Developmental Science at UM



Contents Home Faculty Programs Courses Students Events Listserv	How to become an affiliate of the Developmental Science Field Committee Graduate Students Katherine Babcock (Psychology) Currently, I am studying the link between parent-child and peer relationships in adolescence. Specifically, I plan to examine the role of conflict in interpersonal relationships. Broadly speaking, I am interested in attachment through the lifespan and the subsequent affect on social relations. Robyn Baliber (Human Development) I am a third year doctoral student in Human Development with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. My research interests include school readiness, interventions, teacher training programs and teacher beliefs. Specifically I am interested in the beliefs of preschool teachers and their ideas about school readiness and developmentally appropriate practice. Alaina Brenick (Human Development) I am a doctoral student working with Dr. Melanie Killen in the Social and Moral Development Research Group. My research interests include social and moral development, exclusion, stereotyping, intergroup contact, and intergroup reasoning, especially among children and adolescents in areas of high conflict. I am currently focusing on the role of stereotypes and moral reasoning in evaluations of intergroup exclusion among Arab and Israeli-Jewish children and adolescents. Allison Buskirk (Human Development) I am a doctoral candidate. I received my B.A. from Penn State University and my M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University. My research interests include peer relationships, friendship, and adjustment. Heidi Butler (Psychology) Anastasia Marie Conroy (Linguistics) I am a third year student in the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland. I am interested in the acquisition of language. I am primarily interested in language development when children are around the ages of 3-5, a time when their language is largely adult-like, but still has some interesting differences. I am interested in the acquisition of questions, pronouns and quantifiers. Ebony Dashiell (Human Development) Nicole Denmark (Human Development) Melissa Duchene (Human Development) I am currently a first year doctoral student in the Human Development Department with a vested interest in children’s social-cognitive development. In future research, I aspire to investigate the social competence of intellectually delayed children i.e. autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and the quality of their dyadic friendships. Brandi Dunlap (Psychology) Bri Fredstrom (Human Development) Sarah Gerson (Psychology) I recently graduated from Illinois State University, and I am a graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program here at the University of Maryland. I have been interested in child development for as long as I can remember, and my interest has grown progressively deeper and my focus narrower. My research interests are in the area of infant cognition, and more specifically, intentional understanding and social knowledge. Sarah Halcrow (Psychology) Michael Hardin (Psychology) Sarah Helfinstein (Human Development) Alexandra Henning (Human Development) Areas of interest: Cultural influences on social and moral development; group inclusion and exclusion in stereotypic contexts; stereotypes in video games; social identity theory. Khalisa Herman (Human Development) I am a 3rd year doctoral student in EDHD. I received my masters in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard University in 2004. I am currently studying with Drs. Stephen Suomi and James Winslow at the NICHD Laboratory for Comparative Ethology. My research interests include the development of the stress system, emotion regulation, and the etiology of anxiety and ADHD. I am particularly interested in investigating whether there are permanent effects of social play experience on emotional development, and the translation of this research for clinicians, parents, and educators. Noah Jampol (Human Development) I am a doctoral student in the Social and Moral Development Laboratory, advised by Dr. Melanie Killen. My specific interests include moral reasoning and cognition, as well as empathy and theory of mind as they pertain to morality and moral neuroscience. Laura Jernigan (Psychology) Megan Clark Kelly (Human Development) I am a fourth year PhD student working with Professor Melanie Killen in the Social and Moral Development Laboratory. Presently I am constructing a dissertation topic regarding adolescents’ implicit racial biases about peer relationships in a morally-relevant context while additionally exploring the impact of intergroup contact. Furthermore, I am working on a project investigating how adolescents make decisions concerning friendships and educational opportunities based on physical and racial features as well as choice of clothing. Angel Kim (Human Development) Sarrit Kovacs (Human Development) I am a doctoral student working with Dr. Ken Rubin in the Department of Human Development. My research interests include parenting, the parent-child relationship, and children's social and emotional adjustment. I am currently focusing on 1) the quality of the parent-child relationship and its relation to children's self-esteem in early adolescence; and 2) maternal shyness, overprotective parenting, and toddler's shyness. Nancy Geyelin Margie (Human Development) Jennifer Martin McDermott (Human Development) Melissa Menzer (Human Development) I am interested in child and adolescent peer relationships, intimate self-disclosure, and loneliness. Jamie Monzo (Human Development) Wongjung Oh (Human Development) I am a fifth year doctoral student from Seoul, South Korea. I received my B.S. and M.A. in Child and Family Studies from Yonsei University. My research interests include the relations between relationship systems (e.g., parent-child & peer relationships) and individual adjustment; cross-cultural perspective; and longitudinal psychopathology. Akira Omaki (Linguistics) My research interests are acquisition of linguistic knowledge and representation (especially syntax), development of sentence comprehension/production mechanism, and neural correlates of language acquisition. Lisa Pearl (Linguistics) I'm a fifth year doctoral student in the Linguistics department, with a focus on computational models of human language learning. My primary interests include mathematical models of language learning and change, computational learning theory, and the extraction of systematicity from a noisy input set. Recent work has explored the question of whether learners use all the data available to them or are biased to used a subset that they perceive as more informative. This question applies to linguistic systems in many domains, including the stress system of language, the structural system of language, and the interface between linguistic structure and reference in the world. Cameron Richardson (Human Development) I am broadly interested in morality. More specifically, I am interested in general cognitive processes surrounding complex, multi-domain (i.e. moral, conventional, and psychological domains) issues, and individual differences that differentially affect the resolution of these complex topics. Shannon Russell (Human Development) I am a first year student working with Dr. Kathryn Wentzel. My research interests include teacher-student relationships, teacher beliefs, and social supports at the school and classroom levels in secondary schools. Stefanie Sinno (Human Development) I am a PhD candidate in the department of Human Development working on my dissertation entitled, "Adolescents' evaluations of gender roles in the home." My research areas of interest include examining the development of social and moral reasoning in children and adolescence, roles in the family, and the influence of gender stereotypes on social reasoning. I have also taught several courses in the EDHD department including Lifespan Development, Adolescent Development and Apprenticeship in College Teaching. I enjoy both research and teaching and look forward to continuing my career in academics. Eri Takahashi (Linguistics) Ross Vanderwert (Human Development) I graduated with a BA in Psychology and Mathematics in 2003 from St. Olaf College in Minnesota. I am currently working on my MA in child development under the advisement of Dr. Nathan Fox. My interest in the development of emotion regulation. Laura K. White (Human Development) Britt Wilkenfeld (Human Development) Post Doctoral Researchers Kathryn Amey Degnan (Human Development) Erin Cannon (Psychology) Kathleen Dwyer (Human Development) Amy Kennedy (Human Development) Bethany Reeb (Human Development) Jennifer Richler (Human Development) Shannon Ross-Sheehy (Human Development) I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the Universityof Iowa in December 2005. While there, I worked primarily with Drs. Lisa M. Oakes and Steven J. Luck studying visual short-term memory, visual attention, and visual perception in 4- to 13-month-old infants. My dissertation work explored the interaction between visual short-term memory and attention, and raised some interesting questions regarding early cognitive abilities and characteristics such as gender. Thus, my current work is focused on further probing the relation between infant attention and characteristics such as behavioral reactivity, in hopes of identifying early behavioral precursors of attentional function and/or dysfunction.

