Neke grew up in CA, where she attended undergrad at UC-Berkeley and earned a degree in psychology with a minor in disability studies. She then received her masters in neuroscience and education from Columbia University. She is a Phd candidate in the IPN program at Georgetown. Her research focuses on understanding the cognitive and non-cognitive symptoms of neurodegenerative disorders in high risk populations. When Neke is not in the lab, you can catch her at a museum or at a restaurant trying new foods.

Annika graduated from William & Mary in 2022 with a B.S. in Psychology and in Kinesiology & Health Sciences. Before joining the CARES lab, she worked in the W&M Autism Lab and as a lab manager for the Cognitive Aging and Memory and Integrative Cognitive Neuroscience labs at Tufts University. As a graduate student on the LCN track, her research interests center around the impact that emotion and interoceptive processes have on social relationships and health, as well as methods to improve socio-emotional functioning across the lifespan.

Matt graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2020 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences (General Biology) and a minor in Neuroscience. Before starting as an LCN student, he worked in the Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at UMD as an undergrad RA and as a postbac, the Magnetic Resonance Physics of Aging and Dementia Unit at the National Institute on Aging as a postbac, and the Lab for Neurodevelopment of Reading and Language at UMD as a project manager. He is interested in the neuroscience surrounding interpersonal relationships, empathy, and interactions in naturalistic contexts. 

Naama is a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Program for Neuroscience. She worked at the Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making in Prof. Zohar Eviatar’s laboratory at the University of Haifa where she completed her B.A. in Psychology and her M.A. in Cognitive Neuropsychology. She continued to work in Prof. Eviatar’s laboratory as a Master’s degree student, working on an electroencephalograph (EEG) study investigating the effect of phonological representations on semantic processing. Her Master’s thesis, with her advisors, Prof. Eviatar and Prof. Avi Karni, utilized surface Electromyography (sEMG) on articulatory musculature to examine visual or auditory sentence presentation effects on muscle innervation in a sentence repetition task. Currently, Naama's research is focused on the role of the somatosensory cortex and empathy in vicarious social touch, where transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on somatosensory cortex, was applied on healthy individuals of varying degrees of state empathy, to test how emotional responses are affected during observation of positive social interactions. Outside the lab, Naama enjoys going to museums and concerts.

Anna graduated from Wake Forest University in 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience.  She worked in a cognitive lab during her undergraduate studies, where she completed her Honors Thesis. Anna was awarded a Diversity Supplement from the National Institute on Aging, and will be working with Dr. Brown to investigate the effects of emotion regulation on the well-being and executive functioning of dementia caregivers. In her free time, Anna likes to do yoga, paint-by-numbers, and hang out with friends.

Nicholas graduated from Georgetown University in 2024, where he pursued an interdisciplinary foreign service major, comprising culture, politics, and psychology. Nicholas was an undergraduate Research Assistant in Georgetown’s Culture and Emotions Lab, where he completed his honors thesis. Nicholas is interested in the relationship between social ties, emotion regulation, and psychological disorder outcomes. He is also intrigued by how community-wide processes impact psychological well-being.

Kleio graduated with a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 2023 with majors in Psychology and Cognitive Studies and minors in Data Science and Communication Studies. Before joining the CARES lab, she worked for a year as a Research Data Associate at NYU Medical School. She is interested in socio-cognitive psychology and the moral use of behavioral science for policy outcomes. You can find her exploring dc, at home petting her dog, and/or playing strategy board games.