Biographies

Oana Groza | Editor-in-Chief | oana.groza@nyu.edu

Oana Groza is a senior majoring in Applied Psychology and Global Public Health. With a vested interest in public health, she has taken on several roles during her undergraduate career to further her interest in the field. During her sophomore year, she joined the Public Health Policy team in the College of Global Public Health. As a research assistant she assisted on projects that identify and investigate nutrition-related campaigns and advertisements to provide policymakers and organizations with empirically supported guidance to improve public health. She is also a part of HealthCorps—a nonprofit aimed to provide school-based health education and outreach to children and adolescents—as a Monitoring & Evaluation intern, where she assists with developing and implementing various wellness initiatives. Oana is interested in improving children’s well-being and health outcomes on a global level, by implementing sustainable programs and interventions to support parents and communities. In the near future, she plans to get her Masters in Public Health, but in the meantime she will be working for the USDA National Hunger Clearinghouse as a Communications Coordinator.

Andrew Han | Editor-in-Chief | han.andrew@nyu.edu

Andrew Han is a senior majoring in Applied Psychology and Global Public Health with a minor in Sociology. Throughout his undergraduate career, Andrew has engaged in several research experiences, including the RISE (Researching Inequity in Society) Team and beELL Lab. Currently, he is a research assistant for the Play and Language Lab, where he codes and analyzes naturalistic video data on how culture, children’s social partners, and features of families’ home environments impact infant learning and development. Under the mentorship of Dr. Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, Andrew conducted an honors thesis examining the influence of sounds in the home environment on Latine mother-infant language outcomes. In addition, he is an Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions in the Silver School of Social Work. Andrew hopes to join a career path that achieves social change by supporting children and their families and incorporates the intersection of education, research and policy. He intends to pursue a PhD in Counseling, School or Educational Psychology. His research interests include strengths-based exploration of culturally-competent practices and education among youth in urban environments.

Chloe Carlson | Layout and Design Director | cec747@nyu.edu

Chloe is a freshman in Applied Psychology with a strong interest in the effects of media on the mind. She hopes to minor in Media, Culture, Communication and continue generating more psychology related media in order to further raise mental health awareness and educate others.

Sydney Liang | Layout and Design Director | syl569@nyu.edu

Sydney is a sophomore in the Applied Psychology program with a minor in Media, Culture, and Communication. She spent this past semester as a Human Resources intern at the Shangri-La while studying abroad in Australia, and has previously volunteered in various organizations pertaining to children’s development and social justice. Sydney plans on exploring the field of research while also seeking further opportunities related to industrial-organizational psychology.

Grace Park | Layout and Design Director | hjp332@nyu.edu

Grace is a sophomore in Applied Psychology minoring in Nutrition. She is interested in raising awareness of mental health in the Asian American community and hopes to one day help individuals in minority populations by providing culturally competent care. Grace hopes to complete her masters at NYU for Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness.

Freya Chen | Communications Director | yc3244@nyu.edu

Freya is a sophomore in Applied Psychology and double majoring in Economics. She’s been highly involved with local charity organizations in helping children in poverty in underdeveloped areas in China. She also volunteered in supporting education in rural areas. She has high enthusiasm in speaking for the underreported groups and caring for their mental health. She’s currently looking for research in areas related to women’s mental health.

Sarah Khullar | Contributing Writer | sk6570@nyu.edu

Sarah is a senior majoring in Applied Psychology, with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. In the past, Sarah has worked for Dr. Javdani’s lab as an advocate for ROSES, completing three advocacy interventions with at-risk youth. Her cultural background as Indian-Palestinian has led her to explore beliefs and attitudes towards mental health in the Middle Eastern region, in addition to research on refugee populations. She is also interested in prison reform, juvenile justice in the United States, and how gender and race affect incarceration. Sarah hopes to continue working with refugee and incarcerated populations, hopefully continuing her education in social policy and intervention.

