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If you would like to get in touch with any of our lab alumni, please reach out to Dr. Herr.

Vincent Barbieri

Vincent Barbieri joined the lab in 2017 after receiving his BA in Psychology from Georgetown University in 2012 and his MA in Psychology in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2014. During his masters studies, he worked as a research assistant in the Loss, Trauma, and Emotion Lab, studying the impacts of complicated grief on emotion regulation, particularly looking at expressive flexibility as it relates to adjustment after the loss of a loved one. During this time, he also conducted a study measuring the influence of facial expressions on interpersonal perception. He then worked as a research coordinator of a substance abuse clinic in the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he was program director of their Opioid Overdose Prevention Program. His interests include emotion regulation, facial expression and how they influence perception, avoidance, and Borderline Personality Disorder. Vincent held an externship at the Wake Kendall Group. He recently completed an internship at the Faulk Center for Counseling and graduated from Â鶹´«Ã½.

Madison Guter

Madison Guter joined the Interpersonal Emotion Lab in 2016 after earning a BS in psychology from The Ohio State University. Her master’s thesis utilized a daily diary design to explore how hope, self-esteem, and affect are impacted by repeatedly receiving validating and invalidating comments. Her research interests include emotional and interpersonal functioning in borderline personality disorder (BPD), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), suicide prevention, and positive psychology. Madison held externships at the Wake Kendall Group and the Washington DC VA Medical Center. She recently completed her predoctoral internship at the Washington DC VA Medical Center and graduated from Â鶹´«Ã½.

Haley Hunt

Haley Hunt earned her BA in psychology from Bellarmine University in 2017, before joining the Interpersonal Emotion Lab as a Master's student in 2020. In her time at Bellarmine, Haley conducted two different research projects on the stress levels of college students, their possible causes, and attempts at the reduction of their stress. Her honors thesis examined the effects of aromatherapy on stress levels, and explored whether there were any correlations between reduced stress levels and certain personality traits. Her current research interests include: borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavioral therapy, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relationships. Haley graduated from the Master's program at AU in 2022.

Jessica Birg

Jessica Birg received her BA in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis in 2018. During her time at WashU, she conducted interviews with older adults as part of the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network (SPAN) Study and led an independent project exploring risk factors for depression recurrence in later life. Her Senior thesis examined the effects of suppression on subjective feelings and impressions of authenticity in young adults. Her research interests include: emotion regulation, Borderline Personality Disorder, empathy, and authenticity within the context of interpersonal functioning. Jessica is currently a PhD student in clinical psychology at Florida State University.

Danielle Cohn

Danielle Cohn received her BA in psychology with a minor in mathematics from Vassar College in 2009. After completing her undergraduate degree, she worked at McLean Hospital in Boston, MA, where she led Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills groups for adolescent girls with features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). She was involved in a longitudinal study on aggression in individuals with BPD at McLean Hospital and was a research assistant in Harvard University’s Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology Lab. She entered AU’s Clinical Psychology PhD Program in the fall of 2013. Broadly, her research interests include interpersonal processing and facial emotion recognition in individuals with BPD. Her thesis project will focus on the relationship between shame and aggression in individuals with features of BPD. She was previously an extern at The Wake Kendall Group. Danielle completed her internship year at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in New Orleans.

Danielle completed a postdoctoral fellowship with LSU Health Sciences Center. In her fellowship position, Danielle was the psychology fellow on the Burn Unit at the University Medical Center, where she provided inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy services to burn patients, ran a support group for burn survivors, and conducted research. She also provided outpatient psychotherapy services in the University Medical Center Oncology Clinic. Additionally, she worked part-time at DBT NOLA, where she led a DBT group and provided individual DBT outpatient psychotherapy.

Evelyn Meier

Evelyn Meier received her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008. She completed her MA in Psychology at Â鶹´«Ã½ in 2013 before joining the Clinical Psychology PhD program in 2014. Her master's thesis explored adolescent girls' body image dissatisfaction in correlation with photo-related activity on Facebook. Current research interests include emotion recognition, empathic accuracy, dialectical behavior therapy, and interpersonal processes in emotion regulation and well-being within the context of couples and individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder. Evelyn completed her internship year at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Evelyn completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cognitive Behavioral Consultants in Westchester/Manhattan where she received advanced training in DBT and CBT with a specialization in intensive DBT for young adults and trauma. She was part of CBC’s expanding research program, working on projects examining mechanisms of change in intensive DBT as well as implementation research evaluating the effectiveness of integrating DBT in schools.

