A.C.E. Lab: People

Return to A.C.E. Lab home >>

Principal Investigator

Amy Mezulis, Ph.D.

Dr. Mezulis is a developmental psychopathologist interested in understanding the development of depression and related affect regulation disorders such as NSSI. Her research interests include vulnerability stress-models of depression; the development of vulnerabilities to depression in childhood and adolescence; the integration of cognitive, affective, and biological pathways to depression and NSSI; and the emergence of the gender difference in depression in adolescence. Learn more.

Current Students — At SPU

Sarah Crystal

Sarah joined the program in 2010 and is a second-year graduate student. Her research interests include understanding the neurobiological and psychophysiological underpinnings of mood disorders, affect regulation, rumination, impulsivity, and non-suicidal self-injury. Sarah also is interested in the mechanisms through which stress, trauma, and negative life event antecedents affect development.

Katey Anne Davis, M.A.

Katey joined the program in 2009 and is a third-year graduate student. Her research interests include vulnerabilities to depression in adolescence — specifically, depression, rumination, co-rumination, and non-suicidal self-injury behavior in adolescent girls. For her dissertation, Katey hopes to characterize the onset of non-suicidal self-injury in adolescent girls.

Kaitlin Harding

Kaitlin joined the program in 2011 and is a first-year graduate student. Her research interests include vulnerabilities to depression in adolescence and early adulthood. Specifically, she is interested in negative cognitive style as it interacts with stress to predict internalizing symptoms.

Melissa Hudson

Melissa joined the program in 2011 and is a first-year graduate student. Her research interests include negative cognitive style, rumination, and affect regulation. She is also interested in the mechanisms through which stressors and positive and negative life events impact development.

Tyler Laney, M.A.

Tyler joined the program in 2009 and is a third-year graduate student. His clinical interests include child and adolescent psychotherapy, with a particular focus on severe and persistent mental illness. Through his research interests, Tyler seeks to help this population use cognitive behavioral interventions to help regulate biology and behavior.

Kara Pegram

Kara joined the program in 2009 and is a third-year graduate student. Her research interests are focused on eating disorders in adolescence, and other self-harm behavior.

Marissa Rudolph, M.A.

Marissa joined the program in 2009 and is a third-year graduate student. Her research interests focus on linking emotion-regulation deficits and cognitive vulnerabilities to depression. She has examined proximal cognitive mechanisms through which temperament contributes to depressive symptoms, as well as the prediction of rumination from negative cognitive style. For her dissertation, Marissa plans to examine the effects of attentional biases, inhibitory control, and physiological reactivity on stress-reactive rumination among depressed and non-depressed individuals.

Jordan Simonson, M.A.

Jordan joined the program in 2007 and is a fourth-year graduate student. His research applies much of what we have learned about cognitive vulnerabilities — such as negative cognitive style and rumination — to the LGBTQ community. His dissertation, Youth PREVAIL (Project of Experiences and Vulnerabilities Affecting Individuals’ Lives) is aimed at examining the mechanisms by which LGBQ youth come to experience increased rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms. As part of his research he is engaged with multiple Seattle-area LGBTQ organizations, including Haven, Lambert House, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, and Bailey-Boushay House.

Lauren Smith Vague, M.A.

Lauren joined the doctoral program in 2006 and is a fifth-year graduate student. Her research interests include rumination as it relates to memory dysfunction. In her dissertation, Lauren examines rumination as moderator of the effect of a negative affect induction on working memory performance.

Current Students — Away on Internship

Anna Charbonneau, M.A.

Anna joined the doctoral program in 2005, defended her dissertation in 2011, and is scheduled to graduate in 2012 following her internship at Columbia Valley Community Health. Anna’s primary research interests are women’s health, stress-related disorders, and behavioral health interventions. For her dissertation, she developed a relaxation and meditation intervention called Women ROCK to prevent depressive symptoms among young women in their first year of college.

Kristyn Funasaki, M.A.

Kristyn joined the doctoral program in 2006, defended her dissertation in 2011, and is away on internship at the University of Idaho's Counseling and Testing Center. Her areas of research interest include cognitive vulnerabilities to depression (including rumination and co-rumination) and gender differences between these variables. Kristyn’s specific interest is in understanding the mechanisms that explain why co-rumination leads to both adaptive and maladaptive outcomes.

Amanda Herges, Ph.D.

Amanda joined the doctoral program in 2005, defended her dissertation in 2011, and completed her internship at the University of Missouri in 2011. Her research interests focus on cognitive vulnerability-stress models of depressive symptoms among individuals with brain injuries. She is currently completing a two-year, post-doctoral fellowship at the Barrows Neurological Institute in Arizona.

Return to A.C.E. Lab home >>