Robin Nusslock, Ph.D.

Robin Nusslock is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, where he also holds appointments in Neurology, Neurobiology, and Psychiatry. His research examines the brain systems associated with both positive and negative emotions, and how these brain systems are involved in emotional disorders, including depression, anxiety, addiction and mania.

Curriculum Vitae

Cecilia hollenhorst, M.D.

Cecilia Hollenhorst is a resident physician in Psychiatry at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She received her B.A. in Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology from Pomona College, and her M.D. from the University of Michigan. She has completed research related to neuroinflammation in pediatric mood and anxiety disorders, as well as qualitative research investigating patients' experiences in the healthcare system. She is interested in understanding biological mechanisms of psychiatric disease to better optimize care for patients with both medical and psychiatric diagnoses.

Joshua Matthew Schrock , MPH, Ph.D.

Josh (he/him) is a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University. His current work aims to develop and test an integrated neuroimmune model of substance use and depression in people living with HIV. He is especially interested in how peripheral systemic inflammation and resting-state functional connectivity in the brain interact to shape patterns of substance use and depression. His project is supported by an NIH/NIDA Career Development Award (K01DA057143).

Trinh Ha

Trinh is the lab manager for the ACNL. She received her Master's in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on clinical child and adolescent psychology. She worked with Dr. Michael Telch in the Laboratory of Anxiety Disorders on projects applying principles of interoceptive exposure, trauma memory reconsolidation, and PTSD. She plans to pursue a career in clinical psychology and is interested in how psychopathology and environmental factors contribute to depression during childhood and its impact on neuroinflammation throughout one's lifetime. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, baking, and playing the piano.

Akash Rathi

Akash is a data analyst for ACNL. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2023 with a BA in Data Science, and completed supplementary pre-medical coursework at the University of California, Los Angeles. Previously, he worked as a research assistant, studying neurological disorders and medical machine learning. He is particularly interested in the gut-brain connection. Akash plans to eventually attend medical school and pursue a career as a critical care physician. In his free time, he enjoys watching baseball, playing card games, and weight lifting.

Zachary Anderson

Zach is a sixth year student who is broadly interested in how stress becomes embedded in biological systems. Specifically, Zach focuses on the impact of stress on emotion related neural systems and on the experience of emotion more broadly. This has involved a particular focus on anxiety and mood disorders, but also includes projects on chronic pain and clinical high risk for developing psychosis. Zach works with several modalities of data including self-report measures, functional MRI, and diffusion tensor imaging.

Casey Armstrong

Casey is a sixth year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student. She received a B.S. in Cognitive Science from U.C. San Diego and worked as a researcher at U.C. Los Angeles. She is interested in early identification and intervention in affective and psychotic disorders. She is particularly interested in using neuroimaging to identify people at risk for serious psychopathology.

Ellyn Butler

Ellyn is a fourth year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student. She received a B.A. in Psychology and a B.M. in Flute Performance from Oberlin College & Conservatory in 2018, after which she spent three years as a data analyst at the University of Pennsylvania's Brain Behavior Laboratory. She is interested in how various characteristics of abuse, such as the perpetrator, severity, timing, and unpredictability, alter brain structure and function to ultimately result in a host of mental disorders. She is also curious how the transition to adolescence, with all of the complexity of changing peer relationships and puberty, interacts with early life violence exposure to alter emotion reactivity, regulation and identification. Her research is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).

Ann Carroll

Ann is an eighth year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student. She has an A.B. from Harvard University in Psychology and worked as a research staff member in the Harvard Psychology Department and at the Harvard Business School. She uses neuroimaging methods to examine reward processing, impulsivity and related psychopathology (e.g. mania, substance abuse), and to investigate the connection between inflammation and both mental and physical health. Her research has been supported by the NIH T32 Training Program in the Neuroscience of Human Cognition.

Anna Cichocki

Anna is a sixth year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student. She received a B.A. in Biology and a minor in Psychology from Whitman College. She then spent three years as a lab manager for fMRI studies at the Stanford Neurodevelopment, Affect, and Psychopathology (SNAP) lab. She is interested in using multimodal neuroimaging methods to investigate the biological markers of reward processing and psychopathology, as well as the effects of inflammation and stress on these mechanisms. Her research is funded by the Cognitive Science Graduate Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Research. Anna's clinical focus is on neuropsychology and assessment.

Nina Kougan

Nina is a first year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student. She has an A.B. in Psychological & Brain Sciences, with a concentration in Experimental Psychopathology from Washington University in St. Louis. She previously worked for WashU’s Emotion and Mental Health Lab, the Human Connectome Aging and Development Projects at WashUMed, and the ACNL as a research coordinator. Nina’s research interests focus on utilizing neuroimaging techniques to better understand how early-onset depression and suicidality influence reward processing during adolescent development. Outside of the lab, Nina loves to read, bike, and spend time with her pup, Daphne.

Katharina Seitz

Kat is a first year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student, co-advised by Dr. Katie Insel. She received a B.S. in Psychology and Computer Science from Davidson College in 2020, after which she worked as a data analyst at Accenture and then as a research coordinator at Northwestern. She is interested in using data-driven neuroimaging methods to better understand how stressful experiences disrupt development across the brain and body, creating risk for internalizing disorders, especially during adolescence. Her research is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).

Defne Cezayirli

Defne was a lab manager for the ACNL. She is currently a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student at The City College of New York.

Iris Chat

Iris was a lab manager for three years. She is currently a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student at Temple University under the guidance of Lauren Alloy examining reward- and threat-related neural circuits.

Katherine Damme, PH.D.

Katherine received her Ph.D. in Brain, Behavior & Cognition from Northwestern University in 2018. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with Dr. Vijay Mittal here at Northwestern. She is studying early and adolescent brain development and risk for psychopathology.

Sarah Etuk

Sarah was a full-time research assistant through the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (NU-PREP). She is currently a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student at Emory University under the guidance of Dr. Michael Treadway.

Brooke Feinstein

Brooke was a lab coordinator for three years. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests center on understanding the association between emotion regulation and internalizing psychopathology. She is also interested in helping develop effective treatments for these disorders.

James Glazer, Ph.d.

James received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern in 2022. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the NEAR Lab under the guidance of Dr. Stew Shankman at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. His research focuses on developing integrated biopsychosocial models of mood and anxiety disorders from a multi-method and multi-modal perspective (e.g., EEG/fMRI/diagnostic/behavioral). James is interested in the neural correlates of shared and unique symptom dimensions of depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorders across reward, threat, and executive control processing domains.

XIAOQING HU, PH.D.

Xiaoqing received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2014. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong, where he runs the the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. His research focuses on understanding how we remember and forget about our past experiences, and the neurocognitive processes supporting these memory dynamics.

NICHOLAS KELLEY, PH.D.

Nick was a postdoctoral researcher in the Affective & Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory for four years. He is currently an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Southampton, where he is examining conscious and nonconscious processes that enable individuals to guide their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

SEKINE OZTURK

Sekine was an MRI specialist in the Affective & Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory for two years. She is currently a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student at Stony Brook University where she is using neuroimaging, behavioral, and computational methods to understand risk for psychiatric disorders.

NARUN PORNPATTANANANGKUL, PH.D.

Narun received his Ph.D. in Brain, Behavior & Cognition from Northwestern University in 2015. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He has developed an interdisciplinary research program to study individual differences in cognition, emotion and motivation.

CHRISTINA YOUNG, PH.D.

Christina received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2018. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine.