Aishwarya Ganguli worked with Dr. Schreier in Biobehavioral Health (BBH). Her research included examining how early life adversities such as exposure to maltreatment, harsh parenting, or lower socio-economic status could impact life-long physiological outcomes such as inflammation or metabolic syndrome. Her interests lie in understanding the psycho-social mechanisms, such as social support, that could explain the association between childhood maltreatment and health outcomes. Her lab work (maltreatment, physiological measures, psycho-social mechanisms) was translated to policies and community-based programs to improve the care and health outcomes for individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment. Her secondary mentor was Dr. Sheridan Miyamoto and worked in Dr. Miyamoto’s lab to learn about the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination- Telehealth (SAFE-T) program and its impact on improving care for individuals exposed to sexual assault in underserved communities.
Anneke worked with Drs. Chad Shenk (Prevention and Treatment), Sy-Miin Chow (Policy and Administrative Data Systems), and Erika Lunkenheimer (Developmental Processes).
In August 2022, she was awarded a NRSA Individual Predoctoral Fellowship titled, “Caregiver-Child Communication Following Child Maltreatment: A Dynamic Systems Approach” through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD; F31HD110086). In February 2023, was awarded funds from both the Douglas Research Endowment and Joachim Wohlwill Endowment through the Health and Human Development Department. In February 2024, she was awarded funds from the Douglas Research Endowment.
Dr. Mullins worked with Drs. Carlomagno Panlilio, Jennie Noll, and Sarah Font while a CMT32. She has continued her role as a post-doctorate associate at the University of Miami working under Dr. Rebecca Shearer for the IDEAS Consortium for Children. She published a paper titled “Does multidimensional self-concept mediate the relationship of childhood sexual abuse and bullying victimization on deliberate self-harm and suicidal ideation among adolescent girls” in Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. She also published a paper titled “Identifying what works for whom: Implementation outcomes following iLookOut, a child abuse identification and referral training program” in a Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. She was part of a panel at the 2024 Conference on Research Innovations in Early Intervention titled “Trauma and early childhood: Ecological perspectives on children, contexts, and systems.” Additionally, she has two posters under review for the 2024 National Research Conference on Early Childhood titled “Neighborhood indicators and developmental and early school outcomes: A scoping review” and “Examining the role of peer interactions and classroom language environment on Spanish-English DLL children’s language development.”
Charles Alvarado is a sixth-year Ph.D. student and former middle school teacher in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education at Penn State. His current research centers on understanding the effects of adversity on students' attentional processing and learning outcomes from cognitive and neuroscience perspectives. As a predoctoral fellow, he was mentored by Carlomagno Panlilio and Koraly Perez-Edgar from the Developmental Processes Track, and Eric Claus from the Biology & Health Track.
With his primary mentor, Dr. Panlilio, Charles investigated the adverse effects of early childhood maltreatment on emerging and complex reading outcomes and cognitive processes over time, which has important implications to teacher practices, especially within a trauma-informed framework. Charles also worked with his secondary mentor, Dr. Perez-Edgar, on her project that investigates parent-child dyads and anxiety transmission using methods in psychology and neuroscience. Charles engaged in projects that utilize longitudinal designs to model developmental trajectories following exposure to maltreatment.
To explore the biological embedding of maltreatment on specific attentional processes, Charles also trained with Dr. Claus to understand complex neuroimaging methods and what they can reveal about neural structure, function, and connectivity differences related to childhood maltreatment.
Dr. Selin is a speech-language pathologist with a Ph.D. in Child Language from the University of Kansas. She is now a Research Scientist I (equivalent to an Assistant Professor) at Boys Town National Research Hospital in the Center for Childhood Deafness, Language, & Learning, where she directs the Language, Adversity, and Stress Lab. In addition, Claire is collaborating with scientists and practitioners from the Boys Town youth residential care to conduct implementation science and program evaluations in the on-campus school and clinics.
