Polina Perelstein

Polina is a second-year Clinical Psychology PhD student from Worcester, MA. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2021 with a B.A. in Psychology. After college, Polina worked with youth with challenging behaviors at the Center for Applied Behavioral Instruction in Worcester. She then took a position as a research coordinator in a developmental psychobiology lab at Boston University, working on a study examining early risk for callous-unemotional traits. Polina’s research interests focus on neurobiological and family influences on emotion regulation in youth with externalizing problems.

Sabrina Barella

Sabrina is a first-year Clinical Child Psychology Ph.D. Student from Melbourne, Florida. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Florida in 2024. After graduating, she continued her work as a research assistant for two UF labs, studying social cognition/emotion and genetics, while working as a full-time Clinical Research Coordinator for psychiatric clinical trials. Sabrina is interested in researching how biopsychosocial risk/resilience factors (e.g., genetics, personality traits, trauma) impact the development of antisocial and related externalizing behaviors in at-risk individuals.

Kiki Onyeagocha

Kiki Onyeagocha is a Senior from Germantown, Tennessee. She is also a part of the UA Lacrosse Team. She is majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in General Business. She is involved with the University’s Honors College, and she is a part of the STEM path to MBA program. After she graduates college with her MBA, she plans to attend Medical school. Her tentative plans are to become a dermatologist or surgeon with her own practice and later her own cosmetics/eczema medicine line. By working in Dr. Castagna’s lab, she is excited to gain research experience and new knowledge.

Ryan Quinlan

Ryan Quinlan is a Junior at the University of Alabama from Omaha, Nebraska. He is majoring in neuroscience with a minor in chemistry. After graduation, he plans to go to medical school and his long-term goal is to practice family medicine. He is very excited to be working in Dr. Castagna’s lab with the goal of gaining more experience with the research process as well as learn about data collection and analysis.

Myka Roethel

Myka Roethel is a junior from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She is majoring in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience. After undergrad at UA, she plans to attend Graduate school for Clinical Child Psychology. She is passionate about research in youth, and being a part of Dr. Castagna’s Lab allows her to expand her knowledge and research experience on computational modeling to examine task-based behavior correlating with EEG to learn more about brain-behavior relationships. Additionally, she serves as a research assistant in Dr. Hart’s social cognition lab. 

Esther George

Esther George is a freshman from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is majoring in biology and double minoring in neuroscience and interdisciplinary studies in medicine. After graduating, she hopes to go to medical school and travel on local and international medical mission trips to underserved populations. By working in Dr. Castagna’s lab, she hopes to grow in knowledge, research, and interpersonal skills.

Addison Zucker

Addison Zucker is a sophomore at the University of Alabama from Livingston, New Jersey. She is majoring in psychology with a double minor in human and family development and addiction and recovery. After her undergraduate years, she plans to attend graduate school for clinical or counseling psychology and hopes to achieve her long-term goal of becoming a therapist. She is very excited to be working in Dr. Castagna’s lab as it will help to provide valuable lessons about the research process and help her to gain experience in data collection in a lab setting. 

Riya Patel

Katelyn Krafick

Andrew Molargik