Depression Clinical
and Research Program

• Director
• Associate Directors
• Psychiatrists
• Psychologists
• Administrative Staff
• Program Coordinator
• Research Coordinators
• Previous Staff

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.

Kate Bentley

Kate graduated from Amherst College in May 2009 with a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish. As an undergraduate, she completed an honors thesis exploring the effects of gender-targeting persuasion on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Interactive Screening Project, a project aimed to prevent suicide in college student populations, under the guidance of Dr. Catherine Sanderson. After her junior year, Kate worked at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s headquarters in New York City in their research and development departments. During her semester abroad in Seville, Spain, she volunteered at an Alzheimer’s clinic where she worked directly with patients to improve cognition and processing. At the end of her two years at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Kate plans to pursue a Ph.D. 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.

Liz Dalton

Liz graduated from Amherst College in May 2009 with a BA in Psychology. As an undergraduate, Liz spent a summer at the Neumar Lab at the University of Pennsylvania researching animal models of memory and learning after conditions of cardiac arrest using the Morris Water Maze. She also spent a summer interning at the Cassel Hospital, a residential mental health facility, in London. At the Cassel, Liz worked with families affected by depression, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. During her senior year at Amherst, she wrote a thesis entitled “Gender Differences in Outgroup Homogeneity: A Meta-Analytic Investigation” under the guidance of Dr. Rob Foels. After her time at the DCRP, Liz plans to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology.

Rachel LaRocca

Rachel graduated from Dartmouth College in June of 2009 with a B.A. in Psychology and Creative Writing. As an undergraduate, she worked with Drs. Heatherton and Krendl on multiple projects exploring the social neuroscience of stigma. For her honors thesis, she completed an fMRI-imaging study examining the impact of low self-esteem on impression formation of stigmatized groups with the hope of expanding the ideas to clinical populations with depression. At the end of her two years at the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Rachel plans to attend a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program and medical school with a focus on pediatric psychopathology and psychiatry.

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 her interests in psychiatry in medical 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 will pursue a career in medicine by attending a postbaccalaureate program in premedical studies.

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.