Students

 Carolina Goncalves

Carolina Goncalves

Carolina is a MA/PhD student in the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. She received her BA in Psychology and English literature from Knox College in 2016. Upon graduating, she worked as a research assistant at Boston University’s Center for Behavioral Science Research on a study focused on improving the health and wellbeing of children from underprivileged backgrounds. As a doctoral research assistant at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, she will work on the LEAP project. She’s interested in researching the role that cultural identity plays in influencing the development and mental health outcomes of immigrant youth living in the U.S. 

Alexa Hasse

Alexa Hasse

Alexa is a Ph.D. student in the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Boston College, an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, and an M.A. in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. 
Prior to this position, she served as the Director of Education on the Berkman Klein Center’s Youth and Media team. On the team, Alexa focused on areas such as the skills youth need to succeed in our increasingly digital world; the ways youth engage with and are impacted by emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence; and the design of educational tools about the digital landscape. 
As a doctoral research assistant at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, she will primarily be working on the SoLD MMDC project. More broadly, Alexa is interested in how to assess and support socio-emotional skills, such as empathy, to promote positive youth development.

Natasha Keces

Natasha Keces

Natasha is a MA/PhD student in the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. She received her BA in Psychobiology and Applied Developmental Psychology from University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. While in school, Natasha worked at the Fanselow Lab to study the neural correlates of emotion learning and at the UCLA Infant Development Program to conduct a case study documenting a child’s social cognitive and social emotional development. Upon graduating, she worked as an elementary school teacher that specialized in academically and social-emotionally supporting children struggling in core classes. As a doctoral research assistant at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, she will work on the SoLD: MMDC project. She’s interested in researching the process in which children’s social and emotional development such as executive functioning and self-regulation is related to educational outcomes.

Margaret (Margy) Mackin

Margaret (Margy) Mackin

Margy is a Ph.D. student in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. She received her BA in Psychology from Wheaton College (MA) in 2019. While in undergrad, she worked in the Laboratory for Research and Prevention of Interpersonal Violence at Rhode Island Hospital to evaluate a social norms-based curricula aimed at reducing student problem behaviors. Upon graduating, she worked as a research assistant and project coordinator at the Center for Social Development and Education at UMass Boston, exploring avenues for social and emotional development in inclusive extracurricular programming. As a doctoral research assistant at IARYD, Margy is interested in researching the impact of out-of-school time settings on youth social and emotional development.  

Kirsten Olander

Kirsten Olander

Kirsten is a MA/PhD student in the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2017. While in school, Kirsten worked at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress studying mass violence events through a qualitative lens; the Families Over Coming Under Stress-Early Childhood Lab focused on the impact of strength-based prevention strategies to effectively mitigate the impact of stress and promote resilience; led the evaluation of a mental health education intervention as a research fellow for the RAND Corporation. Further, Kirsten spent the summer before her senior year working in psychiatric hospitals and children’s centers in Sri Lanka for SLV.Global (a global mental health nonprofit organization). Upon graduation, Kirsten volunteered in children’s hospitals and youth education centers in Bolivia through Fundacion Bolivia Digna (a grass-roots non-profit organization). After returning to the United States, Kirsten worked at Age of Learning, Inc (a global education technology company) for almost four years conducting domestic and international (e.g., China, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica) program evaluation research focusing on effective educational technology use within children, parents, and educators. As a doctoral research assistant at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, she will work on The Thanda Study of Character and Health & The Compassion International Study of Positive Youth Development. Kirsten is interested in conducting research that can be translated into effective programs which will foster positive youth development and resilience in diverse children, families, and communities within low- and middle-income countries.

 Shayari Peiris

Shayari Peiris

Shayari is a master’s student in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. She received her BA in Psychology and Philosophy from Wake Forest University in 2021. While at Wake Forest, Shayari worked as a research assistant for the Program for Leadership and Character, the Emotional Adaptation and Psychophysiology lab (Waugh), the Growth Initiative lab (Jayawickreme), and the Cole lab. As a master’s research assistant at IARYD, Shayari works on the SoLD: MMDC project. Her research interests include exploring risk and resilience factors for developmental psychopathology, youth socio-emotional development (especially in stressful environments), parent-child relationships, and the diathesis-stress model for mental health outcomes.