Olivia Matthes Theriault | Contributing Writer | omt228@nyu.edu

Olivia is a graduating senior in the Applied Psychology department on the Pre-health track. She has spent the past three years on ROSES, a strengths-based advocacy program for girls with system involvement in NYC. During her time on the team, she has served as an advocate, peer supervisor, and research assistant. Olivia is also a research assistant in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital. Olivia hopes to continue to explore her interest in research postgrad, and to eventually attend medical school.

Kasane Tonegawa | Contributing Writer | kvt219@nyu.edu

Kasane is a graduating senior in Applied Psychology with minors in Italian Studies and Sociology. She is passionate about activism and social justice, especially in the areas of mental health stigma and access to mental health coverage. Kasane has been using her experience working as a Resident Assistant at Carlyle Court and as a Research Assistant at the Suzuki Lab in order to better understand how to work with people and how to re-conceptualize mental illnesses to reduce stigma. Kasane hopes to work in public policy and strives to use her passion for social justice to influence her work.

Maggie Zhang | Contributing Writer | mz1491@nyu.edu

Maggie is a senior studying Applied Psychology. Since her sophomore year, she has been a research assistant at the ISLAND Lab, an infant neurocognitive lab interested in how social and language environments impact early infant development. She has enjoyed the process of collecting data and building relationships with participants, including parents and infants. Maggie is interested in studying the bi-directionality of parent-child interactions both behaviorally and physiologically, which she has explored in her honors thesis. In the future, Maggie aspires to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and hopes to bridge together clinical practice and research.

Will Olesiewicz | Staff Writer | mjo229@nyu.edu

Will is a senior in their final semester in the Applied Psychology program, with a minor in French. Previously, Will has worked as a teaching assistant at various schools in the NYC area, such as the Brooklyn Free School and GO Project. Among many interests, they are passionate about alternative education programs, adolescent mental-health, and advocating for the removal of socio-economic barriers to quality education. Further, Will is an amateur musician who spends their free-time composing music and posting it on the internet. After graduation, Will plans to take a gap-year working at a no-kill animal shelter before pursuing grad school.

Olivia Pagliaro | Editor-in-Training | op496@nyu.edu

Olivia is a junior in the Applied Psychology program, double majoring in Gender & Sexuality Studies. She is passionate about bridging psychology and gender & sexuality, evident by her research interests and experience. She previously worked on the Transgender Identity Formation Study research team her sophomore year, and now works on Dr. Yoshikawa’s research team with the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (Gay-Straight Alliance) Study. Olivia will be interning at Girls Inc. Summer 2020, and will also be an Inside Scoop Mentor during her upcoming senior year. She plans to pursue a Master’s in Mental Health and Counseling upon graduation.

Maya Metser| Editor-in-Training | maya.metser@nyu.edu

Maya is a junior in the Applied Psychology program. She is currently working as a research assistant at the ISLAND Lab, where she explores the impact of early environments on infant neurodevelopment. In the past, she was an advocate for the ROSES research team, where she completed two interventions with adolescent girls. She was also a research assistant at the SCAN Lab, a fetal neuroimaging lab, where she pursued a personal project on the effects of prenatal maternal stress on fetal brain development. Moving forward, she hopes to bridge her passion for neuroscience, education reform, and juvenile justice reform to make early environments better support positive development.

Katie Mundt| Editor-in-Training | kvm256@nyu.edu

Katie is a junior in the Global Public Health/Applied Psychology program. She is interested in improving community health through a psychological lens, applying the skills and theories from psychology to health research and policy reform. She worked at NYU Langone on the Smoke-Free Housing Project, evaluating the effectiveness of a smoke-free policy in NYC public housing developments. Currently, she works as a research assistant for RISE, and has helped develop a research proposal for the Social Perception Action & Motivation (SPAM) lab, which will be carried out Fall 2020. After graduation, she hopes to continue working in public health research, eventually seeking a Masters in Public Health.

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