Morgan Gilmer
Morgan graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020 with dual B.S. degrees in Psychology and Biological Sciences as well as minors in Chemistry and Latin. As an undergraduate, she worked in Dr. Celia Brownell’s Early Social Development lab studying early prosocial development. Morgan currently works as a lab coordinator in the CAT Lab and plans to attend graduate school in psychology in the future.
✉ mvg5950@psu.edu
Megan Zinobile
Megan joined the lab as a project coordinator for the Healthy Brain and Child Development National Consortium to better understand healthy brain development. Megan’s previous role as a coordinator in Dr. Shalev’s lab in the Department of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State involved working on multiple research studies specifically studying telomeres and the effects of stress on health and aging. Megan’s career began as a child and family therapist in the clinical mental health setting after obtaining her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. in Clinical Psychology from Lock Haven University. This experience, along with her interest in child development including long term effects of early life stress and the development of social, emotional and behavioral well-being of children living in adverse environments led her to pursue the CAT Lab and specifically the HBCD project.
✉ muz144@psu.edu
Melissa Bomberger
Melissa Bomberger joined the CAT Lab as a research assistant for the HBCD project. Melissa graduated from Temple University in 2022 with a B.A. in Psychology. Prior to working at the CAT Lab, she volunteered as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Thomas Olino’s Child and Adolescent Development of Emotion, Personality, and Psychopathology Lab. Melissa’s research interests include the interplay between interpersonal relationships throughout childhood and children’s emotional development, and the development and treatment of internalizing disorders in children.
✉ mkb5623@psu.edu
Harmony Nguyen
Harmony joined as a project coordinator for the Parent-to-Child Anxiety Transmission (P-CAT) Project in 2022. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her research interests lie in the contextual factors that impact children’s emotions and neurodevelopment. In particular, Harmony is interested in understanding the role of stressful environments and parent-child relationships in shaping children’s emotion regulation ability and risk for psychopathology.
✉ hjn5144@psu.edu
Gillian Smoody
Gillian joined the CAT Lab as a research assistant and study navigator for the HBCD project in 2023. She earned her B.A in Psychology and Spanish with a concentration in Psychological Research from Gonzaga University. Prior to joining the lab, she worked at Washington State University’s College of Medicine studying intervention strategies for substance use disorder, as well as in the Social Emotions, Relationships, and Health Lab at Gonzaga University studying mechanisms of social support. Gillian is interested in the interplay between environmental exposures, stressful life events, and social support networks, with a focus in how they influence child development and risk for psychopathology.
✉ gvs5607@psu.edu