Erika Fenstermacher

Erika Fenstermacher received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology with a minor in sociology (disability services) and a certificate in gerontology from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2017. While completing her undergraduate degree, she conducted an honors thesis which explored how destination memory deficits in an older adult population can be lessened through the use of various imagery strategies. She has previously worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on The Comparative Health Assessment Interview (CHAI) research study. This congressionally-mandated project examined the effects of military service on the physical and mental health, and well-being of post-9/11 Veterans. Her role involved conducting a battery of neurocognitive assessments with veterans in the DMV area. Her current research interests include aging, terror management theory, depression, coping with dementia, prosocial behavior, and caregiver burden. Erika is currently a clinical psychology PhD student at West Virginia University.

Em Mitchell

Jenny "Em" Mitchell graduated from the MA in Psychology program at Â鶹´«Ã½ in 2017 before pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Prior to joining the Interpersonal Emotion Lab, Em received her BA in Psychological and Brain Sciences from John Hopkins University in 2015. Her background includes research on memory in depressed individuals and an ethnographic study of religious LGBTQ youth. During her time at AU, she was involved with an NIJ study comparing mediation and litigation processes for couples with high levels of intimate partner violence. Em's research interests include: motivated cognitive distortions, maintenance of romantic delusions and obsessions, differences in perception and facial expression recognition, aggression, emotion regulation, and coping mechanisms.

Emma Faith

Emma Faith completed her BA in AU in 2017 in Psychology as well as a Bachelor's in Arabic. Her interests lie in abnormal psychology and social psychology, particularly in the areas of serial criminals and cult mentality. In 2017 entered the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at the Rosalind Franklin University in Northern Chicago.

Danielle Weber

Danielle Weber completed the Master's program at AU in 2016 before pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at UNC Chapel Hill under the mentorship of Donald H. Baucom, Ph.D. She received her BA in Psychology and English from the College of William and Mary in 2014, where she conducted research examining interpersonal prejudice and prejudice-reduction strategies. Her broad research interests are in the realm of interpersonal dysfunction, especially as it relates to individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder and difficulties regulating emotions. Her thesis examined affective reactions to emotionally validating and invalidating statements.

Emma Woodward, MA

Emma Woodward completed the Master's program at AU in 2016 before entering the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of Houston under the mentorship of Andres Viana, Ph.D. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in 2014. While at AU, her thesis explored transgenerational emotion regulation, perception and attachment between parents and adolescents. Emma's current research interests include emotion regulation, and child and adolescent treatment outcomes.

Alyssa Jones

Alyssa Jones graduated from Harding University with a BS in psychology and a minor in biology before completing her Master's at AU in 2015. Her thesis investigated the relationship between emotions and food preferences. Research interests include emotional awareness and individual differences in emotion regulation and coping. She is currently working towards her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Kentucky.

Adie Baez

Adie Baez graduated from Butler University in Indianapolis with a BA in psychology before joining the AU Master's program from 2013-2015. Her research interests include health psychology and coping in the realm of disability. Her thesis, Body Image as a Moderator of Disability and Resilience, investigated the role body image has on coping and resilience factors in those with congenital conditions.

Kaitlin Lehmann

Kaitlin Lehmann completed her MA degree in the Psychology program at AU, where she completed research in both the Marketing and Clinical Departments with the application of eye-tracking technology. She is currently a fellow at the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems assessing attitudes towards solar panel usage in households and consumption of energy in businesses. She completed her undergraduate degree at Wagner College, where her research focused on sexist attitudes towards rape victims, the link between motivation and visual perception, and how individualistic vs. collectivistic construals act as an interpersonal strategy. She hopes to return to DC upon the completion of her fellowship.

Chris Hughes

Former MA student Chris Hughes is currently a PhD student in Dr. Shireen Rizvi's Lab at Rutgers University. His current research interests include: Borderline Personality Disorder, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Emotion Regulation, Experiential Avoidance, Identity, Aggression, Treatment and Assessment Development, and the incorporation of Mobile Technology Treatment and Research.

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¶Ù²¹²Ô²¹±ðÌý±Ê²¹±è²¹»å±ð²¹ received her BA in Psychology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AuTh) in Greece, before joining the Interpersonal Emotion Lab as a Master’s student at Â鶹´«Ã½ in 2021. In her time at AuTh, Danae completed her honors thesis on the interplay between symptoms of schizophrenia and hormonal variations of oxytocin and estrogen. Her current Master’s thesis explores emotion dysregulation and facial emotion identification and sensitivity within certain personality traits. Her research interests include: emotion dysregulation, cognitive and socio-cognitive processing, and psychosis. Danae graduated from Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Masters Program in May 2023.

Deirdre Salinsky

Deirdre Salinsky joined the lab in 2022 and is currently a 2nd year master’s student. She got her BS in Psychology at James Madison University in 2022. Her master’s thesis is on the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism, social rejection, and impulsive behavior. Her research interests are primarily on how interpersonal dysfunction can impact emotion regulation, risk taking behaviors, such as NSSI, as emotion regulation strategies, and borderline personality disorder.

Email: ds5918a@american.edu