We are an interdisciplinary team of scientists

We use the tools of social cognition, physiology, and neuroscience to understand how people experience emotions in their own bodies, see them in others, and how these processes contribute to social behavior, well-being, and health across the lifespan.


Current Lab Members

Lab Director

Kristen Lindquist, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Director of the Carolina Affective Science Lab at at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Lindquist received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Boston College and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative prior to joining the faculty at UNC.

As of July 2025, Dr. Lindquist will join the faculty of Psychology at The Ohio State University as the Dale K. and Robert J. Weary Chair of Social Psychology.

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Postdoctoral fellows

 

Adrienne Bonar, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab. She received her PhD from the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She studies how variation in body states and neural networks underlying emotion shape emotional experiences across the lifespan (i.e., adolescence to late adulthood). She is also interested in how sociocultural beliefs and structural inequities influence the experience of emotion. To explore these questions, Adrienne uses methods from affective neuroscience, psychophysiology, psychoneuroimmunology, and social psychology.

 

Dr. Angelica Carranza, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development at UC Davis before coming to UNC. Dr. Carranza is interested in studying individual differences in the social and affective neural mechanisms of mental health and wellness during adolescence. 


Graduate students

 

Yuritza Escalante, B.S., is a rising second year Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University. She is interested in how variability in daily affective experience relates to variability in neural network connectivity. Yuritza’s graduate training is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Yuritza is the lab Science Outreach Coordinator.

 
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Mallory Feldman, M.A., is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina. Her work examines how social others scaffold basic psychophysiological processes underlying emotional experience and embodied aspects of mind. Mallory’s graduate training is supported by a National Institutes of Health Pre-doctoral National Research Service Award (NRSA).

 

Jingyi Luo, M.A., is a rising second year Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University. She is interested in the role of interoception and body states in emotion across the lifespan.

 

Ruofan Ma, MA., is a PhD Candidate and clinical intern at The Ohio State University. She takes a lifespan approach to understanding how interoception contributes to individuals' perception of the self and others. In turn, she is interested in how self and other representation influences social decision-making processes and mental health outcomes involved in complex psychopathology. Ruofan’s graduate training has been supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Doctoral Foreign Study Award (DFSA), a PEO International Scholarship, and the John Daniel Searcy Fellowship from the North Carolina Psychological Association.

 

Michelle Shipkova, M.A., is a rising fourth year Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina. She is interested in how individual differences in representations of body states and concept knowledge contribute to the development of emotion and are impacted by early life experiences. Michelle’s graduate training is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

 

Gretchen Wulfekuhle, B.A., is a rising second year Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina. She is interested in how neural networks supporting emotions and social behavior change across the adult lifespan and loneliness. Gretchen’s graduate training is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.


staff

 

Yueping (Chris) Gu, B.S. graduated from the Washington University in St. Louis and will join the lab in Fall ‘25 as a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University.

 

Keegan Whitacre, B.S. graduated from the University of Florida and will join the lab in Fall ‘25 as a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University.

 

Meet the entire affiliated research staff on our UNC SUPERBrain Project


Undergraduate Research Assistants

Anna Beddingfield

Dujana Buheis

Dianne Celemen

Shiwon Chang

Grace Chow

Melissa Craig

Shreya Donthireddi

Elizabeth Esterov

Jennifer Fan

Mia Foglesong

Nikia Friday

Samantha Goode

Tianyu Gu

Emma Kitchens

Casey Lin

Dhruvi Patel

Keyan Lin

Hayden Rutkowski

Grace Solie

Nina Song

Cecelia Tucker

Mariam Wabha


alumni

Former graduate students and postdocs

 

Gabriella Alvarez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh

 
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C. Daryl Cameron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University

 

Junqiang (Jacob) Dai, PhD., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University

 
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Cameron Doyle, Ph.D., Quantitative UX Researcher, Meta Platforms Inc.

 

Jessica S. Flannery, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia

 

Natalie Frye, Ph.D., Behavioral Scientist

 
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Kent Lee, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University

 

Joseph Leshin, PhD., Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University

 
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Jennifer MacCormack, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia

 
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

 

Joshua Jackson, PhD., Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral Science, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

 

Elise Rice, Ph.D., Program Officer, Division of Behavioral and Social Research, National Institute on Aging

 
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Holly Shablack, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Washington and Lee University

 

Former Undergraduate and post-bacc Research assistants

Sarah Albani, PhD Student, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University

Aya Avishai, PhD., Quantitative UX Researcher, Meta Platforms, Inc.

Conrad Baldner, PhD., Assistant Professor, Sapienza University of Rome

Juan Bellassai, M.A.

Adrienne Bonar, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Ohio State University

Jeffrey Brooks, PhD., Research Scientist, Hume AI

Maleah “MJ” Carter, PhD student, Carnegie Mellon University

Mary Cox, PhD student, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis

Cameron Doyle, Ph.D., Quantitative UX Researcher, Meta Platforms, Inc.

Srishti Goel, PhD student, Department of Psychology, Yale University

Adelaide Harper, Senior Research Study Coordinator, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University

Anika Khan, PhD, Clinical Postdoctoral Fellow, Pediatric Anxiety and Treatment Center at Hall-Mercer, University of Pennsylvania

Jingyi Luo, MA, PhD student, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Courtney Medina, PhD student, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh

Jared Scruggs, Ph.D., Postdoctoral fellow, Emory University Goizueta Business School

Maria Sobrino, PhD student, Department of Psychology, CUNY

Andrea Stein, PhD student, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin

Natasha Vernooij, PhD, Quantitative Cognitive Researcher

Justin Wahlers, PhD student, Department of Psychology, University of Alabama