During the CMT32, Claire’s mentors were Yo Jackson (Psychology; Developmental Processes track), Jennie Noll (HDFS; Biology & Health track), and Eric Claus (BBH; Biology & Health track). She currently has 7 published papers (4 first authored) with three additional papers under review and many national peer-reviewed presentations. In the past year, she also presented her work on language acquisition and adversity/maltreatment in a research symposium at a competitive and prestigious child language conference—the Boston University Conference on Language Development (<20% acceptance rate). She has an NICHD R03 under review titled Intergenerational Adversity Exposure & Language Acquisition, and she is preparing an NIDCD R21 to submit in June 2024 on the psycholinguistic profiles of youth exposed to adversity.
Dr. Lee has a Ph.D. in Early Education from Oxford University and has completed her CMT32 postdoctoral fellowship with Yo Jackson (Child Clinical Psychology) and Erika Lunkenheimer (Developmental Psychology) in 2024. Since completing her CMT32, Jane has published three first authored papers. The first authored papers included Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA)Reactivity and Developmental Delay in the Preschool Years, The role of timing and amount of outdoor play in emotional dysregulation in preschool children, and Correlation between household types and characteristics and child maltreatment: A risk factor analysis using eHaengbokieum System Data. Jane is now an associate research fellow at the Korea Institute of Child Care & Education (KICCE), a national research center funded by the Korean government, dedicated to developing evidence-based policies for early childhood education and care in South Korea.
Dr. Brown finished her Fellowship in 2022 with mentors Erika Lunkenhimer, Koraly Perez-Edgar, and Nilam Ram in the Developmental Processes track and the Policy and Administrative Data track. She has worked as a Senior Analyst/Statistician at Advocates for Human Potential (AHP) in Washington DC. She has recently transitioned to a new Senior Analyst role at National Consulting Partners, where her work is focused on analyzing health and benefits data within the VA. She published one co-authored paper this year.
Dr. Palmer is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah College of Social Work. During the T32 her mentors were Sarah Font and Jennie Noll. Since completing the T32 Lindsey published two first authored papers (submitted during the T32) and 5 co-authored papers. The first authored papers included A longitudinal analysis of concerning psychotropic medication use among adolescents in foster care and Lifetime rates and types of subsequent child protection system contact following a first report of neglect: An age stratified analysis. Most recently, Lindsey has co-authored 4 published papers in 2024 including 1 with her primary mentor, Sarah Font. Lindsey also has 4 manuscripts currently under review, 2 of which she is co-authoring with her primary mentor, Sarah Font. Lindsey also presented her work at The Society for Social Work Research conference and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect conference. Lindsey received the UC Berkeley Transition Aged Youth Research and Evaluation Hub grant, which she applied for during the T32. Recently she applied for the Institutes for Research on Poverty extramural grant.
Metzli (she/her/her’s) is a current graduate student at PSU in the child clinical track. She studied with Drs. Chad Shenk and Martha Wadsworth and was on the PT DP tracks.
She earned her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and worked as the lab coordinator at Child HELP Partnership, Dr. Elissa Brown’s lab at St. John’s University. Her research interests include the measurement and classification of childhood maltreatment, the role siblings play in family violence, and cognitive processes impacted by exposure to family violence/maltreatment.
Dr. Omisakin was a post-doctoral fellow on the DP BH tracks. He worked with Dr. Orfeu Buxton in BBH. His research focused on Population and health, health disparities, childhood and maternal mortality, and demographic techniques.
He is currently a Research Demographer with the Maryland Department of Planning. He studied at Utah State University (PhD in Demography) and earned Demography and Social Statistics degrees (MPhil, BSc) from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.
Dr. Girod served as a pre-doctoral fellow studying with Drs. Erika Lunkenheimer and Hannah Schreier. Her research focused on maternal sensitivity and behavior, infant growth and development, maltreatment history, and mother-child RSA synchrony and behavior coregulation.
