Biographies

Maya Metser (she/her) | Editor-in-Chief | mm9188@nyu.edu

Maya is a senior in the Applied Psychology program. She is currently pursuing an Honors thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Natalie H. Brito at the ISLAND Lab, where she is exploring the effects of mother-infant heart rate synchrony on infant attention outcomes. In the past, she was an advocate for the ROSES research team and a research assistant at the SCAN Lab, a fetal neuroimaging lab. Moving forward, she hopes to bridge her passion for neuroscience, education, and juvenile justice reform to make early environments better support positive development. Lastly, Maya hosts a podcast called Psych Mic that explores the lives and career paths of industry leaders who use psychology to make an impact in the world. Psych Mic highlights psychology’s versatile applications and provides practical advice about opportunities in the field.

Katie Mundt (she/her) | Editor-in-Chief | kvm256@nyu.edu

Katie is a fall graduate of 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, which evaluated the effectiveness of a smoke-free policy in NYC public housing developments. Currently, she works as a research assistant for the RISE lab and has helped develop a grant-awarded research proposal for the Social Perception Action & Motivation (SPAM) lab, which examined how the media’s portrayal of the COVID-19 pandemic impacts perception and subsequent behavior. After graduation, she hopes to continue working in public health and policy research, eventually seeking a Masters in Public Health.

Olivia Russo (she/her) | Editor-in-Chief | op496@nyu.edu

Olivia is a senior 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 is currently a research assistant on Dr. Yoshikawa’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance Research Consortium (GSARC), where she is involved on two smaller projects as well, the Principal Interview Study, exploring school principals’ experiences with the LGBTQIA+ community, and the Dissemination Efforts team, creating resources for high-school GSAs based on previous GSARC research. Olivia plans to pursue a Master’s in Mental Health and Counseling, with a specialization in working with sexual and gender minority populations, upon graduation.

Julia Leschi (she/her) | Contributing Writer | jel623@nyu.edu

Julia is a senior in the Applied Psychology program with a minor in Public Health. She is interested in applying a psychological lens to public health and policy issues. In the past, she worked as a clinical assistant at a substance use clinic in Midtown Manhattan. She is currently working as the Assistant Director of Research at the Empower Lab where she studies sugar dating practices on college campuses, and the health needs of human trafficking survivors. In the future, she hopes to put her research skills in service of policy reform and community work before continuing her education.

Abby Rusnak (she/her) | Contributing Writer | alr606@nyu.edu

Abby Rusnak is a senior in the Applied Psychology program with a double minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies and Studio Art. She is interested in working with children and adolescents in clinical settings. In the past she has worked at several social skills summer camps for children with ADHD and other behavioral and disruptive disorders. She was also a research assistant at NYU’s lab for Strengthening the Architecture for High Quality Universal Pre-K, which partners with the NYC Department of Education to improve the quality of Pre-K across New York City. Currently, Abby is a Program Assistant at The Child Mind Institute where she works one-to-one with children who have selective mutism and ADHD disorders. Her work at The Child Mind Institute has encouraged her to seek a PsyD in clinical psychology in the future.

Ancelma Vazquez (she/her) | Contributing Writer | avm365@nyu.edu

Ancelma is a senior in the Applied Psychology program. Throughout her undergraduate career, Ancelma has been a data collector for ROSES at the RISE Lab at NYU, as well as, a research assistant at the BELLE Project at NYU Langone. Currently, she is a research assistant at SMART Beginnings, where she explores cross-linguistic variation among monolingual and bilingual children. In the future, she hopes to continue exploring the inequities facing low-income children and families in predominantly Latinx communities, before continuing her education in social policy and intervention.

Grace Park (she/her) | Layout and Design Director | hjp332@nyu.edu

Grace is a junior in Applied Psychology minoring in Nutrition and Dietetics. She is interested in raising awareness of mental health in minority communities and hopes to help such populations by providing culturally competent care. Grace will be working as a research assistant for The Listening Project which aims to train middle school students and their teachers in a semi-structured method of interviewing with the goal of enhancing listening skills, empathy, trust, academic engagement and achievement as well as disrupting stereotypes and building relationships across difference. Grace ultimately hopes to complete her masters at NYU for Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness

Sydney Liang (she/her) | Layout and Design Director | syl569@nyu.edu

Sydney is a junior in the Applied Psychology program with a minor in Media, Culture, and Communication. She is currently a research assistant at the Play and Language Lab, which examines how children interact with their environment as well as how social and cultural factors influence children’s development. Previously, she was a volunteer at L-FELD, where she provided assistance in an elementary school classroom. In addition to delving into her interest in developmental psychology, she is also involved in exploring opportunities pertaining to industrial-organizational psychology and the nonprofit sector. She plans on continuing to experience various paths which highlight the intersection between psychology and other fields before pursuing higher education.

Chloe Carlson (she/her) | Layout and Design Director | cec747@nyu.edu

Chloe is a sophomore in Applied Psychology with a strong interest in the effects of media on the mind. While pursuing a minor in Media, Culture, and Communication, she hopes to assist in the creation of more psychology related media in order to raise mental health awareness and educate others