Julie Vaisarova

“THANK YOU to the incredible graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty, and staff I’ve had the privilege of working with at ICD. The passion and care you put into your work is inspiring and I’ve learned so much from you about building community, being a critical thinker and scientist, and approaching my work with humility and self-reflection. In August I will be starting a postdoctoral research scholar position at Arizona State University, working with Dr. Kelsey Lucca on an NSF-funded project examining the development of curiosity.”  

Shreya Lakhan-Pal

“I am currently completing my clinical pre-doctoral internship at the UC Davis Medical Center, where I am focusing on therapy and assessment for children and families experiencing trauma, as well as children experiencing medical difficulties. I am working on my dissertation examining the relationships between functional connectivity in a child’s brain, psychopathology, and parental support in a longitudinal study of children from age 9 to 12. I am also a member of the Cognitive Development and Neuroscience (CDN) Lab, under the primary mentorship of Dr. Kathleen Thomas.”

Keira Leneman

“This PhD has been a wild ride: starting with the 2016 presidential election and ending with the illumination of dual pandemics: COVID-19 and Whiteness. I have made lifelong friends (including my amazing cohort – #fearsomefoursome), started a family, and clarified much about my identity as a scholar and person. I am excited to continue my journey by teaching developmental psychology and strengthening research on how human development, stress, and pyschophysiology are shaped by, uphold, and are leveraged to dismantle systemic racism. I will begin a joint position as a post-doctoral research fellow and assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy starting in Fall 2022.” 

Alyssa Palmer

“I am immensely grateful for my time at ICD. In particular, I have benefited enormously from the community mentorship model. In addition to working with my primary mentor, Ann Masten, I have completed numerous projects with her co-mentor Dan Berry as well as led collaborative studies across the two labs. I have also been able to benefit from the model by working with several other faculty members in or affiliated with the department. Additionally, I have learned an immense amount about policy-oriented and community-engaged work through my work with Minn-LInK. This has ignited a passion and cultivated a skill set in policy-oriented work that I plan to make central to my future research career. In this coming year, I will be moving to Los Angeles California, where I will be completing a pre-doctoral clinical internship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on their Early Childhood Mental Health track. When I leave ICD I will most miss my graduate student colleagues. They have been wonderful to work with and learn from over the last 6 years. However, I hope to have a lifetime of collaboration and learning with these brilliant colleagues and friends!”

Isa Stallworthy

“As a PhD student at ICD, I was jointly mentored by Dr. Daniel Berry and Dr. Jed Elison of the Bio-Ecology, Self-Regulation and Learning (BSL) Lab and Elison Lab for Developmental Brain and Behavior Research (E-Lab), respectively. I’m interested in how in development we gain the rich social capacities that we use in everyday life. My research focuses on the dynamic interactions between brain, body, and experience that give rise to early social cognition in typical development and in those at heightened neurodevelopmental risk. During my time as a PhD student, I furthered my passion for studying multi-level developmental processes in the first years of life. I also discovered a love of quantitative methods and collaborative work across disciplines. I am grateful to my mentors, labs members, and greater ICD community for their everlasting support and inspiration that together have spearheaded my own development as a scientist. I look forward to a 3-year fully funded collaborative postdoctoral training as a James S. McDonnell Foundation (JSMF) Fellow in complexity science studying the real-time mechanisms of social interaction and learning in infancy.”

Pearl Han Li

“I am extremely grateful to have had the great pleasure to work with my mentor, Dr. Melissa Koenig and everyone in my lab in ICD. ICD is also where I have met some brilliant people whose friendship I will cherish for a lifetime. I will always remember the five years I’ve spent here – both the hard times and the good times, and I miss working in the old ICD building with children laughing and chattering from the lab school downstairs. I will start a Postdoctoral Associate position at Duke University’s Psychology & Neuroscience department and continue to explore children’s cultural learning experiences and moral development in cross-cultural contexts.”

Faith VanMeter

“While at ICD, I have gained a deep understanding and appreciation of developmental science and made lifelong friendships. I will always be grateful to ICD and those who have supported me during my time here. I am excited to use my training to impact child and family policy! I will be working as a SRCD State Policy Post-doctoral Fellow at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Child Safety and Permanency Division.”