Jean Quintero
Pre-doctoral intern & Ph.D. Candidate
Jean (“Jeannie”) Quintero is a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College earning a B.A. in psychology and received a M.A. in psychology from Hunter College. Jeannie’s research interests revolve around the etiology, identification, and treatment of affective disorders vis-à-vis examining neural and psychophysiological correlates of threat sensitivity and reward processing in emotion dysregulation. She is currently completing her pre-doctoral internship.
phillip spaeth
pre-doctoral intern & Ph.D. Candidate
Phillip Spaeth is a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Phillip graduated summa cum laude from the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in psychology, philosophy, and Asian wisdom traditions and earned his M.S. in clinical psychology from Teachers College. His research interests include digital mental health interventions, emotion dysregulation in personality disorders, and mechanisms of therapeutic change. He is currently completing his pre-doctoral internship at NYU Bellevue Hospital.
Michal Clayton
5th YeaR Ph.D. Student
Michal Clayton is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. After graduating from Brown University with a BA in psychology, Michal spent two years at the National Institute of Mental Health assisting in the development of an exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy for childhood irritability. Michal is interested in investigating mechanisms of change using multiple methodologies, including ecological momentary assessment (EMA), to optimize and personalize treatment for mood and anxiety disorders.
Abigail Szkutak
3rd YeaR Ph.D. Student
Abigail (“Abby”) Szkutak is a third-year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student at Teachers College, Columbia University. After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, Abby worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where she coordinated studies investigating cognitive/attentional processes across worries, rumination, and obsessions, TMS for OCD, and neural correlates of emotional learning. She is interested in leveraging cognitive and affective neuroscience techniques to investigate regulatory mechanisms underlying the transdiagnostic treatment of negative self-referential processing. She is also interested in investigating ways to personalize dosing of treatment components to match clients’ needs.
moises hernandez
2nd YeaR Ph.D. Student
Moises Hernandez is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. After graduating from St. John's University with a B.A. in Psychology, Moises joined the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, where he led the adaptation of HIV prevention programs for Latinx New Yorkers. While in the M.A. in Psychology in Education program at TC, Moises worked as a research assistant at Hunter College's Emotion Regulation Lab, where he helped investigate the biobehavioral mechanisms underlying distress and fear-based anxiety disorders. He is interested in identifying and targeting biobehavioral mechanisms of anxiety disorders, with a particular interest in targeting these mechanisms among marginalized populations like the Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities.
Esther Anene
1st YeaR Ph.D. Student
Esther Anene is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Psychology and a M.S. in Neuroimaging and Informatics, Esther spent two years working at the Precision Psychiatry and Translational Neuroscience Lab at Stanford University, where she coordinated studies investigating the neural circuitry underlying symptoms of depression and anxiety. Esther later worked as a research assistant on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study at Yale University. She is interested in investigating the behavioral and biological mechanisms underlying emotion dysregulation in mood and anxiety disorders, as well as the elements of therapeutic change, to inform more targeted treatments.
Research Assistants
2nd Year MA Students
DIANA AL-MAHMOOD graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in Film Production and a minor in journalism, as well as an MA from NYU in sociology, education, and political science. A seasoned professional in the non-profit sector, her work has centered on advocacy and supporting underserved populations in various ways throughout her career. She is now studying clinical psychology where her research interests include emotion regulation/dysregulation in those who suffer from noncommunicable diseases or chronic illness as well as a mood disorder. In particular, looking at how the two conditions intersect, the mechanisms behind them, and what types of therapeutic interventions are best suited to this population.
REBECCA BURTON graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Psychology. Following her undergraduate education, Rebecca was a senior research assistant for the Framingham Heart Study’s Brain Health Lab where she led the Traumatic Brain Injury Study. Her interests include the mental health experiences of adolescents and young adults, community-based and school-based mental health interventions for children and adolescents, the role of emotion regulation in mood disorders, and adolescent emotion regulation.
SOPHIA CAPELLINI graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a BA in Psychology. She later worked as a Research Assistant at the New York Center for Infants and Toddlers where she coordinated a study that implemented a play-based early intervention for toddlers with autism. Her research interests include emotion regulation in anxiety and mood disorders, specifically cognitive processes and flexibility, as well as mechanisms of change in treatment. She is also interested in emotion regulation strategies and their effectiveness across various contexts.
JACQUELIN CUZCO graduated from Fordham University with a BS in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. Her research interests include evidence-based treatments, early interventions, and the maintaining factors of anxiety and mood disorders.
AMY HONG graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester. She also currently volunteers as a research assistant at the Suicide Research and Prevention Lab at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, which contributes to research studying Suicidal Crisis Syndrome. Her research interests center around topics such as the assessment and treatment of NSSI behaviors and suicidality.
RIAN MAXWELL-WILLIAMS received her B.A. in Dance from Point Park University and was a member of Carolyn Dorfman Dance for three years and a lead intern for Sidra Bell Dance New York for five years. She went on to receive her M.A. in Dance Movement Psychotherapy from Goldsmiths, University of London where she had the pleasure of being an intern for an experimental Body Oriented Psychotherapy group with ELFT in the NHS. Rian’s research interests include the psychological impacts of climate change in low socioeconomic status (SES) coastal communities, the emotional and somatic benefits of dance and movement, and increasing access to therapy for low-income communities of color.
JULIA ZAGAROLI is a second-year MA student in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She received B.A. with a double major in neuroscience and psychology from Boston University. After graduating, she worked as a clinical research coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Pediatric Neuropsychiatry and Immunology Program, investigating the relationship between neuro-inflammation and pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is interested in the implementation of digital and mobile technology into treatment options for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
YIFANG ZHAO graduated from Wake Forest University with a B.A. honors in psychology, a B.A. in Philosophy, and a minor in Neuroscience. He also volunteered at a mindfulness-based institution in China during his undergraduate education. His research interests include stress-coping strategies in people with and without mental disorders, with special interests in emotion dysregulation and undermined cognitive reappraisal ability in people with mood disorders. He is further interested in different but interconnected neurobiological mechanisms behind various stress-coping strategies.