Former Postdoctoral Scholars
Dakota Witzel, Ph.D.
Dr. Witzel completed a postdoctoral position with support from the Center for Healthy Aging, the MESH Lab (PI: Dr. Graham-Engeland) and the Stress and Immunity Lab (PI: Dr. Engeland) at Penn State. Dr. Witzel is now an Assistant Professor at South Dakota State University.
Robert Tennyson, Ph.D.
Dr. Tennyson completed a postdoctoral position with support from the Mechanisms of Emotion, Stress, and Health (MESH) Lab (PI: Dr. Graham-Engeland) and the Stress and Immunity Lab (PI: Dr. Engeland) at Penn State. Dr. Tennyson has now accepted a postdoctoral position at Vanderbilt University.
Erin Harrington, Ph.D.
Dr. Erin Harrington completed a postdoctoral position with support from the MESH Lab (PI: Dr. Graham-Engeland) and the Stress and Immunity Lab (PI: Dr. Engeland) at Penn State. Dr. Harrington is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Wyoming.
Erik Knight, Ph.D.
Dr. Erik Knight completed a postdoctoral position with support from the Center for Health Aging, the MESH Lab (PI: Dr. Graham-Engeland), and the Stress and Immunity Lab (PI: Dr. Engeland) at Penn State. Dr. Knight is now an Assistant Professor in the Social Psychology Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research focuses on psychosocial and endocrine precursors to social stress responses in order to understand downstream consequences for health outcomes. https://www.colorado.edu/psych-neuro/erik-knight
Britney Wardecker, Ph.D.
Dr. Britney Wardecker completed a two-year postdoctoral training fellowship at Penn State’s Center for Healthy Aging under the mentorship of Dr. Graham-Engeland and Dr. David Almeida. Dr. Wardecker is now an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at Penn State. The goal of her research program is to explore the intersections of aging, health disparities, and stress in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) communities. https://www.nursing.psu.edu/directory/wardecker-phd/
Nancy Sin, Ph.D.
Dr. Nancy Sin completed postdoctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Graham-Engeland and Dr. David Almeida. Dr. Sin is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on positive and negative aspects of people’s day-to-day lives and how these influence long-term health and aging. https://psych.ubc.ca/profile/nancy-sin/
Former Graduate Student Advisees
Karina Van Bogart, Ph.D.
Dr. Van Bogart obtained a PhD in Biobehavioral Health in 2024 (advisor: Dr. Graham-Engeland). Dr. Van Bogart is now a Postdoctoral Scholar at Northwestern University. Click for Google Scholar.
Natasha DeMeo, M.S.
After obtaining an MS in Biobehavioral Health (advisor: Dr. Graham-Engeland), Ms. DeMeo now works as a data analyst at Clemson University.
Dusti Jones, Ph.D.
Dr. Dusti Jones obtained a PhD in Biobehavioral Health in 2020 (advisor: Dr. Graham-Engeland). Dr. Jones is now a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. Her work focuses on the dynamic interplay between stress and affect (or emotion/mood) to understand ways to foster resilience to chronic diseases to which stress/coping contribute.
Ambika Mathur, M.S.
After obtaining an MS in Biobehavioral Health in 2017 (advisor: Dr. Graham-Engeland) and working as a graduate research assistant, teaching assistant, and independent instructor, Ms. Ambika Mathur is now pursuing applied opportunities that incorporate her interests and knowledge of the correlates of stress, pain, and resilience to stress.
Danica Slavish, Ph.D.
Dr. Danica Slavish obtained a PhD in Biobehavioral Health in 2017 (advisor: Dr. Graham-Engeland). Dr. Slavish is now a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Texas. Her research examines how emotions and sleep impact health in daily life. https://psychology.unt.edu/people/danica-c-slavish
Andrew Porter, Ph.D.
Dr. Andrew Porter, who started his PhD training in another lab, obtained a PhD in Biobehavioral Health under Dr. Graham-Engeland’s supervision in 2014. Dr. Porter is now an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing & Health Studies at the University of Miami. His research focuses on sexual health communication. https://people.miami.edu/profile/a.porter@miami.edu
Sunmi Song, Ph.D.
