Adjoa Ewool (she/her/hers)
Adjoa is a Clinical Research Specialist Sr for the Study for Toddler to Teenage Anxiety and Resilience at the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development. As a clinical research specialist, Adjoa assists in study recruitment, maintaining study documentation, and supporting other members of the STTAR team. Adjoa graduated from Duke University in May of 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and German. In the future, she plans to pursue a Master’s in clinical social work and draw from the experience gained during her time with the STTAR team to provide young people from marginalized communities with the best care possible through well-informed and compassionate care supported by research.
Amy Carolus (she/her/hers)
Amy is a full-time lab manager at the CIRCLE Lab. Originally from Upstate New York, she graduated from Harvard College in May 2021 with an A.B. in Psychology with a focus on Cognitive Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology. As an undergraduate, she worked on multiple projects in Harvard’s Stress and Development Lab studying the impact of early life adversity on social, emotional, and neural development and risk for psychopathology. She wrote her honors thesis on how early life exposure to emotional support relates to the development of emotion differentiation. In the future, Amy hopes to pursue a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology. Outside of research, she enjoys baking, getting lost in a good book, and drinking coffee.
Jialin Lu (she/her/hers)
Jialin Lu is a full-time research assistant on the STTAR study. Jialin graduated from Cornell University in 2022 with a B.S. in Human Development. As an undergraduate, Jialin was a Research Assistant in the Cornell Child Witness & Cognition Lab, the Cornell Human Intelligence Lab, and the Cornell Affect & Cognition Lab. Learning from the labs she worked in, Jialin hopes to investigate her research and develop intervention curriculums by integrating various methodologies. Jialin is interested in using interdisciplinary (MRI, survey, clinical interview) methods to understand how adverse life experiences impact one’s resilience development and development of various psychopathologies. In the future, Jialin plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, doing arts and crafts (puppetry), and exploring good cafes and local museums.
Lauren Butler (she/her/hers)
Lauren is a full-time research assistant on the STTAR Study. She graduated from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Human Services. Lauren was previously a fellow of the NIH-funded MARC U*Star program which granted her a profuse amount of research experiences in sexual minorities and health behaviors (i.e., eating disorders and body image), and early life adversity in racial minority populations. Her research interest broadly encompasses the developmental outcomes (i.e., emotional/behavioral regulation) in children exposed to intimate partner violence, community violence, problematic parenting, and child maltreatment. In the future, she aspires to continue her education with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Outside of research, she enjoys binge-watching Netflix, exploring new restaurants, and spending quality time with family and friends. (Pronouns: she/her/hers)
Margaret Redic (she/her/hers)
Margaret is a full-time Research Assistant on the STTAR study. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.S. in Child Development, a B.A. in Psychology, and a minor in Cognitive Studies. As an undergraduate, she worked for three years in the Stress and Coping Lab under Dr. Bruce Compas, studying the relationship between coping styles and psychological outcomes in those with adverse childhood experiences as well as investigating the effectiveness of a depression prevention program for adolescents. More specifically, Margaret wrote her Honors Thesis on the impact of parent expressed emotions on changes in child expressed emotions during parent-child interactions and how these changes may affect one’s risk of developing depression. Margaret is interested in studying the impact of early life experiences on later psychological and neurological outcomes, particularly in adolescent populations. In the future, Margaret plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
Sarah Lempres (she/her/hers)
Sarah Lempres is a Clinical Research Specialist on the STTAR Study. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2021 with a B.S. in Cognitive Studies and Child Development, and with a minor in Medicine, Health, and Society. While attending Vanderbilt, she worked as a research assistant at the Stress and Early Adversity Lab under Dr. Kathryn L. Humphreys, where she wrote an honors thesis examining parents’ emotional and behavioral responses to the emotional expressions of their preschool-aged children. Her research interests include examining developmental trajectories linking experiences in early life to later development, particularly those surrounding emotion regulation and psychopathology. She hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.
Sophia Martin (she/her/hers)
Sophia is a full-time Research Assistant on the Youth Emotion Study. She graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Health and Medical Sciences. During her time as an undergraduate, Sophia was a research assistant in the Memory and Aging Lab, studying how resilience and emotion regulation during times of financial hardship changes throughout the lifespan. Sophia is interested in how abnormal stress or maltreatment during childhood affects resilience and risk for psychopathology. In her free time, Sophia enjoys baking, painting, going on nature walks, and playing beach volleyball with friends.