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How to become an affiliate of the Developmental Science Field Committee

Graduate Students

Katherine Babcock (Psychology)

Currently, I am studying the link between parent-child and peer relationships in adolescence. Specifically, I plan to examine the role of conflict in interpersonal relationships. Broadly speaking, I am interested in attachment through the lifespan and the subsequent affect on social relations.

Robyn Baliber (Human Development)

I am a third year doctoral student in Human Development with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. My research interests include school readiness, interventions, teacher training programs and teacher beliefs. Specifically I am interested in the beliefs of preschool teachers and their ideas about school readiness and developmentally appropriate practice.

Alaina Brenick (Human Development)

I am a doctoral student working with Dr. Melanie Killen in the Social and Moral Development Research Group. My research interests include social and moral development, exclusion, stereotyping, intergroup contact, and intergroup reasoning, especially among children and adolescents in areas of high conflict. I am currently focusing on the role of stereotypes and moral reasoning in evaluations of intergroup exclusion among Arab and Israeli-Jewish children and adolescents.

Allison Buskirk (Human Development)

I am a doctoral candidate. I received my B.A. from Penn State University and my M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University. My research interests include peer relationships, friendship, and adjustment.

Heidi Butler (Psychology)

Anastasia Marie Conroy (Linguistics)

I am a third year student in the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland. I am interested in the acquisition of language. I am primarily interested in language development when children are around the ages of 3-5, a time when their language is largely adult-like, but still has some interesting differences. I am interested in the acquisition of questions, pronouns and quantifiers.

Ebony Dashiell (Human Development)

Nicole Denmark (Human Development)

Melissa Duchene (Human Development)

I am currently a first year doctoral student in the Human Development Department with a vested interest in children’s social-cognitive development. In future research, I aspire to investigate the social competence of intellectually delayed children i.e. autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and the quality of their dyadic friendships.

Brandi Dunlap (Psychology)

Bri Fredstrom (Human Development)

Sarah Gerson (Psychology)

I recently graduated from Illinois State University, and I am a graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program here at the University of Maryland. I have been interested in child development for as long as I can remember, and my interest has grown progressively deeper and my focus narrower. My research interests are in the area of infant cognition, and more specifically, intentional understanding and social knowledge.

Sarah Halcrow (Psychology)

Michael Hardin (Psychology)

Sarah Helfinstein (Human Development)

Alexandra Henning (Human Development)

Areas of interest: Cultural influences on social and moral development; group inclusion and exclusion in stereotypic contexts; stereotypes in video games; social identity theory.