After obtaining her PhD in Biobehavioral Health in 2013 (adivsor: Dr. Graham-Engeland), Dr. Sunmi Song worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the National Institutes of Health in the National Human Genome Research Institute (Social Behavioral Research Branch). Dr. Song is now a research professor at Korea University, Department of Health Sciences. She investigates social relationships and health, with a particular interest in the impact of relationship stress, coping strategies, the role of mood, physical pain, and variation due to individual differences.
Katherine Streitel, M.A., M.D.
After obtaining an MA in Biobehavioral Health in 2010, Dr. Kate Streitel (now Dr. Streitel Borst) decided to pursue medical school. She attended medical school at Drexel University, where she continued to focus on women’s health. She is now a physician, specialized in Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation.
Brent Donmoyer, PMHNP, DNP, ACNS.
After obtaining his MS in Nursing, Mr. Donmoyer went on to do a Nurse Practitioner degree at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He is now an Assistant Professor in the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.
Former Undergraduate Research Assistants
Madison Duley
BBH major (2025). Plans to purse a career in pediatric nursing.
Madison Seidel
Biology major (2026). Plans to attend medical school after graduation.
Saran Ashley-Douglas
BBH major (2024). Plans to pursue a career in the medical field.
Matthew Valente
BBH major (2024).
Robert McLuckey
BBH major (2024). Is currently attending medical school.
Christina Weaver
Psychology major (2024).
Kaylee Foor
Psychology major (2022). Currently attending graduate school for for Social/Health Psychology.
Domenica Castillo
After graduation, she is planning to attend graduate school to earn her Ph.D. in counseling psychology.
Reghan Lieberman
Psychology major (2023). Plans to attend graduate school and earn her Ph.D. in clinical psychology.
Alexandra Stone
Biobehavioral Health major (2020). Ally was the College of HHD Marshall for 2020 Spring commencement. She was accepted to medical school to start immediately after graduation
Micailah Guthrie
Micailah worked in the lab the summer of 2019 through the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), at which point she was a Public Health major with double minors in Medical Sociology and Community Health Education and Advocacy (Individualized Studies) at the Miami University of Ohio in Oxford, OH.
Nolan McCormick
Dual majors in Biobehavioral Health and Dance, with minors in Neuroscience and Japanese, class of 2017.
Elayna Fazio
Biobehavioral Health major, Psychology minor, class of 2018.
Clarisse Villafranca Solis
Pre-Medicine, class of 2018
Lauren Wieder
Nutritional Sciences with a minor in Kinesiology/Movement Science, class of 2019.
Timothy Chiang
BA in Health Policy and Administration in May 2015. Tim was accepted to medical school at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA in July 2015.
Caroline Zubricki
Class of 2015
Danielle Kovalsky
Danielle Kovalsky graduated in Spring 2015. She next worked at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with a group doing Emergency Medicine policy research. She was accepted to medical school to begin in the fall of 2016.
Nicole Aspros, M.P.H.
Nicole graduated from Penn State in 2012 with a major in Biobehavioral Health and a minor in Global Health. Following graduation, Nicole enrolled in the Master’s International program at George Washington University to pursue her MPH in Global Health Communication. She was a Peace Corps member in Senegal until May 2016.
Autumn Bowers, B.S.
Class of 2014
Kacie Burns, B.S.
Class of 2014
Sara Manetta, B.S.
Class of 2014. Sarah was accepted to medical school to begin in the Fall of 2016.
Anjana Sinha, M.S.
After obtaining her degree in Immunology in 2011 from Penn State, Anjana spent a year as a Post Baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Anjana then completed a M.S. in Bioengineering Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, with an interest in medical device innovation with a focus on design tailored toward developing countries.
Erica Stagliano, B.S.
Class of 2014
Dr. Maria Stevens, B.S., M.D.
Dr. Stevens worked as an URA in the MESH lab in 2008. After graduating from Penn State with a BS in Biology, she went to medical school and recently became the Assistant Dean for Academic Community Programs and Partnerships at Florida International University Medicine.
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