The Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Laboratory
Harvard Medical School | Brigham and Women's Hospital
Meet the Team
Cindy H. Liu, PhD
Principal Investigator
Cindy H. Liu, Ph.D. is currently an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her areas of investigation include the measurement and mechanisms of psychosocial stress, cultural differences in socio-emotional development, and developmental and culturally based interventions that reduce mental health disparities. She received her degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Oregon. After completing her clinical internship at McLean Hospital, following a postdoctoral fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital, she served as the Director of Multicultural Research at the Commonwealth Research Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for six years prior to her current position as the Director of the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Program within Pediatric Newborn Medicine and Psychiatry at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Full-Time Research Assistants
Anthony Menor, BA
Graduate Research Assistant
Anthony earned his B.A. in Political Science with minors in Global Studies and Film from the University of California, Los Angeles. Drawing from personal experiences and a background in mental health counseling and community development, Anthony strives to do community-engaged research on child adversity and mental health outcomes in marginalized populations. Before joining the DRCR lab, he worked as a research assistant investigating social determinants of health in Harvard University's Department of Psychology and in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Through research, he hopes to work with communities to inform culturally sensitive interventions addressing family trauma and promoting resilience.
Wenbo Zhang, MA
Graduate Research Assistant
Wenbo received his BA and in Psychology and Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern University and his MA in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to joining the lab, Wenbo was working as a research assistant at Dr. Christine Cha’s Lab for Clinical and Developmental Studies, studying suicidal ideations and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors among adolescents. He was also working as a research assistant at pediatric Behavioral Health Integration Program and as a project coordinator at Dr. Beatrice Beebe’s Communication Science lab. He is interested in developing culturally-adapted, cost-effective, and scalable interventions for Chinese and Chinese American adolescents who are at risk of mental health disorders, and he wishes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology to further investigate culturally-adapted evidence-based treatment for the population.
Postdoctoral Fellows
G. Alice Woolverton, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
G. Alice Woolverton earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Suffolk University and her BA in English from Amherst College. She completed her predoctoral clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital working with children and adolescents. As a scholar, Alice is focused on reducing and preventing the high costs of racism on youths’ mental wellbeing; her current work evaluates a caregiver-child antiracism program for white families. She is also interested in unpacking promotors of youth psychological health during periods of stress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. She has particular expertise using qualitative and mixed research methods.
Jenny Zhao, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Chang (Jenny) Zhao is a developmental scientist with a PhD in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University and a BA in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University. She conducts culturally and contextually informed research within ethnically and racially minoritized communities. Her current work focuses on how families' ecologies (e.g., neighborhoods and activity spaces) shape family processes, parental mental health, and youth development in U.S. Latinx families. She is dedicated to expanding her research on ethnic-racial socialization and mental health in Asian American families.
Psychiatrists
Natalie Feldman, MD
Attending Psychiatrist
Natalie Feldman, M.D., is a BWH Women's Mental Health Fellow who received an HMS Dupont Warren to study perinatal anxiety. Originally from Northern California, she completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and medical school training at the University of Chicago. Her interests include women's mental health as well as digital mental health. She is a Leadership Fellow through the APA/APAF Leadership Fellowship, as well as a Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Fellow. Natalie co-writes a monthly advice column on digital psychiatry for the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. She plans to pursue a fellowship in Women's Mental Health.
Katharine Brieger, MD, PhD
Psychiatry Fellow
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Katharine Brieger, M.D., Ph.D. is a PGY-2 Psychiatry Resident on the Research Track at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She completed her degrees at the University of Michigan Medical School and School of Public Health, where her research in epidemiology focused on gene-environment interactions relevant to neurodevelopment and on modifiable behaviors impacting women’s health. With the DRCR lab, she plans to work with the CARES data to explore the relationships between physical and mental health behaviors in young adults. Ultimately, she plans to pursue a career as both a researcher and clinical psychiatrist.
Amanda Koire, MD, PhD
Attending Psychiatrist
Amanda Koire, M.D., Ph.D. is a PGY-3 Research Track Psychiatry resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She received her degrees from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where she completed a Ph.D. in Quantitative and Computational Biosciences. She is a co-founder of the National Reproductive Psychiatry Trainee Interest Group (www.repropsychtrainees.com) and has published research on perinatal mental health in the Archives of Women’s Mental health and BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. Amanda plans to pursue a career as a perinatal psychiatrist and researcher.
Graduate Research Assistants
Sherry (Kexin) Huang, BA
Graduate Research Assistant
Sherry (Kexin) Huang is a MS student in psychiatric epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She was born and raised in Wuhan, China, and received her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a neuroscience concentration from Grinnell College. Before joining Harvard Chan and the lab, she was a clinical research coordinator at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, working with children who were born preterm. Her research interests include mental health, resilience, and developmental outcomes among children and youth from underserved communities in different cultural contexts. She is passionate about maternal and child mental health and plans to pursue a PhD in psychology/social behavioral sciences.
Annika Liu, MA
Graduate Research Assistant
Annika Liu is the Behavioral Lab Coordinator at the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin. She earned a B.A. in Psychology and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College and an M.A. in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. Her research interests include persuasion, personality, and happiness/well-being. She is currently building her research portfolio and preparing to apply to Ph.D. programs in the next one to two years.
Fabiola Silletti,PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Fabiola Silletti is a PhD candidate in Human Relations Sciences, Psychology: Cognitive, Emotional, and Communicative Processes at the University of Bari Aldo Moro (Italy), where she earned an M.S. in Clinical Psychology. As a scholar, she is interested in the developmental processes contributing to risk or resilience across societies and over the lifespan. Her current research at the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Laboratory examines the effects of COVID-19 on women during the perinatal period (i.e., pregnancy and postpartum) and their infants in terms of stress, resilience, well-being, and social support.
