Current lab members
PETER MACIVER, Clinical Psychology & Behavioral Medicine
B.A. Psychology, American University Master’s Thesis: Relations of pulse wave velocity and sociodemographic variables to cognitive functioning in urban dwelling African American and White adults Dissertation: In the Grips of Angst: Investigating the Associations of Anxiety, Blood Pressure, and Cerebral Perfusion Among Older Adults. Research/Clinical Interests: Peter’s interests lie at the intersection of behavioral medicine, neurobiology, and cognitive assessment. His research examines the role of biomedical and psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease in predicting neurocognitive and neuroimaging outcomes across self-identified race and socioeconomic status. Current projects address the respective relations of psychosocial vulnerabilities (anxiety, discrimination) and biomedical factors (obesity, arterial stiffening) to global brain volumes, cerebral perfusion, and cognitive performance. He also has an interest in elucidating the influence of mental health disorders (depression and anxiety) on cardiovascular and brain health. Peter’s clinical interests center around clinical health psychology, primary care psychology, and cognitive assessment. He is completing his clinical externship at the UMBC Psychology Training Clinic, where he serves as a peer supervisor. |
RUICHEN SUN, Clinical Psychology & Behavioral Medicine
B.A. Psychology, Connecticut College Master’s Thesis: Loneliness and Cardiovascular Risk: Sociodemographic Moderators Research/Clinical Interests: Ruichen’s interests focus on psychosocial influences on physical health. Specifically, she is interested in the relations between psychosocial factors - social relationships in particular - and cardiovascular risk, and the physiological mechanisms underlying these relations. A more recent interest concerns issues of multimorbidity, which refers to the clustering of multiple health conditions. Ultimately, Ruichen hopes to translate findings from clinical health psychology into integrated healthcare practice that addresses the psychological and the physical holistically. |
FRAN ALFONZO, Clinical Psychology & Behavioral Medicine
B.A. Psychology (Minor: Family Studies), Marquette University Master’s Thesis: Interactive Relations of Nondiabetic Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) Levels, Age, and Race to White Matter Lesion Volume Research/Clinical Interests: Fran’s research interests broadly lie at the intersection of minority identity and health outcomes. She is interested in exploring the effects of chronic illness that can begin before an official diagnosis, such as the effects of prediabetes on cognitive functioning, especially among racial minorities. Clinically, Fran is interested in working in primary care settings providing integrated and holistic mental health care to patients across the life span. |
SHALINE ESCARFULLERI, Clinical Psychology & Behavioral Medicine
B.S. Psychology (minor Religious Studies), Florida State University Master’s Thesis: The Mediational Role of Negative Affect on the Relation between Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Research/Clinical Interests: Shaline’s research interests broadly address the role of emotion processing skills in the biopsychosocial determinants of health. She is particularly interested in how stress exposure and negative affect relate to cardiometabolic risk factors and neurocognition as a function of socioeconomic status. Clinically, she is interested in neuropsychological assessment, and looks forward to working with a diverse array of adult clinical populations. |
WYATT MARSHALL, Clinical Psychology & Behavioral Medicine
B.A. Experimental Psychology, University of South Carolina Master’s Thesis: Interactive Relations of Arterial Stiffness, Age and Race to White Matter Integrity Research/Clinical Interests: Wyatt’s interests broadly address the neuropsychology of aging and its intersection with behavioral medicine. Specifically, Wyatt’s research focuses on the relations of psychosocial and cardiovascular risk factors to neurocognition and structural brain outcomes. Clinically, Wyatt is interested in neuropsychological assessment and treatment of older adults at risk for and suffering from dementia, stroke, and age-related cognitive decline. |
BIANKA ONWUMBIKO, Behavioral Medicine
B.S. Biology, The Pennsylvania State University Research Interests: Bianka is currently leveraging behavioral medicine and epidemiological approaches to understand the multilevel biopsychosocial mechanisms that are involved in brain aging and cardiometabolic health across the lifespan. Further, I am working to apply this understanding to the development of personalized digital health technologies that help to support equity in successful aging. |
ALEXA MARTINO, Clinical Psychology & Behavioral Medicine
B.S. Psychology, Eastern Michigan University M.A. Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Wayne State University Research/Clinical Interests: Alexa’s broad research interests primarily lie in cognitive aging and understanding how different biopsychosocial risk and protective factors influence late-life neuropsychological functioning and trajectories. They aim to utilize neuroimaging to examine how environmental factors can influence underlying brain and neuropsychological changes across the lifespan, and how these relationships differentiate by SES and race. Alexa is currently studying how racially-patterned environmental stressors, such as neighborhood disorder, influence disparities in cognitive health and brain aging. They hope their research will help inform structural, systemic interventions to improve health equity. Clinically, they are interested in the clinical neuropsychology of cognitive aging and comorbidities among diverse older adults and improving normative samples. |