Dr. Ansley Gilpin is an Associate Professor and director of the KID Lab at the University of Alabama. She is core faculty in the Psychology Department at UA and in the Center for Youth Development & Intervention. She is a cognitive developmental psychologist specializing in children’s imagination, socio-emotional development, executive functions and school readiness skills. Read more about her here.
Lindsey Held is a fifth year doctoral student. She is currently studying how play leaders are involved in imaginative play.
Emmy Bray is a third year doctoral student. Her interests include the development of children’s creative problem solving, executive functions, imagination, and creativity.
Bahare Bahmani is a second-year doctoral student. Her research interest is the impact of music on executive function and imagination, delving into the connections between music and cognitive processes.
Lauren Rivers, LPC, is a second-year doctoral student working with Ansley Gilpin. She is interested in the impact of play and play therapy on children’s executive functioning development.
Mahtab Haghshenas is a first-year doctoral student. Her research interest is in conceptual development, realising how a concept develops between different age and cultural groups.
Dr. Jillian Pierucci is an Associate Professor at St. Mary’s University. She is an alumna of the KidLab who studies early childhood intervention, symbolic play and parent-led intervention. Read more about her here.
Dr. Melissa McInnis Brown is an Associate Professor at Texas Woman’s University. She is an alumna of the KidLab who studies children’s imaginary friends, empathy and socio-emotional development. Read more about her here.
Dr. Rachel Thibodeau-Neilsen is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Missouri. She is an alumna of the KidLab who studies children’s executive functions, imagination and socio-emotional development. Read more about her here.
Dr. Alexandra “Allie” Nancarrow is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies in Brighton, UK. She is an alumna of the KidLab who studies the development of children’s social cognition as well as ecological impacts on children’s school readiness.
Dr. Sylvia Wang is currently an Assistant Professor at Widener University. Her research interests include subjective well-being in older adults. Read more about her here.
Dr. Carmen Brown Farrell is an Assistant Professor at USC Beaufort. Her interests include the development of social cognition and regulatory skills in children. She uses advanced statistical techniques to model growth trajectories of self-regulation and social cognition skills over time. Read more about her here.
Dr. Rebecca Bauer is an Assistant Professor at Hampton Sydney College. Her interests include the development of children’s imagination and creativity. She is currently researching how to best measure children’s creative potential. Read more about her here.
Hillary Erwin is teaching assistant professor at the University of Dayton. Her research interests include executive functioning, learning, and metacognition. Specifically, she is investigating how teacher evaluations via the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) compare to actual performance levels in children.