MEET OUR TEAM
Grace Hart
Co-chair
Grace is a Postgraduate Associate at Yale University and lab manager in Dr. Shirley Wang's Computational Clinical Science Lab. In the future, she hopes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology. She is interested broadly in existential psychology and specifically death beliefs/attitudes, suicide, and metascience. She is excited to be serving the SIG in this role and hopes to create a collaborative and supportive community of emerging professionals.
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See Grace's website here or email her at francesghart@gmail.com.
Rebecca Mendoza
Co-chair
Rebecca is a first-year clinical psychology PhD student at George Mason University. She is interested in studying sociocultural factors that influence disordered eating and body image disturbance, particularly in minority groups underrepresented in eating disorder research. She is passionate about supporting the career goals of student researchers and encouraging diversity in the field of psychology. She is honored to be serving the SIG as co-chair and hopes to create an inclusive and supportive community for students in the field of psychology.
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See Rebecca's website here or contact her at rmendoz9@gmu.edu.
Lauryn Hoard
Incoming Chair
Lauryn Hoard is a second-year Clinical-Community Psychology doctoral student at The George Washington University. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Spelman College in Psychology with a concentration in Mental Health. Her research focuses on examining the effects of offline and online racial discrimination on mental health outcomes and investigating protective factors for Black Americans. She has submitted and presented work at the Society for Research on Adolescence, American Psychological Association, The Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and more.
Outside of her academic work, Lauryn is the founder of asoulsticecollective, an instagram platform aimed at decolonizing higher level education and making resources more accessible for minority students. She enjoys reading and making content in her free time.
Marley Billman Miller
Opportunities Manager
Marley is a second-year clinical psychology student at Auburn University. She received her BS in psychology from Penn State in 2020 and then served as the Clinical Research Coordinator for the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine for three years. Marley is interested in exploring individual differences in the development and maintenance of disordered eating and how intersectionality may impact response to treatment.
Michelle Liu
Communications Chair
After graduating from UC Riverside with her B.S. in Biology in 2019, Michelle earned her MPH from UC San Diego, concentrating in Public Mental Health. Upon graduating from UCSD, she has worked both in the nonprofit and academic spheres, learning more about Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), digital mental health interventions (DMHIs), and Implementation Science. Michelle is currently the Intervention Methods Group (IMG) Coordinator for San Diego State University’s HealthLINK Center. Michelle’s research interests fall upon the intersection of Clinical Psychology and Public Health. She is interested in advancing health equity among adolescents in racial and ethnic minority groups (REMs), particularly Asian American adolescents, through the implementation of DMHIs. In the future, she hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology and continue to better understand the role of DMHIs in increasing the accessibility of mental health services in disenfranchised communities.
See Michelle’s website here or contact her at michelleliu0918@gmail.com.
Torsa Chattoraj
Membership Coordinator
Torsa holds an MA in Clinical Psychology and aspires to pursue a PhD in Developmental Psychology. She is presently a post-bacc research assistant working closely on topics surrounding child developmental trajectories. Her clinical experience with children at childcare institutes and rehabilitation homes strengthens her efforts towards designing scalable psychological interventions for minoritized youth. She is particularly excited to take on the role of Membership Coordinator for the SIG, hoping to extend her ideals to academia and create a space accessible to student researchers across the globe.
Leo Kalotihos
Website Chair
After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College with a Bachelor of Arts in 2024, Leo is now a post-bacc researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio where he studies youth suicide and self-harm. Generally speaking, Leo is interested in suicide risk/protective factors, social connectedness, psychophysiology methods, and novel crisis interventions. In the future, he hopes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology and continue to contribute to the field of suicidology.
See Leo’s website here or contact him at lkalotihos@gmail.com.
Rylee Lusich
Review Chair
Rylee is currently in a post-bacc position at Auburn University in the Research on Eating Disorders and Suicidality (REDS) Lab. She intends to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology, and is interested in eating disorder risk factors, specifically interoception and exercise. Outside of work, she likes to read and spend time with friends and family!
Tanvi Lakhtakia
Newsletter Manager
Tanvi Lakhtakia is a clinical psychology PhD student at the University of Virginia, working with Bethany Teachman in the Program for Anxiety, Cognition, and Treatment (PACT) lab. Originally from Hyderabad, India, she got her BA from the University of Chicago, after which she held post-baccalaureate research positions at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Division of Digital Psychiatry and Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs). She is interested in studying anxiety, depression, and suicide, in real-time and in real-world contexts, and developing real-time mental health interventions using digital technology. In her free time, she likes to bake, crochet, solve NYT puzzles, and watch women’s basketball.
FORMER TEAM MEMBERS
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Taylor Penwell
Newsletter Manager (2023)
Taylor Penwell (B.A. Ohio University) is a first-year clinical psychology doctoral student at the University of Montana. Taylor received her Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors from Ohio University in 2019 where she majored in Psychology and minored in Biological Sciences. After receiving her bachelor's degree, Taylor worked as the Clinical Research Coordinator for The Renfrew Center and then a Research Coordinator at the University of Louisville's Eating Anxiety Treatment Lab and Louisville Center for Eating Disorders. Taylor is primarily interested in transdiagnostic factors (e.g., weight stigma, emotion regulation) that predict eating disorder treatment outcomes, relapse, and remission. In her free time, Taylor enjoys spending time with her dog, Roxxi, and her cat, Iggi, reading, and cooking.
Samantha Klaver, M.S.
Technology Manager (2023)
Samantha is a Clinical Psychology doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. Her current clinical and research interests broadly include early childhood adversity and maltreatment, risk and resiliency factors, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. More specifically, Samantha is interested in investigating the many interacting environmental, biological, and psychological factors that may influence lifelong developmental trajectories within individuals exposed to early trauma and adversity. Outside of this, she is passionate about mentorship and fixing the “leaky pipeline” that stops diverse individuals from pursuing the field of clinical psychology.
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Contact Samantha at samantha.klaver@ucf.edu.
Eduardo Hernandez Mozo
Communications Manager (2024)
Eduardo Hernandez Mozo (He/Him) is an incoming first year doctoral student at the SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral program in Clinical Psychology. He graduated May 2023 from SDSU with a Bachelor's degree in Microbiology and Psychology. His research interests are broadly examining psychosocial and sociocultural determinants of physical (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes) and mental health (e.g., depression, substance use) among Latino and LGBT+ populations. After graduating, he hopes to become a professor developing culturally-tailored interventions for chronic health conditions among these populations.