Khalisa Herman (Human Development)

I am a 3rd year doctoral student in EDHD. I received my masters in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard University in 2004. I am currently studying with Drs. Stephen Suomi and James Winslow at the NICHD Laboratory for Comparative Ethology. My research interests include the development of the stress system, emotion regulation, and the etiology of anxiety and ADHD. I am particularly interested in investigating whether there are permanent effects of social play experience on emotional development, and the translation of this research for clinicians, parents, and educators.

Noah Jampol (Human Development)

I am a doctoral student in the Social and Moral Development Laboratory, advised by Dr. Melanie Killen. My specific interests include moral reasoning and cognition, as well as empathy and theory of mind as they pertain to morality and moral neuroscience.

Laura Jernigan (Psychology)

Megan Clark Kelly (Human Development)

I am a fourth year PhD student working with Professor Melanie Killen in the Social and Moral Development Laboratory. Presently I am constructing a dissertation topic regarding adolescents’ implicit racial biases about peer relationships in a morally-relevant context while additionally exploring the impact of intergroup contact. Furthermore, I am working on a project investigating how adolescents make decisions concerning friendships and educational opportunities based on physical and racial features as well as choice of clothing.

Angel Kim (Human Development)

Sarrit Kovacs (Human Development)

I am a doctoral student working with Dr. Ken Rubin in the Department of Human Development. My research interests include parenting, the parent-child relationship, and children's social and emotional adjustment. I am currently focusing on 1) the quality of the parent-child relationship and its relation to children's self-esteem in early adolescence; and 2) maternal shyness, overprotective parenting, and toddler's shyness.

Nancy Geyelin Margie (Human Development)

Jennifer Martin McDermott (Human Development)

Melissa Menzer (Human Development)

I am interested in child and adolescent peer relationships, intimate self-disclosure, and loneliness.

Jamie Monzo (Human Development)

Wongjung Oh (Human Development)

I am a fifth year doctoral student from Seoul, South Korea. I received my B.S. and M.A. in Child and Family Studies from Yonsei University. My research interests include the relations between relationship systems (e.g., parent-child & peer relationships) and individual adjustment; cross-cultural perspective; and longitudinal psychopathology.

Akira Omaki (Linguistics)

My research interests are acquisition of linguistic knowledge and representation (especially syntax), development of sentence comprehension/production mechanism, and neural correlates of language acquisition.

Lisa Pearl (Linguistics)

I'm a fifth year doctoral student in the Linguistics department, with a focus on computational models of human language learning. My primary interests include mathematical models of language learning and change, computational learning theory, and the extraction of systematicity from a noisy input set. Recent work has explored the question of whether learners use all the data available to them or are biased to used a subset that they perceive as more informative. This question applies to linguistic systems in many domains, including the stress system of language, the structural system of language, and the interface between linguistic structure and reference in the world.

Cameron Richardson (Human Development)

I am broadly interested in morality. More specifically, I am interested in general cognitive processes surrounding complex, multi-domain (i.e. moral, conventional, and psychological domains) issues, and individual differences that differentially affect the resolution of these complex topics.

Shannon Russell (Human Development)

I am a first year student working with Dr. Kathryn Wentzel. My research interests include teacher-student relationships, teacher beliefs, and social supports at the school and classroom levels in secondary schools.

Stefanie Sinno (Human Development)

I am a PhD candidate in the department of Human Development working on my dissertation entitled, "Adolescents' evaluations of gender roles in the home." My research areas of interest include examining the development of social and moral reasoning in children and adolescence, roles in the family, and the influence of gender stereotypes on social reasoning. I have also taught several courses in the EDHD department including Lifespan Development, Adolescent Development and Apprenticeship in College Teaching. I enjoy both research and teaching and look forward to continuing my career in academics.

Eri Takahashi (Linguistics)

Ross Vanderwert (Human Development)

I graduated with a BA in Psychology and Mathematics in 2003 from St. Olaf College in Minnesota. I am currently working on my MA in child development under the advisement of Dr. Nathan Fox. My interest in the development of emotion regulation.

Laura K. White (Human Development)

Britt Wilkenfeld (Human Development)

Post Doctoral Researchers

Kathryn Amey Degnan (Human Development)

Erin Cannon (Psychology)

Kathleen Dwyer (Human Development)

Amy Kennedy (Human Development)

Bethany Reeb (Human Development)

Jennifer Richler (Human Development)

Shannon Ross-Sheehy (Human Development)

I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the Universityof Iowa in December 2005. While there, I worked primarily with Drs. Lisa M. Oakes and Steven J. Luck studying visual short-term memory, visual attention, and visual perception in 4- to 13-month-old infants. My dissertation work explored the interaction between visual short-term memory and attention, and raised some interesting questions regarding early cognitive abilities and characteristics such as gender. Thus, my current work is focused on further probing the relation between infant attention and characteristics such as behavioral reactivity, in hopes of identifying early behavioral precursors of attentional function and/or dysfunction.