Lab Members
EMOTION, HEALTH, AND PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY LAB AT YALE UNIVERSITY
Wendy Berry Mendes
LAB DIRECTOR
Dr. Mendes is the Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Her research questions sit at the intersection of social, personality, and biological psychology and primarily concern questions regarding embodiment: how emotions, thoughts, and intentions are experienced in the body and how bodily responses shape and influence thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. Some current research areas include coping with stigma and discrimination, dyadic intergroup interactions, affect contagion, mind-body relations across the life course, effects of stress on decision-making, and stress management interventions.
Yancy Y. Niu
LAB MANAGER
Yancy Niu is a postgraduate associate in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. He earned his B.S. in Clinical Psychology from UC San Diego and recently completed his M.A. in Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of suicide. He is particularly interested in (1) transdiagnostic cognitive-affective risk factors and (2) behavioral, physiological, and linguistic markers for objective assessment. In future work, Yancy aims to explore the dynamic interaction between risk factors, moving beyond reliance on single indicators, and to capture underlying cognitive and emotional processes through an interdisciplinary approach.
Yancy’s CV: Google Docs
Yoobin Park
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Yoobin Park is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, working with the Network for Emotional Well-being team. Before coming to UCSF, she completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Toronto. Her research has focused on well-being as a partnered individual (e.g., examining factors contributing to a high-quality romantic relationship) and as a single individual (e.g., examining factors contributing to a fulfilling single life). She is broadly interested in understanding processes surrounding changes in well-being and their consequences. You can learn more about her work at https://yoobinpark.weebly.com/
Yoobin’s CV: Google Docs
Maria Monroy
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Maria Monroy is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. She was previously a Ford Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She also received her B.A. from UC Berkeley as the top undergraduate in psychology— with highest honors in psychology and high distinction in general scholarship. Maria’s research covers multiple facets of emotion science, such as expression, experience, and culture. A large portion of her attention is devoted to investigating the beneficial effects of discrete positive emotions, such as awe, on stress, social connection, health, and well-being.
Maria’s CV: Google Docs
Jieni Zhou
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Jieni Zhou is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology with a concentration in Quantitative Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds a master’s degree in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University and graduated with honors and high distinction from Bryn Mawr College with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Education. Her research focuses on the intersection of positive emotions and social relationships, with a particular emphasis on co-experienced positive emotion. Her work aims to understand how co-experienced positive emotion influences mental, physical, relational, and community well-being. Additionally, her research explores ways (e.g., high-quality listening) to nurture these communal emotional experiences.
Jieni’s CV: Google Docs
Mark S. Chen
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Mark S. Chen is a Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. He received his B.Sc. in Psychology from Tsinghua University in 2017 and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University in 2024. Before joining the lab, he completed his clinical internship at Weill Cornell Medical College. His research centers on adversity, emotion regulation processes, and affective psychopathology across diverse contexts and development. In the EHP lab, he focuses on how adversity shapes physiological reactivity to emotional experiences and how to optimize emotion regulation success in the context of stigma and discrimination.
You can learn more about his work here.
Gold Okafor
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Gold Okafor is Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. She earned her PhD in Social and Personality Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. During this time, she was a Ford Predoctoral Fellow. Her work applies emotion research to investigate racial and gender disparities. In one line of research, she explores disparate judgments and interactions towards an emotional person as a function of their race, gender, and emotion. In another line of research, she examines the cultural validity of emotion regulation constructs among marginalized communities.
Paige Freeburg
GRADUATE STUDENT
Paige Freeburg is in the Social/Personality Psychology Ph.D. program at Yale University. She graduated from Baylor University in 2022 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Dance. She then worked as the lab manager for the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience at Georgetown University. Paige's research interests include autonomic specificity, interoception, and affect contagion. Her research aims to further explore mind-body connections (i.e., the way our physiology shapes and is shaped by our emotions, social experiences, and health).
Paige’s CV: Google Docs
Sienna Bland-Abramson
GRADUATE STUDENT
Sienna Bland-Abramson is a graduate student in the Social Psychology area at Yale. She graduated with the highest distinction and college honors from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. in Psychology. Before joining the EHP Lab, she worked with Dr. Naomi Eisenberger in the Social Affective Neuroscience Lab at UCLA. She is interested in examining the bidirectional biological and psychological mechanisms of stress, and aims to clarify how these mechanisms influence emotional well-being, social connection, and physical health.
Doris Chi
MPH STUDENT
Doris is an MPH student in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health. She graduated magna cum laude from Smith College in 2024 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Applied Statistics. Her research uses mixed methods to examine identity-based and stigma-related stressors among marginalized populations and how these stressors interact with social environments to drive health inequities.
Ziyu Song
LAB STAFF
Ziyu is a graduate student in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at UNH. She has a strong interest in the interrelationships between emotion and physical health, as well as sleep, creativity, and transformational experiences. She hopes to work with like-minded individuals in the future to achieve academic aspirations and contribute to a greater degree of fairness starting from shaping or reshaping people's cognition. Additionally, she is a hamster lover and a philosophy enthusiast. Her interest in academia arises from its ability to influence the core and nature of "things" to a greater extent.
Gelber Lemus
LAB STAFF
Gelber Lemus has a BA in Psychology, with a strong interest in neuropsychology and social psychology. His thesis focused on advancing the study of marijuana by specifically exploring the potential risks and benefits through the lens of Hebbian theory (neuroplasticity). Outside of academics, Gelber has a background in varsity/professional soccer and enjoys learning random facts about animals and human anatomy.
Emily Hettinger
THESIS STUDENT
Emily is a sophomore in Pierson College, originally from Torrance, California (just outside of LA). Emily is studying cognitive science and is passionate about prison abolition and other social justice work. She love dogs (especially her chihuahua mix, Callie), running, and oatly soft serve.
Vanessa Anaya
THESIS STUDENT
Vanessa is a second year at Yale and she is majoring in Psychology with a certificate in Spanish. She hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology one day in hopes of practicing and conducting her own research. She is originally from Esparto, CA which is a small town in NorCal.
Janina Rothenberger
THESIS STUDENT
Janina is a junior at Yale majoring in psychology. She is particularly interested in how aging influences risk perception and risk taking and how these changes affect decision-making processes and interpersonal dynamics. Beyond psychology, Janina enjoys playing field hockey, making jewelry and reading.
Regina Obnial
THESIS STUDENT
Regina, a junior from Port Orchard, WA, in Davenport College, is majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience. Her research interests focus on social psychology and neurobiology, particularly how stress impacts cognitive and physical health. At Yale, she is an active member of the Naval ROTC unit, serves as the captain of the Women's Water Polo Club, and leads as a FOOT (First-year Outdoor Orientation Trip) leader.
Caroline Fai
THESIS STUDENT
Caroline is a senior in Saybrook College, originally from Newton, Massachusetts. She is majoring in Cognitive Science, with a certificate in Data Science. Her previous research was in neuroimmune responses, coping, and noradrenergic mechanisms during acute stress. She is interested in learning more about physiological synchrony among dyads or groups during shared experiences and emotion regulation. Outside of lab, Caroline enjoys singing (with Doox of Yale a cappella), spending time outside, playing board/card games, and reading.