People in the Lab

Eswen Fava

Eswen is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Developmental Psychology program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Eswen graduated from University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) in May 2004 with her B.S. in Psychology. She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Texas A&M University (College Station, TX), working with Heather Bortfeld and Rachel Hull. In addition, Eswen spent 1 year in fMRI researcher, Michael Beauchamp's lab prior to completing her Ph.D. Eswen will be working in Dr. Lisa Scott’s Brain, Cognition and Development Lab as a full-time Postdoc. She is interested in studying infant audiovisual speech perception and the mechanisms involved in perceptual narrowing. In her free time, Eswen likes cooking and watching British panel shows.

Hillary Hadley

Hillary is a second year Ph.D. student in the Developmental Psychology program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Hillary graduated from University of Louisville (Louisville, KY) in May 2010 with her B.A. in psychology with Honors. Hillary is working in Dr. Lisa Scott’s Brain, Cognition and Development Lab as a full time graduate student. She is interested in the role of experience in face processing in infants. In her free time, Hillary likes cooking and watching baseball.

Charisse Pickron

Charisse graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2008 with her B.A. in Psychology and a self designed minor in Race and Racial Identity Development. In 2010 Charisse joined the Brain, Cognition, and Development Lab as a Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate intern. This internship is to support underrepresented students in the biomedical field as they pursue graduate school. After completing her internship, Charisse decided to stay with the BCD lab and will pursue her Ph.D in developmental psychology. In her spare time, Charisse enjoys traveling, learning Latin dances, playing (and watching) sports and spending time with friends and family.

Melodi Buyukozer

Cassie Desjardins

Cassie is a senior at UMass Amherst majoring in Psychology with a focus in Neuroscience. She is also working towards a German Studies minor. Cassie will be graduating in the spring and plans to continue her education with a neuroscience Ph.D program focused on Autism research. She works part-time on campus at the UMass Amherst Annual Fund. In her free time she enjoys hiking and rock climbing.

Maeve Moore

Maeve is a senior Psychology/Neuroscience major. Outside of the lab, she is a TA for Honors Neuroendocrinology and is interested in the hormonal basis of human and animal behaviors, particularly parental behaviors. Maeve hopes to one day attend graduate school and pursue a career in the medical research field. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga and watching reality TV.

Sarah McCormick

Sarah is a junior Psychology/Neuroscience major. She plans to graduate in the Spring of 2013, and continue her studies in a neuroscience graduate program. She is particularly interested in abnormal psychology and behavioral neuroscience. Outside of the lab, Sarah is a proud member of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band and of the co-ed national honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi. She works part-time at the Amherst Big Y super market, and enjoys reading, playing her flute, and watching TV in her spare time.