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.
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.
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
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
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
Kent Lee, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University
Joseph Leshin, PhD., Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University
Jennifer MacCormack, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia
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
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
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