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
POSTGRADUATE ASSOCIATE
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
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.
Benjamin Gelbart
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Ben Gelbart is an evolutionary social psychologist and Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Psychology and the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University. He received his PhD in evolutionary psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2025. In his research, he seeks to understand the underlying cognitive architecture of romantic jealousy, including the algorithms governing its activation, the behaviors which it is associated, and the other emotions, if any, to which it is connected. More broadly, he is interested in understanding the origins of emotions as discrete adaptations or emergent psychological constructions. In his research on these topics, Ben makes use of a wide variety of methods, including large-scale cross-cultural surveys, computational modeling, and in-vivo lab manipulations of emotion.
Doron Atias
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Doron is a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. His research focuses on the social value of human vocalizations. Particularly, he is interested in how the human voice communicates emotion, how emotional vocalizations regulate social behavior, and what motivates people to engage with (or disengage from) others' emotional expressions. Doron received his PhD in Psychology and MA in Clinical Neuropsychology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he worked under the supervision of Prof. Hillel Aviezer. At Yale, he is part of the Affective Science and Culture Lab, led by Dr. Maria Gendron, and is an enthusiastic collaborator with Prof. Wendy Berry Mendes and the Emotion, Health, and Psychopathology Lab.
Paige Freeburg
GRADUATE STUDENT
Paige Freeburg is a Social/Personality Psychology PhD student in the EHPL at Yale University. She graduated summa cum laude from Baylor University in 2022 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Dance. Paige studies the role of the body in emotion: that is, whether emotions produce unique physiological responses (autonomic nervous system specificity) and our awareness of bodily sensations during emotions (interoception). She also studies the way social contexts shape our emotions and physiology (affect contagion).
Paige’s CV: Google Docs
Sienna Bland-Abramson
GRADUATE STUDENT
Sienna Bland-Abramson is a graduate student in the Social Psychology doctoral program at Yale University. She graduated with highest distinction and college honors from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a B.A. in Psychology. Her research examines how affective and physiological processes interact in close romantic relationships at both the individual and dyadic levels, with a focus on their implications for emotional well-being, social connection, and physical health.
Doris Chi
GRADUATE STUDENT
Doris Chi is an incoming first-year graduate student in the lab. She received an MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Yale University and a BA in Psychology and Statistics from Smith College. Her research interests focus on how social stress influences psychophysiology and relationship processes. Her past work has examined identity, stigma, and their health implications. She is interested in applying quantitative/computational methods to her future work.
Doris's CV: Google Docs
Emily Hettinger
THESIS STUDENT
Emily is a senior 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 senior 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 senior 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 senior 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.