Sarah Watamura is the director of the CHaD lab. She has recently joined the faculty at DU, after training with Dr. Megan Gunnar at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development and receiving her Ph.D. from the Department of Human Development at Cornell University. She has long-standing interests in children’s physiologic regulation, their development within care giving contexts, and relations between physiologic regulation and developing cognitive and social-emotional capacities. She has recently expanded her work to include the unique stressors and buffers that may be important for physiologic stress among families experiencing poverty and among newcomer Mexican-origin families.
E-mail: swatamura@psy.du.edu

Lisa Badanes is currently in her fifth year of the DU developmental psychology Ph.D. program. In her masters thesis she examined the impact of attachment classification and self-monitoring on different outcomes of the self including self-worth, authenticity, and self-concept. For her dissertation project, Lisa plans to extend her research on attachment by examining whether goodness-of-fit between the child and his or her care giving environments are important for physiologic stress reactivity. This work will be funded in part by a Child Care Research Scholars grant through the Administration for Children and Families.
E-mail:lbadanes@du.edu

Cara is a first year graduate student at DU in the Developmental Ph.D. program. Cara is interested in stress reaction and stress coping in children, specifically how temperament relates to a child's reaction to stress. Cara will be working on a first year project looking at fearful temperaments and how their stress and relevant cortisol levels are influenced by a caregiver's interactions and possible factors that may contribute to buffering elevated cortisol levels.
E-mail: cara.miller@du.edu

Irena Pikovsky is a first year graduate student in the developmental psychology program. She recently graduated from the University of California, San Diego, where she wrote her thesis in a cognitive electrophysiology laboratory. Her current research interests include the role of attachment, and the effects of intervention, on cortisol levels in pre-schoolers. Additionally, she is very interested in both genetic and environmental sources of resiliency in young children.
E-mail: ipikovsk@du.edu

My name is Hadley Anderson and am currently in my senior year here at the University if Denver with a double major in Psychology and Biology along with a minor in Leadership Studies. I was born and raised here in Colorado, just outside of Boulder. I am currently working on my honors thesis looking at sleep behavior as it relates to attention and concentration. Kathy Dasher is co-owner of this project as well and we will both present this project as our honors thesis this coming spring. My future short term goal includes applying/becoming certified to be a Child Life Specialist and work with pediatrics in a hospital setting. My long term goal consists of applying to a clinical PhD program to eventually work with children with Down syndrome. This lab experience has helped to shape my future goals and career path and has complemented my education very nicely.

Kathy Dascher is a fourth year student at the University of Denver. I am working towards a biology and psychology major with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience and also a leadership studies minor. I am currently co-partnering with Hadley Anderson for our Senior Honors Theses. This project investigates sleep-wake behaviors, stress, attention, and cognition among a sample of children with identified sleep disturbances. I am interested in a career as a Physician Assistant.

Lea Gentry is a senior at the University of Denver. She is majoring in biology and psychology with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience. Originally from Austin, TX, she enjoys live music and good Mexican food. Lea has worked in the CHaD lab for two years and hopes to become part of the PsyD program at DU following graduation.

Kim Hutchinson is a fourth year student at the University of Denver, and a Colorado native. She's majoring in psychology with a diversity of additional studies, including minors in molecular biology, English and Japanese. If not in class or the psychology lab, she can usually be found in DU's theater. After DU, she plans on going to grad school for psychology and eventually working clinically with children, but in exactly what capacity she's not yet sure.

Hannah is a third year student at the University of Denver with a major in Psychology and a minor in Communications. She is from Colorado and has always been interested in Psychology. During the summer she worked on Sarah’s last research project in the lab through PINS (Partners in Scholarship). She is interested in going into Sports Psychology for graduate school.

New to the Lab, biography coming soon.

New to the Lab, biography coming soon.

New to the Lab, biography coming soon.

New to the Lab, biography coming soon.