LAB ALUMNI
ASHLEY DOONAN
Ashley joined the CNS lab in Fall of 2019. Her research explores the role of chronic stress and intrusive cognitions on risky decision making and it's application to addictive behavior.
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Ashley received her master's in Clinical Psychology from EIU, where she specialized in the treatment of traumatic stress and substance use disorders. Her master's thesis examined the impact of chronic and acute stress on mechanisms of visual attention. Before starting at SLU, Ashley worked at the University of Michigan as a data curator in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).
EMILY MARLER
Emily Marler joined the Cognitive Neuroscience of Stress Lab in Fall of 21. Her master's thesis examined the effects of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus on hippocampal and cortical activity during associative and non-associative encoding. Following that, she completed her dissertation on the usage of elaborative learning strategies in higher education and its association with academic achievement. She graduated with distinction in June of 2022 from the Experimental Psychology PhD program with concentrations in Cognitive Neuroscience. Emily is currently an Instructor at McKendree University in Lebanon, IL.
SARA MCMULLIN
Sara McMullin joined the Cognitive Neuroscience of Stress Lab in Fall of 2016. Her Master's Thesis explored the role of risk information and cortisol in risk-taking behavior in gambling disorder. Following that, she completed her dissertation on how early and recent life stress shape cortisol reactivity and decision making in older adults. She graduated with distinction in June of 2020 from the Experimental Psychology PhD program with concentrations in Cognitive Neuroscience and Quantitative Methods. Sara is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Alcohol and Addictions Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia, studying the effects of stress on decision making in addiction populations.
THOMAS PASSARELLI
Thomas Passarelli joined the Cognitive Neuroscience of Stress Lab in the Fall of 2014. He completed his Master's Thesis on stressful decision making and how it relates to altruistic and prosocial behavior. He graduated with a Master's of Science in Experimental Psychology, with a certificate in Behavioral Quantitative Statistical Analysis. Thomas now works in St. Louis as a Trade Operations Specialist for Stifel Bank & Trust.
CHRISTINA WHITE
In 2013, Christina received her Masters of Science in Research in cognitive neuroscience. Her thesis studies examined the contagion of psychological and physiological stress between individuals. She then continued her work in the CNS lab until she graduated in Spring of 2016 with a PhD in cognitive neuroscience. Her dissertation studies examined the relationship between interoceptive awareness, our awareness of our own physiological activity, and the primary components of empathy, including emotional contagion, motor empathy, theory of mind, and executive functions. Christina now serves as a lab coordinator at Washington University in St. Louis in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Her primary research interests are the social neuroscience of empathy, stress, trauma, emotions, and interoception.
MICHELLE HENDRICKS
Michelle graduated with her PhD in May 2013 and is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health. Michelle's dissertation focused on the impact of stress on cognitive control, and the relationship between cognitive abilities and the regulation of emotional states.
CHRIS SCHMANK
Chris worked in the CNS lab for over 5 years as a data analyst and as a researcher on our Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) studies using famous faces and the SAT level vocabulary words. Alongside that, he aided Michelle in her study on stress and cognitive inhibition. Chris then earned his master’s degree with Dr. Lori James at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Currently, Chris is a doctoral student at Claremont Graduate University.
SARA BAGLEY
Sara was part of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Stress Lab since it's birth in 2007. She received her Masters of Science in Research in Experimental Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience) with a minor in Research Methodology in December of 2009. She, then, continued in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Stress Lab to complete her dissertation. She looked at some learning strategies that may buffer the negative effects of stress during the retrieval stage of memory. She obtained her PhD in May of 2012. In August 2012, Sara joined the Faculty at Loras College as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Psychology. She hopes to pass on her love of learning and love of psychology to others, while still investigating the cognitive neuroscience of stress.
MARY KRALEMAN
Mary graduated from SLU in May 2012 with her Honors B.A. in Psychology and Theological Studies. She plans on going to grad school at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln for a MS in Marriage and Family Therapy. After that, she may continue on to receive her PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy or Medical Family Therapy. In the future, she hopes to focus her research on stress, anxiety, medical family therapy, and positive psychology.
Additional Lab Alumni: Dan O'Connell ('22), Monica Rao ('22), Zeshan Ali ('22), Rithika Somasundaram ('22), Osha Chesnutt-Perry ('21), Karen Rieffel ('20), Sannitha Baragada ('20), Amila Dzanovic ('20), Jessica Chinn, Paul Lee, Vishal Thakkar, Nicholas Vesom, Daniel Younglove, Van Liceralde