ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ

Ìý

Chandra A. Reynolds (chandra.reynolds@colorado.edu)

[Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1994]

Chandra Reynolds is currently a Professor at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics and the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder and is a Professor Emerita of Psychology at University of California Riverside. Her research interests center around the interrelationships between health and cognition across development. She directs projects that consider the genetic and environmental etiologies of cognitive aging, including gene pathways and their possible interaction with environmental factors. Additional projects include examinations of early life factors and contexts that influence cognitive, physical health and well-being profiles into early adulthood and across the lifespan.

IBG Faculty Page

Ìý

Anqing Zheng (anqing.zheng@colorado.edu)

Anqing Zheng is a postdoctoral researcher in the BBR lab. Her primary interest concerns the waysÌýgenetically influenced characteristics combine and interact with the environment to guide eachÌýperson’s psychological characteristics (i.e., personality, socio-emotional skills, cognitive ability). She isÌýalso interested in representing dynamic relations among psychological variables, as well as theÌýantecedents and causes of those variables. She prefers to approach these issues using largeÌýrepresentative datasets and meta-analyses and embraces the opportunities brought by big data andÌýmachine learning paradigms. In Anqing’s spare time, she is a big fan of skiing, leisure snowboarding,Ìýoccasional indoor climbing, and pouring love to her (slightly) psychopathy cat.

Ìý

Alex Sheppard (Alex.Sheppard@colorado.edu)

Kiana Siegal (Kiana.Siegal@colorado.edu)

Kiana is a Professional Research Assistant for the lab at IBG. ÌýShe recently graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. ÌýKiana's work in the lab includes data analysis and data management and documentation. ÌýShe is currently working toward graduate school and pursuing a career in Clinical Psychology. ÌýIn her free time, Kiana enjoys hiking, skiing, cooking, and traveling.Ìý

Archana B. Balasubramanian, Ph.D.Ìý
Archana completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at UC Riverside in June 2010. Her doctoral research examined the contributions of stress and inflammation to cognitive change. Since completing her degree, she served as a postdoctoral fellow at the UCI Mind Research Unit and as a Research Associate at UCSD in the Neuroscience department, building a career in clinical research and project management. She currently serves as a Project Manager at Worldwide Clinical Trials.Ìý

Brittany L. Bannon Sisco-Taylor, Ph.D.Ìý
Brittany completed her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology with an emphasis in Health Psychology at UCR in June 2017 under chair Dr. Chandra A. Reynolds. During her tenure in the program, she was co-advised by Dr. M. Robin DiMatteo, Emeritus, and Dr. Kate Sweeny. Since completing her degree, she served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah, Department of Population Health Sciences. She currently serves as a Senior Research Scientist/Quality, Planning and Assessment professional with the Spokane Regional Health District.

Cleo BurceÌý
Cleo served as a research associate on the IGEMS project in our UCR lab, including data management, analysis, and documentation, and went on to CSU San Diego master’s program in psychology. She is currently serving as a Research Scientist and Research Project Manager at the Naval Health Research Center, Naval Medical Center San Diego.Ìý

Ryan Bruellman, Ph.D.Ìý
Ryan graduated with his Ph.D. in the Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics program at the University of California Riverside in 2026. His research dissertation focused on how behaviors such as physical activity and diet influence health during early aging.Ìý His work also seeks to understand how our food environment can shape health outcomes and behaviors.Ìý He is now serving as a Frost Postdoctoral Fellow (Kinesiology and Public Health), California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo.Ìý

Katherine Duggan, Ph.D.Ìý
Kat completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at UCR in June 2016, under chair Howard Friedman with Chandra Reynolds and Sara Mednick serving as committee members. Her research focuses on personality and sleep trajectories in childhood and adolescence, as well as the mediators of the sleep-health relationship throughout the lifespan. Subsequently, she served as a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. Since 2019 she has been Assistant Professor, Social and Health Psychology, at North Dakota State University.Ìý

Faredun DungoreÌý
Faredun (Fred) was the previous Lab Manager for Dr. Reynold’s Lab at UCR. He graduated with his bachelor's degree in Neuroscience from the University of California Riverside. He is currently attending the Western University of Health Sciences with the goal of becoming a Neurosurgeon.Ìý

