Alecia Vogel-Hammen MD, PhD
Alecia grew up in the St. Louis area, graduated from Saint Louis University with degrees in Biology and Psychology before entering the combined MD, PhD Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University in St. Louis. After using functional MRI (fMRI) and resting state fMRI to study how learning and development interact in developing the neural specialization for reading, Alecia finished medical school, general psychiatry residency and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship. During this training she discovered her love for treating children with big emotions and developed her fascination with understanding the brain differences related to those big emotions. Dr. Vogel is currently an Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry and continues to treat children with emotion dysregulation through the Washington University Child Psychiatry Clinic. She directs the WAVElab and our research studies. Dr. Vogel also continues to be involved in education as the Washington University Child and Adolescent Fellowship Assistant Director for Research and KTGF Medical Student Interest Group in Child Psychiatry Faculty Sponsor. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her own lovely, emotional children and believes everyone should try to get outside, do something that moves your body, and think of something you feel thankful for every day.
Research Staff
Morgan Hartman
Morgan graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2021, where she earned her B.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences and her B.A. in Anthropology: Global Health and the Environment. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant in several labs including Dr. White’s Developmental Neuropsychology Lab and more recently Dr. Thompson’s Emotion and Mental Health Lab. In the EEDP, Morgan coordinates the NeuCorE and NeuCorE+ studies, conducting clinical parent interviews and fMRI scans with our child participants. She also assists in the bigger EEDP with the MESY study, helping to coordinate the Effortless Assessment of Risk States (EARS) cell phone application component, conducting clinical child interviews as well as EEGs. Between recruitment, scheduling, and following up with our participants, Morgan has most enjoyed creating and sustaining meaningful connections with the families who make our research possible.
Continuing her passion for mental health outside of work, Morgan is a facilitator of one of the Connections Support Groups for NAMI St. Louis (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and a volunteer/fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness Walk. She loves taking long walks with her dog in Forest Park, exploring new cafes and restaurants with friends around St. Louis, and attending yoga classes at Shanti. In the near future, Morgan plans to earn her Master’s in Social Work to later go into policy/advocacy work for more equitable access to mental health care or to become a therapist.
From her own experiences with her mental health, Morgan would like anyone who is struggling or loves someone who is struggling to know that there really, truly is hope. Despite mental health care not always being an easily accessible option, know that there are so many free community resources and opportunities to connect with others who share similar experiences. You are not alone, and you do not have to travel your mental health journey alone.
Elena (Lu) Li
Elena grew up in Beijing, China before coming to Wisconsin for high school. She graduated from Grinnell College with a B.A. in psychology and a concentration in neuroscience in 2023. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant in Dr. Ann Ellis’ lab at Grinnell College and as a summer research intern in Dr. Kathryn Humphreys’ Stress and Early Adversity Lab at Vanderbilt University. In the EEDP, Elena will be working on participant scheduling, administering interviews, and conducting MRIs on the SLEEP study and the NeuCorE studies. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, playing badminton, and spending time with her cats. She is also obsessed with detective/mystery/crime films or TV series.
Lab Alumni
Kiran Boone
Kiran earned her B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Psychological & Brain Sciences department at Washington University. She worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Early Emotional Development Program (EEDP) for two years during her studies and completed a senior thesis on childhood factors affecting the development of borderline personality disorder. As a full-time research assistant in the EEDP, Kiran conducted MRIs and clinical interviews with the NeuCORE+ study and was also involved in data analysis, literature reviews, and writing for publication. Her work resulted in several first author publications and a presentation at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists Annual Meeting in 2022.
Sam Norwitz
Sam Norwitz completed his B.A. in Biology, Neuroscience, and Children’s Studies at Washington University. He worked as an undergraduate research assistant for three years in the Cognitive Control and Psychopathology (CCP) Lab, the Humman Connectome Project (HCP), and the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry where he completed an honors thesis on the neural correlates of emotion regulation and reactivity in excitability and irritability with implications for ADHD. He is now pursuing a PhD in Medical Science at the University of Cambridge and the NIH with the support of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship as well as the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship before returning to the States for medical school. His long-term goal is to become a physician-scientist with a focus on pediatric neuroscience, seeking international dialogue and research collaboration in bettering the lives of children with neurodevelopmental challenges.
Fariha Rashid
Fariha Rashid is a third-year medical student at University of Louisville School of Medicine. She graduated from Saint Louis University in 2019 with her B.A. in Biology and Psychology. Fariha worked as a research assistant in the Early Emotional Development Program (EEDP) for two years while completing her Master of Science in Applied Health Behavior Research at Washington University School of Medicine. As a research assistant, Fariha trained undergraduate students on novel behavior ratings of emotion dysregulation in preschoolers. Under the mentorship of Drs. Vogel, Luby, and Hennefield, she was selected for the 2022 AACAP Summer Medical Student Fellowship program to present findings on the effect of PCIT-ED on conflict-resolution strategies in depressed children. She is currently a 3rd year medical student, still interested in Child Psychiatry!
Ben Geselowitz, MD
Ben earned his B.A. in Mathematics from Swarthmore College and his M.D. at Washington University. He did research for three years in the Early Emotional Development Program (EEDP) while pursuing his M.D. Under the mentorship of Dr. Vogel-Hammen, he published a first-author paper in The Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry on early childhood predictors of adolescent borderline personality symptoms. Ben is currently a psychiatry intern at Mount Sinai Hospital where he is involved with research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
Interested in working with the WAVELab?
Contact Dr. Vogel at vogela@wustl.edu
Collaborators
Joan is the head of the Early Emotional Development Program, the Samuel and Mae Ludwig Professor of Child Psychiatry, co-director of the Hermann Center. She has been Dr. Vogel’s mentor since 2018.
Susan is the head of the Laboratory of Child Developmental at Washington University and has served as co-mentor on both NeuCorE projects in the WAVElab.
Deanna is the Gregory Couch Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University and has been a mentor for Dr. Vogel since graduate school and continues to collaborate and provide mentorship on neuroimaging analyses for various WAVElab projects.
Diana is an assistant professor in the EEDP and collaborates with the WAVElab on the studies of borderline personality disorder, one of her areas of expertise, as well as bipolar disorder. She also collaborates on studies related to emotion dysregulation more generally, particularly dysregulation related to sleep and activity.
Kirsten is an assistant professor in the EEDP studying the development of overcontrol of behavior and emotions. She collaborates with the WAVElab on understanding how temperamental characteristics influence the development of psychopathology, specifically collaborating with our studies of borderline personality symptoms.
Josh is the Rosenzweig Associate Professor in Personality Science at Washington University and director of the Personality Measurement and Development lab. He graciously extends his expertise in longitudinal modeling to help us understand how emotion dysregulation impacts development.
Noura is a clinical psychology graduate student primarily working with Dr. Deanna Barch. She has collaborated with the WAVElab in the development of the NeuCorE projects and on understanding the role of emotion identification in the development of emotion regulation.