Graduate Students

Sarah Paul served as the Undergraduate Leader in the SPAN lab and is now a graduate student in Ryan Bogdan’s Behavioral Research and Imaging Neurogenetics Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis. Sarah is interested in the relationship between biological and environmental contributions to the development of psychopathology, particularly externalizing problems.

Isaiah is currently a full-time Doctoral Student in Clinical Science for the BRAIN and SPAN Labs.  He received his BA IN 2021 in Cognitive Neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis, where he worked as a research assistant in Dr. Markson’s Cognition and Development Lab and in Dr. Abrams’ Attention & Performance Lab. Isaiah also spent four years working at the Las Vegas Neurology Center, where he worked with older individuals experiencing a number of neurological-related issues ranging from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s Disease. He is interested in investigating the intersection between personality pathology, life experiences, and cognitive decline. He also has a strong interest in developmental psychology, specifically the mechanisms and causes behind the development of Autism. Isaiah hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Outside of academics, he enjoys drawing and traveling.

Megan’s (she/her) research centers around her broader goal of furthering issues related to diversity and inclusion. Megan is broadly interested in the relationship between discrimination and purpose in life, as well as identifying the personal and situational factors that lead an individual to engage in activism as their purpose in life. In addition, Megan’s research focuses on the relationships between discrimination, sense of purpose, and health, including how sense of purpose may serve as a tool to reduce health disparities. 

After completing his clinical internship at the VA in Minneapolis, Patrick accepted a staff position there as a clinical psychologist. He is interested in interprofessional collaboration and improving mental health care in integrated settings. His research focuses on personality assessment, personality functioning in later life, and the interaction between personality and stressful life events (e.g., unemployment) in predicting health outcomes.

Juliette worked closely with other members of the SPAN team while she was a graduate student at WU, and she is the lead author on several important papers reporting our results related to stress, personality, and racial health disparities (see list of publications).  After completing her clinical internship at the Boston VAMC, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine.  Most recently, she accepted a leadership position with Big Health, a digital therapeutics company that creates mental health apps based on cognitive behavior therapy.

Janine N. Galione completed her doctoral degrees in clinical psychology at Washington University in St. Louis and completed a predoctoral internship at the Center for Behavioral Medicine, Kansas City, MO. She then completed her postdoctoral fellowship in dialectical behavioral therapy for adolescents (DBT-A) at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  She is currently a psychologist with the Young Adult Outpatient Psychiatry program and is also a clinical instructor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  Dr. Galione specializes in the use of mindfulness and evidence-based treatments including dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and compassion-focused therapy (CFT). Her research interests focus on the interplay of social stress and personality pathology.

Dr. Lawton is a licensed clinical psychologist and Director of the Psychological Service Center at Washington University, St. Louis. In this role, Dr. Lawton oversees the clinical PhD program’s student training clinic and coordinates training experiences with a variety of community organizations. She also provides clinical supervision of graduate students, with specialties in cognitive-behavioral therapy and other empirically-supported practices, particularly for the treatment of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression. Dr. Lawton also teaches graduate-level clinical courses.

Abigail Powers Lott, PhD, ABPP is a board certified psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. She serves as Co-Director of the Grady Trauma Project and Clinical Director of the Grady Trauma Recovery Center. Dr. Lott received her PhD in clinical psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Lott’s research focuses broadly on identifying psychological and biological mechanisms of risk and resilience related to interpersonal trauma exposure on adverse health outcomes and improving trauma-related treatment access and outcomes in underserved urban communities.

Hannah King received her Ph.D. in 2017 after completing her clinical internship at the Boston VA Medical Center.  She is now employed at that same facility as a full-time staff psychologist.  Her time is divided between providing direct psychological services to military veterans and supervising the clinical work of post-doctoral trainees as well as clinical psychology interns. Her research on personality disorders in older adults has made useful contributions with regard to our understanding of personality and aging.

Christie joined the SPAN lab when she entered the WU doctoral program in clinical psychology after graduating from Spelman College.  She is now a staff psychologist with the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Atlanta, GA where her work is focused on primary care/mental health integration. Christie is developing new telehealth services that will enhance connections with rural communities.

Gabrielle Pfund (she/her) splits her time as a postdoctoral researcher in the Lifespan Personality and Health lab at Northwestern University and the WELL lab at WashU. During her graduate training, her research focused on the measurement, development, and implications of sense of purpose across the adult lifespan. Thanks to the ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship, Gabrielle was able to spend three months in Switzerland learning about personality processes and successful aging while at the University of Zurich. This experience sparked her interest in the bi-directional associations between personality and health across the lifespan, leading her to her current research endeavors. In her free time, she enjoys reading (generally fiction), Pure Barre, as well as spending time with her friends and dogs–and especially her friends with dogs.

Erin is currently on a clinical predoctoral internship at the UNC Department of Psychiatry on the Affective Neuroscience track.

Erin was a graduate student in Ryan Bogdan’s BRAIN Lab. She received her B.A. in Clinical Psychology from Tufts University in 2015. She is interested in using EEG/ERP and MRI methods to investigate the neural mechanisms associated with reward processing. Specifically, her research interests focus on the relationship between reward-related brain activity and the onset and maintenance of psychopathology.