About Us

Catalina Zavala, Ph.D. (catalina.zavala@ucr.edu)

Catalina completed her PhD in Psychology at UCR in August 2014, and is currently serving as a postdoctoral scholar in the lab. Her interests include genetic and environmental factors that impact cognitive development across the life span. Her research interests have involved exploring the predictive value of socioeconomic status measures, including subjective measures, on cognitive change. Additionally, Catalina is interested in the impact of Apolipoprotein E on cognition across the human life span and within historical cohorts. She will be starting a postdoctoral fellowship at the Karolinska Institutet November 2014.

Brittany L. Bannon, M.A. (brittany.bannon@email.ucr.edu)

Brittany is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Social/Personality and Health Psychology program at UCR, advised by Drs. Chandra A. Reynolds and M. Robin DiMatteo. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University, where she also minored in Child Development. Broadly, she is interested in the social and emotional processes that underlie people's responses to bodily symptoms, or illness behaviors, across the lifespan; the role of risk perceptions in decision-making; and social determinants of risky health behaviors. Her Master's thesis examined individual difference factors and family transmission on early adulthood illness behavior patterns. Her dissertation will examine psychosocial predictors of outpatient service utilization trajectories among older adults, evaluating gender differences, continuity of care, and functional outcomes. She has also conducted research on perceived disease risk and genetic test uptake decisions; the overall efficacy of adolescent adherence interventions; and alcohol-related self-identity as a determinant of college students' risky drinking behaviors.

Dianna Phillips, B.S., B.A. (dianna.phillips@email.ucr.edu)

Dianna is a second year graduate student working toward her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at UCR under the direction of Dr. Chandra Reynolds. She earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from UCR and worked on the Human Genome Project at Caltech before earning her B.A. in Psychology from California State University, Bakersfield, graduating summa cum laude. Her research interests include the relationships between psychological factors and physical and cognitive health in midlife and old age. She is currently investigating potential mediators/moderators of the relationship between perceived loneliness and cognitive change including potential gene-environment interplay using longitudinal twin data from the consortium on Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS).

Cleo Burce, B.A.

Cleo serves as a research associate on the IGEMS project in our lab, including data management, analysis, and documentation. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from UCR and is currently applying to graduate school programs. Her research interests include parent-child relationships, intrusive parenting and cultural differences, and how each of those interact with each other.

Katherine Duggan, M.A.

Kat is a fifth year graduate student in Social/Personality Psychology at UCR. She works with Howard Friedman and Chandra Reynolds on examining lifelong pathways towards health and well-being in the Terman data. Her current research focuses on childhood personality and adolescent sleep trajectories, as well as the mediators of the sleep-health relationship throughout the lifespan.

Briana N. Horwitz, Ph.D.

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 is now a faculty member at CSU Fullerton.

Loryana Vie, Ph.D.

Loryana completed her PhD 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 is currently 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.

Jennifer Koontz, Ph.D.

Jennifer completed her PhD 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 PhD.

Archana B. Balasubramanian, Ph.D.

Archana completed her PhD in Psychology at UCR in June 2010. Her research topics included the contributions of stress and inflammation on cognitive change. She served as a postdoctoral fellow at the UCI Mind Research Unit following the completion of her PhD, and is now a Research Associate at UCSD in the Neuroscience department.

Brett Bird

Ryan Hiroto, B.A.