She is currently an assistant Professor with the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Texas Tech University. In addition to earning an M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Penn State University, she holds a B.S. in Psychology from Stevenson University.
Sienna is a graduate student in the college of health and human development. As a pre-doctoral fellow on the DP PT tracks, she worked with Drs. Abenaa Jones and Jennie Noll. Her research has focused on the intersections of child maltreatment, substance use, and intergenerational trauma among historically marginalized populations, with particular attention to how early adversity shapes substance use trajectories and mental health outcomes across the life course; Trauma-informed substance use interventions and strategies that foster resilience and flourishing among individuals from underserved communities impacted by child maltreatment, systemic inequities, and intergenerational trauma.
Following completion of the postdoctoral fellowship, she returned to Binghamton University and is now an associate professor and Chair of the Social Work department. Dr. Shipe’s mentors in the PADS and PAT Tracks were Christian Connell (HDFS), Max Crowley (HDFS), and Jennie Noll (HDFS). Since 2023, she has 15 co-authored papers published or in-press of which she is the first author on two of those papers. At the 28th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research in Seattle, WA she organized the third annual fathers' symposia with colleagues from Arizona State University, Appalachian State University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. This group aims to once again present in 2026. In addition to presenting her work, Dr. Shipe was awarded funding to pursue the efficacy of the mandated reporter training in New York State as well as revising her R21 grant for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) focused on access to and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among minority identifying foster youth.
Dr. Brown is an Assistant Professor, MSW Program at The University of Alabama. She has multiple papers published which can be found on her university page: Littleton, Tenesha – School of Social Work (ua.edu). Her research focuses on how socio-structural factors impact parenting behaviors and experiences, including the risk of contact with child protective services. Dr. Littleton also examines the role of social policy in mitigating or exacerbating the risk of child maltreatment.
While a T32, she worked with primary mentor Sarah Font in the Policy and Administrative Data Systems Track on research projects exploring disparities associated with child welfare system involvement. They are currently examining discipline disparities in school experiences among a cohort of children investigated for child maltreatment and with secondary mentor Yo Jackson in the Prevention and Treatment track exploring factors associated with resilience among youth in foster care, including spirituality and placement stability.
Dr. Herd has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Virginia Tech and completed her CMT32 postdoctoral fellowship with Jennie Noll (HDFS), Sarah Font (Sociology/Criminology), and Max Crowley (HDFS) in 2023. Toria has published 7 papers in the last year. She also contributed to numerous fact sheets/policy memos and served as a policy associate for the Research-to-Policy Collaboration. Toria is now a policy fellow through the Society for Research in Child Development working in the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the federal government. She conducts and manages research funded by the Administration of Children and Families to support the policy and programmatic needs of the Offices of Headstart, Childcare, and the Children’s Bureau.
Zhenyu (Zach) Zhang, M.S., M.A., is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program at Penn State. Zach’s research interests include : examining multidimensionality of child maltreatment, including developmental timing, type, duration and severity, and their unique effects on adverse outcomes, including psychopathology, risky behaviors, and health outcomes; elucidating biological mechanisms (e.g., neuroendocrine markers and biological aging) linking child maltreatment and adverse outcomes; examining potential sex differences in the biological processes following child maltreatment; and translating findings we learn from basic research to inform, develop, and evaluate timely, accessible and cost-effective prevention and treatment programs for maltreatment populations.
His primary mentor was Dr. Chad Shenk, and his secondary and tertiary mentors were Drs. Lorah Dorn, and Chris Engeland respectively. He also worked on Dr. Shenk’s, Life Events and Reactions Study (LEARS), and, Epigenetic and Cognitive Aging Project (eCAP), to examine genetic and epigenetic markers linking child maltreatment and later adverse health. Zach is working with Dr. Dorn to study how puberty as a sensitive period can shape developmental trajectories of children exposed to maltreatment.