Michel Sfeir, MS
Graduate Research Assistant
Michel holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Lausanne University in Switzerland. He is in his last year of PhD at the University of Mons, Belgium with the Excellence of Science (EOS) scholarship sponsored by the FWO-FNRS foundation which aims at studying the transmission of resilience within families. His thesis focuses on triadic biobehavioral synchrony to better understand how stress shapes family interactions with a special focus on attachment and resilience.
Michel’s collaboration with the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience Laboratory focuses on the PEACE data by exploring parent-child interactions and synchrony.
In addition to his research interest, Michel completed several clinical training such as: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialecticla Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Trauma Focused Therapy. His activity also expands into several volunteering position in NGO’s in Lebanon and Switzerland.
Chelsie Wong, EdM
Graduate Research Assistant
Chelsie holds an Ed.M. in Human Development and is currently pursuing a Certificate of Advanced Study in School Counseling at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is completing her practicum at Somerville High School, supporting college- and career-readiness and contributing to mental-health initiatives focused on prevention, early identification, and referral pathways.
Chelsie’s practice is trauma-informed and culturally responsive, centering family–school–community partnerships. Her interests include the intersecting identities of immigrant families, ecosystem supports that help students thrive, and the global dimensions of mental health, especially how diagnostic processes influence access to compassionate, evidence-informed care. She has worked with youth across school and community settings in the U.S. and internationally and is passionate about reducing barriers to services, strengthening protective factors, and translating research into everyday counseling practice.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Felix M. Lou
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Felix Lou is currently a sophomore at Vanderbilt University studying Medicine, Health, and Society and Asian American Studies. He is interested in learning about and researching the interplay of culture, identity development, and belonging to contextualize youth mental health disparities. Felix is also a research assistant at a Vanderbilt lab developing a program to increase connectedness between LGBTQ+ youth and their parents.
Yutian Li
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Yutian Li is an undergraduate at Harvard College, studying Cognitive Neuroscience with a minor in Government. She is passionate about mental health access and cultural appropriate care for the AAPI community. At Harvard, Yutian is a peer counselor, helping students with mental health concerns through non-directive, confidential dialogue. Outside of school, she is a racial justice public speaker who has spoken at MA state house, Boston Children’s, MIT, and more to advocate for policy supporting marginalized youths. Yutian hopes to pursue a MD-MPH degree in the future to advance mental health access.
Ava D. Qiu
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ava Qiu is a first year student at Wellesley College. She cares about advocacy, especially involving AAPI communities, having organized workshops and cultural events in her town. In her free time, she enjoys reading, doodling, and expanding her musical discography.
Angela Chen
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Angela Chen is a sophomore attending Northeastern University, studying Health Science and Data Science on a Pre-PA track. In her free time, Angela enjoys going on walks, hanging out with friends, and going out to dinner. She is passionate about the topic of Asian American identity and broader DEI initiatives.
High School Volunteer Research Asssitant
Alice Tseng
High School Volunteer Research Assistant
Alice is currently a senior at Stuyvesant High School. She is passionate about how individuals' mindsets are shaped by their lived experience and breaking the stigma surrounding mental health in Asian communities. She actively engages with young children in both her church and local community and seeks to understand how mental health can be affected at a young age and develop strategies to foster emotional well-being. She hopes to continue this field of study in college and continue to be involved in research efforts revolving around addressing mental health disparities within the Asian-Americans community.
William Xuan
High School Volunteer Research Assistant
William Xuan is a senior at Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Inspired by his Asian American heritage and rich musical background, William aspires to study the experiences of vulnerable populations in the community around him, and how these unique experiences influence these populations' mental and psychological health. Prior to joining The Development Risk and Cultural Resilience Laboratory, William has worked at Professor Jennifer Green's Laboratory at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, investigating how mindfulness, civic engagement, and college readiness programs impact the mental health of METCO adolescents. He has also conducted independent research on how the making of music through an instrument benefits the resilience of Chinese adolescents. Through exploration and research, he seeks to emphasize the significance of heritage and culture in the adolescent experience, and discover innovative methods to improve the mental health of adolescents.
Lab Alumni
Chloe Bancel
Monica Bennett
Maddie Bradley
Isabel Brown
Ivo Cerda
Maya Chan
Andrew Chang
Shou En Chen
Katrina Chen
Zishu Chen
Janey Chiang
Dorothy Chyung
Emma Clark
Rachel Conrad
Callie Ding
Abdelrahman ElTohamy
Yuxin (Megan) Fu
Noah Garberg
Irene Gonsalvez
Maria Henriksen
Alice Hibara
Yuan Hu
Yu-Tien Hsu
Sunah Hyun
Shweta Iyer
Qingyu Jiang
Amie Kang
Sabrina "Sarah" Kazi
Sennür Khoso
Yutung Lan
Karen Lang
Piper Larkin
Scott Lee
Jason Li
Yinan Liang
Ava Lu
Candice Ma
Anjeli Macaranas
Melissa Morgan
Vi Nguyen
Ema Noonan
Chidinaobim (Dinobi) Nwodo
Ani Ouligan
Jenny Phan
Natasha Ramanayake
Ritika Rastogi
Sarah Rocha
Liana De La Rosa
Leah Sarver
Lydia Smith
Brittney Sy
Gabriela Taslitsky
Jessica Wang
Vivian Wang
Pei Wang
Finneas Wong
Sylvie Wong
Maxwell Workman
Emily Wu
Ge Xu
Andrea Yessaillian
Jobi Yeung
Meirong You
Li Wei Kyle Yuan
Emily Zhang
Michael Zhang
Hannah Zwiebel