Briana N. Horwitz, Ph.D.Ìý
Briana was a NRSA F32 postdoctoral fellow recipient, spending time at Penn State and UC Riverside 2011-2013. Her expertise lies in family processes and well-being outcomes in childhood and adulthood. Dr. Horwitz subsequently served as a faculty member at CSU Fullerton.Ìý

Ida Karlsson, PhDÌý
Ida was a visiting postdoctoral scholar at UCR under the Fulbright program during the fall of 2019 and early spring 2020. After servign as a postdoctoral researcher at Jönköping University, Sweden, she is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institute. Ida’s main research interest is the genetic and epigenetic epidemiology of complex diseases, mainly focusing on aging-related outcomes, including adiposity-related traits, cognitive decline and dementia.Ìý

Jennifer Koontz, Ph.D.Ìý
Jennifer completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at UCR in September 2010. Her research topics included the prediction of dementia subtypes via cognitive and vascular risk trajectories. She served as a postdoctoral fellow at the UCI Mind Research Unit following the completion of her Ph.D.Ìý

Maria LunaÌý
Maria served as lab assistant in the BBR lab at UCR. She is currently attending David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with interests in Family Medicine.Ìý

Chloe MyersÌý
Chloe Myers completed her master’s degree in the spring of 2021 at UCR. Her research interests included the genetic and environmental influences on the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and associations of BDNF and exercise with cognition. She is now in North Carolina and enjoys creating digital art, reading, and exploring with her dogs.Ìý

Elizabeth Muñoz, Ph.D.Ìý
Elizabeth Muñoz is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, a Research Associate in the Population Research Center, and an affiliate of the Center on Aging and Population Sciences. Her research focuses on identifying early and modifiable predictors of cognitive health across adulthood, with particular emphasis on psychosocial stress, neighborhood environments, and cognitive aging among populations that vary in sociodemographic factors.Ìý

Dianna Phillips, Ph.D.Ìý
Dianna completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at UCR in December 2019 and subsequently served as a lab affiliate. Her research interests included features of loneliness and cognitive change in adults as well as epigenetic mechanisms of these relations. She is an independent scientist in the Southwest.Ìý

Brittany (Paige) Trubenstein, Ph.D.Ìý
Paige completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at UCR in July 2020. Paige Trubenstein is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Angelo State University. Her current research investigates environmental influences on cognition across the lifespan, rurality differences, social capital, and community-based factors that promote healthy development and aging.Ìý

Tina Vo, Ph.D.Ìý
Tina Vo completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at UC Riverside in 2024 and is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, working with the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA). Her research focuses on sleep, cognition, Alzheimer's disease risk, and the genetic and environmental influences on cognitive aging.Ìý

Loryana Vie, Ph.D.Ìý
Loryana completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at UCR in December 2012. Her research interests included studying the relationships between marriage, personality, health, and longevity using data from the 8-decade long Terman Life Cycle Study. For her dissertation, she considered predictors and outcomes of social influences on health behaviors in a sample of college students. Dr. Vie served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Research Facilitation Team, Army Analytics Group in Monterey, CA. She joined Peraton as Deputy Program Manager for Quality and Scientific Integrity, and is residing in Portland, Oregon.Ìý

Joey WhiteÌý
Joey White served as Lab Manager and Professional Research Assistant at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics, contributing to IGEMS, CATSLife, and VETSA projects. He subsequently enrolled in graduate training in evolutionary genetics at the University of Manitoba.Ìý

Lauren Whitehurst, Ph.D.Ìý
Lauren Whitehurst is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Kentucky and directs the Cognition, Health and Sleep Equity (CHaSE) Lab. She also serves as Director of Team Science within the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and is affiliated with the Center for Health Equity Transformation. Her research examines sleep, autonomic functioning, memory, and cognitive health differences across adulthood.Ìý

Catalina Zavala, Ph.D.Ìý
Catalina Zavala completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at UC Riverside in 2014, studying socioeconomic influences on cognitive aging and lifespan development. After postdoctoral appointments at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of Southern California, she has worked as an independent Research Consultant and Research Psychologist, applying developmental, aging, and behavioral science approaches to research and data-driven projects.Ìý