Meet the Lab Members!
Sarah A. O. Gray
Dr. Sarah Gray is a licensed clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Tulane University, where she also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her B.A. in History from Yale University and completed a post-baccalaureate fellowship in early childhood development and education at the Yale Child Study Center. After teaching for several years, she earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She completed her internship and post-doctoral training in the Early Childhood program at the Yale Child Study Center.
Dr. Gray’s research examines the developmental consequences of early life adversity, with a specific focus on intergenerational processes. She takes a multilevel approach, integrating narrative, behavioral, and physiological measurement to understand how risk and resilience is transmitted across generations through behavioral and biological pathways, situated in relational and broader social contexts. Ultimately, she seeks to inform prevention and intervention programs that support caregivers to support young children. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NICHD & NIMH), the Brain & Behavior Foundation, and the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Collaborators
Dr. Stacy Drury, Dr. Katherine Theall, Dr. Charley Zeanah, Dr. Michael Scheeringa, Dr. Ruth Feldman, Dr. Nina Koren-Karie, Dr. Maria Muzik, Dr. Katherine Rosenblum, Dr. Marva Lewis, Dr. Alice Carter, Dr. Amy Heberle
The Tulane Violence Prevention Institute
Anna Wilson – Lab Manager
Anna graduated from Tulane in 2021 with majors in Psychology and Political Science and a minor in Spanish. Anna worked in the Child and Family Lab as an Undergraduate research assistant for a year and a half and will now serve as the Project Coordinator for the Mom Power Study. Anna is interested in how parent-child interactions can buffer against the negative impacts of early adversity and how interventions can help children build resilience. She is also interested in how these stressors and interventions impact long term developmental psychopathology. Anna hopes to pursue further education and a career around how to support children and adolescents mitigate the negative impacts of early adversity.
Renee Lamoreau – 4th year Graduate Student
Renee is interested in understanding how early adversity influences social-emotional development in preschool-aged children. She graduated from Tufts University in 2015, worked in education policy research for three years, and then obtained her Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education before coming to Tulane. She is passionate about studying how interventions like Mom Power can buffer the negative effects of trauma exposure for young children and their caregivers.
Hilary Skov – 3rd year Graduate Student
Hilary is interested in understanding how biological and social factors influence children’s responses to potentially traumatic events, and how parent-child interactions can promote resilience to these stressors. Before joining the Child and Family Lab, she graduated from Emmanuel College in 2015, taught English in Semarang, Indonesia, and worked on research improving school- and clinic-based counseling for children and adolescents in Boston, MA.
Allison Pequet – 2nd year Graduate Student
Allison is interested in how young children exposed to chronic stress and trauma navigate the social world, and how caregivers, teachers and peers influence their social-cognitive development. She is passionate about conducting research through a culturally competent and strength-based lens. Allison graduated from Texas State University in 2018 with a B.A. in Psychology. Before coming to Tulane, she worked on research studying the efficacy of a stress and coping intervention for adolescents in poverty at Pennsylvania State University.
Svetha Mohan – 2nd year Graduate Student
Svetha is interested in the neurodevelopment of children’s executive function and attention, the effects of stress and protective factors on these processes, and how interventions can support children’s developmental outcomes. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from University of Central Florida in 2017, taught English in Cartagena, Spain, then earned her M.A. in Human Development from University of Maryland, College Park before coming to Tulane.
Research Assistants:
Jada Jones
Kavya Subramaniam
Arielle Morris
Cristina Miles
Kassandra Stoddard
Kelsey Lain
Megan Klecyngier
Caroline Cohen
Lily Donald
Gabby Levine
Sydney Hawkins
Mykal White
Lab Alumni
Victoria Parker: Parent Educator at Tulane Parenting Education Program
Erin Glackin: Postdoctoral Fellow at Flourish Psychology and Crisis Interventionist at Denver Crisis Walk-In Center
Justin Carreras: Postdoctoral Pediatric Fellow at Ochsner Medical Center
Hannah Swerbenski: Ph.D. Student at the University of Rochester
Rebecca Lipschutz: Ph.D. Student at the University of Houston
Elsia Obus: Postdoctoral Fellow at Interactive Discovery Psychological Services
Chloe Pickett: School Psychologist at Crescent City Schools Charter Network
Virgina Hatch: Postdoctoral Child Development Fellow at Ochsner Medical Center