Sarah Lipitz

Brandeis University

B.S. in Neuroscience and Psychology, 2017

Hometown: Hollidaysburg, PA

Research Interests: My research interests lie in the interplay between emotion, cognition, and stress, and how these relationships can predict, prevent, or mediate the experience of physical health and emotional wellness either a clinical level or through subclinical symptoms. I am particularly interested in self-concept understood through autobiographical narratives and self-referential memory. I enjoy working with a variety of methods including self-report, EMAs and daily diaries, behavioral assessments, neuroimaging, neuroendocrinology and measurements of inflammation, and clinical interventions from pharmacology to mindfulness meditation to music therapy. Resilience, suicide prevention, discussions about stigma, lifelong neural development, and cross-cultural psychology are consistent themes in my research.

Fun Fact: I love to bake. My favorite things to make are macarons, bread of all kinds (especially challah and banana bread), and cake.

Email: slipitz@andrew.cmu.edu

Adrian Williams 

Voorhees College

B.S. in Child Development & Family Studies, 2013

Alabama A&M University

M.S. Counseling Psychology, 2016   

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

Research Interests: My interest focuses broadly on psychobiological mechanisms underlying social influences on health outcomes, coping and resilience, and social relationships. I seek to investigate how individual characteristics (e.g. affective traits, attachment orientation, and coping strategies) and social relationships help individuals foster resilience and promote well-being. I’m also interested in the use of stress reduction interventions (e.g. mindfulness,) and the psychological and biological pathways that ameliorate the negative effects of stress and promote positive health.

Fun Fact: I’m a bookworm and I enjoy the outdoors.

Email: adrianw@andrew.cmu.edu

Fatemah Peeran

Effat University

B.Sc. Psychology, 2018

Hometown: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Research Interests: I’m primarily interested in the promotive and protective factors of resilience post-adversity/trauma across high-stress populations; specifically refugees, at-risk youth, and members of low socio-economic strata. I work on understanding how biopsychosocial mechanisms and expressions are affected when survivors internalize the negative effects of interpersonal trauma. Additionally, I’m interested in exploring how war and civic-based adversity can 1. alter or reinforce perceptions and behavioral expressions of personal-agency and belonging & 2. affect the meaning-making of those inflicted.

Informed by my research work, I plan to work on designing and implementing community-based prevention and intervention programs aimed at cultivating the well-being of refugees, at-risk youth, and members of low socio-economic groups at an individual and communal/societal level.

I am specifically interested in how factors of education, social support and belonging, sense of agency, self-worth, and forms of meaning making can moderate the biopsychosocial effects of adversity and how these resources can be utilized to empower marginalized and disenfranchised groups.

Fun Fact: I like the Arabic dubbed version of Disney’s Robin Hood more than the original English.

Email: fpeeran21@gmail.com