Research Coordinators
Vicki Ameral, BA
Vicki graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in May 2008 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in French & Francophone studies. As an undergraduate, she worked in the NeuroCognition and Perception Lab under the direction of Dr. Lisa Sanders, completing a senior thesis on event-related potential indices of speech segmentation. She also worked as a staff assistant in the Psychological Services Center under the direction of Dr. Christopher Overtree. After her two years at the DCRP, Vicki plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
Carrie Brintz, BA
Carrie graduated from Brandeis University in May 2008 with a B.A. in Psychology and in Health: Science, Society, and Policy. As an undergraduate, Carrie spent one year as a member of the developmental psychology research group assisting with research on aggression, fantasy play, and peer popularity in pre-school children. During her junior and senior year, Carrie worked as a teacher’s assistant at a preschool. She also spent a semester studying public health in Salvador, Brasil. During her time abroad, she volunteered at a house for pediatric cancer patients where she planned projects for the children as well as interviewed parents for a paper discussing how children cope with the difficulties of having cancer. Carrie is very excited to be working at the DCRP, and at the end of her two years here she hopes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology, although she is open to changing her mind about that.
Sarah Chuzi, B.A.
Sarah graduated from Williams College in June 2007 with a B.A. in Psychology and a concentration in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she completed various research projects in a behavioral neuroendocrinology animal lab under the supervision of Dr. Noah Sandstrom. Her research focused mainly on the role of estrogens on a number of behaviors, including response to amphetamines and learning and memory in male and female rats. Additionally, she designed an empirical project on the acute effects of sexual intercourse on levels of anxiety and depression in male rodents, which allowed her to pursue her interest in animal models of mental illness. During her senior year she completed an honors thesis under Dr. Sandstrom on the relationship between early life exploratory behavior in rats and anxiety-related behaviors and stress responsivity in adulthood. Sarah has also interned for a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital in DC and in a clinic for pregnant mothers with HIV/AIDS in Cape Town, South Africa. At the end of her two years at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Sarah plans to pursue her interest in psychiatry and neuroscience either in medical school or in a graduate program.
Dan Johnson, B.A.
Dan graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in May of 2006. After graduating he spent a year as a lab manager for the Child Study Center at UMass. As a lab manager, Dan helped coordinate and run projects investigating cognitive and motor skill development in infants and toddlers. As an undergraduate, Dan completed an honors thesis exploring cognitive-behavioral therapy for major depression, and it’s comparability to pharmacological treatments. In his junior year, Dan interned in the elementary school system of Orange, Massachusetts, counseling and educating young children with behavioral problems. His research interests involve finding appropriate balances between psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatments for individuals with depression. After completing his two years at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Dan plans to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology.
Irene Shyu, B.A.
Irene Shyu graduated from Dartmouth College in June of 2008 with a B.A. in Psychology and Economics. As an undergraduate, Irene worked as a research assistant under the supervision of Dr. Worth and Dr. Tanski at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Her research focused on the prevalence of violence, smoking, and alcohol use in top box office movies and the effects of this exposure on adolescents. Additionally, she helped conduct a six-week pilot study on promoting nicotine replacement therapy in the physician's office using visual displays and quit kits. She also served as a summer volunteer on the borderline personality disorder inpatient unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital. After her time at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Irene plans to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology.
Lara Sinicropi-Yao B.A.
Lara graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in June of 2007 with a BA in Psychology and a concentration in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, Lara worked in the Institute of Personality and Social Research as a research assistant under the supervision of Dr. Dacher Keltner and Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas. Her research focused on identifying the fMRI neural correlates of pro-social emotions using visual and auditory tasks in human subjects. In addition, Lara spent the summer after her freshman year working as a research assistant at Vertex Pharmaceuticals working on numerous in-vivo efficacy studies in the areas of oncology and inflammation. The following summer Lara worked as a research assistant at Novartis Pharmaceuticals evaluating the NOEL and toxicological profile of an AKT inhibitor. After her time at the DCRP, she hopes to pursue her interests in psychiatry and neuroscience in medical school or clinical psychology graduate school.
Jessica Sousa, BA
Jessica graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May of 2008 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Political Science. As an undergraduate she worked in the DeRubeis lab exploring the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of depression, and completed a research project on the mediational relationship between childhood abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain. In her senior year she volunteered at the Psychopathology Research Unit working with patients and therapists at community mental health centers in Philadelphia in order to improve the implementation of cognitive therapy for suicide attempters. At the end of her two years at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Jessica plans to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.
Adrienne van Nieuwenhuizen, B.A.
Adrienne graduated from Tufts University in 2007 with a double major in Clinical Psychology and International Relations. As an undergraduate, she worked with immigrants, refugees, and torture-survivors in clinical and non-clinical settings. Together with her experiences living and studying abroad, this contributed to her interest in international psychiatry and the philosophy of psychiatry. After working as a research coordinator at the Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP), she became the research coordinator for the Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, although she is lucky enough to continue working with the DCRP on collaborative inpatient-outpatient depression studies. In the future, Adrienne hopes to pursue joint studies in psychiatry and philosophy.
Soo Jeong Youn, BA
Soo graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2008 with a BA in Psychology and Communication. During her senior year, she completed a thesis entitled "Recognition of Type, Valence and Intensity for nonverbal emotional displays in Indian classical dance" under the guidance of Dr. Ahalya Hejmadi, and found the importance of body vs. face as sources of emotional expressions in various non-traditional emotions, such as shame, love and peace. As an undergraduate, she also worked as a Junior Research Coordinator at the Mood and Anxiety Disorders under the supervision of Dr. Karl Rickels. She assisted in a NIH-funded research study comparing short vs. long-term treatment of GAD as well as administered the Facial Expression Recognition test in anxious and depressed adults. At the end of her two years at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Soo hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology.