. She completed internship and postdoctoral fellowship in traumatic stress studies at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, SC. Bethany is currently the Director the PTSD Clinical Team at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, where she leads an interdisciplinary group of psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and trainees in an outpatient specialty clinic. She is a Research Assistant Professor at MUSC and her primary research interests involve applying objective physiological measures to examining and enhancing PTSD treatment.

Clifton Chamberlin, PhD

UNC Class of 2000
Licensed Psychologist, Psychological Solutions, LLC, Bethesda, MD

Dr. Chamberlin worked in the Penn lab during some of his junior and all of his senior year (1999-2000) at UNC, where he earned his BA in psychology.  After returning to Washington, DC, he earned an MA in Clinical Psychology from the University of Maryland – College Park and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Graduate University. He completed his internship at The Women’s Center in Vienna, VA and has held several research and consulting positions.  More recently, Dr. Chamberlin joined a private practice of psychotherapists in Bethesda, MD (Psychological Solutions, LLC)  as a clinical psychologist. Since his time with Dr. Penn, Clifton has gravitated toward clinical work with those experiencing psychotic symptoms.  Most recently, Clifton has expanded his clinical work to include more Sports Psychology focused on performance and achievement. Instead of lacrosse, he now competes seriously in both road-bike racing and triathlons where half-Ironman events are capturing his attention. He misses Carolina, a lot.