Interests and Collaborators
Research Interests:My research interest centers on understanding the development and maintenance of mental disorders across the lifespan and investigates the links between genetic vulnerabilities, neuropsychological weaknesses and neurocognitive abnormalities, and a variety of psychiatric conditions, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities, schizophrenia, and substance use.
Under the mentorship of Dr. Erik G. Willcutt at the University of Colorado at Boulder, my primary graduate research involved projects related to the validity and etiology of ADHD using clinical, twin, molecular genetic, and neurocognitive methodologies. I was awarded a predoctoral National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institute of Mental Health in order to study ADHD across the lifespan using neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and genetic approaches (F31 MH078514) and a CHADD Young Research Scientist Award to study genetic contributions to ADHD using novel symptom and neuropsychological phenotypes of ADHD. More recently, I have become particularly interested in the comorbidity between ADHD and substance use, specifically nicotine dependence, and have examined the pharmacological, neuropsychological, and genetic risk factors that may contribute to this comorbidity.
Current and past mentors and collaborators:
Marie T. Banich, University of Colorado, Boulder
Andri Bjornsson, Brown Medical School
Yue Chen, Harvard Medical School
John C. DeFries, University of Colorado, Boulder
Philip S. Holzman, Harvard Medical School
Scott H. Kollins, Duke University Medical Center
Deborah L. Levy, Harvard Medical School
F. Joseph McClernon, Duke University Medical Center
Matthew B. McQueen, University of Colorado, Boulder
Bruce F. Pennington, University of Denver
Soo H. Rhee, University of Colorado, Boulder
Erik G. Willcutt, University of Colorado, Boulder