Graduate Students
Adri Khalis (He/Him)
Adri is currently on clinical internship at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. He is interested in social interactions of youth in the digital world, such as online or through modern video games. He is also intrigued by the potential for online interventions to teach social skills. Adri’s research examines the correspondence between online and face-to-face social functioning, and the role of psychopathology such as ADHD in these patterns.
Sophie Smit (She/Her)
Sophie is a 5th year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. She is interested in parent-child interactions and parenting interventions for families of children with ADHD. Her dissertation examines interventions to support parents of children with ADHD.
Vivian Qi (She/Her)
Vivian is a 1st year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. She is interested in the role of culture and how it relates to children’s social-emotional adjustment. Her MA thesis examined cross-racial versus same-racial friendships in children, over the course of a school year.
Caroline Miller (She/Her)
Caroline is a 1st year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. Her research interests include comorbidities with ADHD and patterns of association with social skills. She is also interested in the differential diagnosis of ADHD and ASD and stigma surrounding neurodevelopmental disorders. She was born and raised in Houston, Texas, is a National Weather Service Certified Advanced Storm Spotter, and can quote pretty much all of Mamma Mia! from memory.
Vasileia Karasavva (She/Her)
Vasileia is a 2nd year MA student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. Her research interests are focused on digital interactions, especially aggressive digital interactions, like cyber aggression. Vasileia’s masters thesis is looking at bystander intervention in the context of cyber aggression. She is also passionate about technology-facilitated sexual violence: understanding who is affected by it, why some people choose to engage in it, and most importantly what are the ways we can better support those who have experienced it.
Lab Manager
Gian Hermosura (He/Him)
Gian recently completed his BA Psychology degree with a minor in Family Studies at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. Currently, he works as the lab manager for the Peer Relationships in Childhood Lab. As lab manager, he organizes lab meetings and events. He is currently coordinating a study that examines the differences between Asian Canadian and White Canadian families in perceptions of ADHD and treatment acceptability, and in treatment seeking, attainment, and satisfaction. Gian is interested in cross-cultural and justice-oriented research. In his spare time, Gian likes to go on hikes, go to the beach, and play basketball!
Research Assistants
Caitlin Ellemo (She/Her)
Caitlin recently completed her BA Psychology degree at the University of British Columbia Vancouver, and is currently an RA assisting the TeaPot study. She has previous research experience surrounding infants and attentional neuroscience but found her interest in research focusing on children. She will be attending grad school later this year for counselling psychology specializing in youth. She loves coffee, reading, and the beach!
Natalia Modzelik (She/They)
Natalia completed her BA in Psychology in 2021 with a minor in Special Education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Natalia currently works as an RA doing coding for the TeaPot study. Aside from her RA role, Natalia is the research coordinator for the Centre for Infant Cognition at UBC. In their free time, you can find them hiking, camping and reading.
Sam Pascual (She/Her)
Sam recently completed her BA Psychology degree with a minor in Health and Society at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. Currently, she works as an RA doing coding for the TeaPot study. Previously, Sam was also involved in the PRISM study, performing participant runs and data entry. In her free time, you can find her volunteering at local hospitals, including the Sibling’s Centre at BC Children’s Hospital and the Pediatric Emergency Centre at the Surrey Memorial Hospital.
Bryn Spiller-Tisserand (They/Them)
Bryn is a 5th year student completing their BA Psychology degree at the University of British Columbia. They previously worked on both the PFC+ study and PRISM study and are currently working on their directed study using the data collected during the PFC+ study. They are also the current President of the UBC Kung Fu Association and in their free time they like to play with their cats, read, and play video games.
Carling Bauer (She/Her)
Carling has been a RA in the Peer Lab for 2 years. She was an RA on the PRISM study running participants and coding, and is currently assisting Vasia with her Master’s thesis on cyberbullying. Carling is also completing a directed study on factors that may predict instances of cyberbullying. Outside of the lab, Carling can be found hiking, cooking, playing volleyball, or lounging with her dogs.
Lowell Polite (He/Him)
Lowell is a 5th year Exchange student from the University of California Irvine currently participating in the 2022-2023 UCEAP/Go Global exchange program. He is currently an RA assisting in running participants for the Perceptions of ADHD project. He has also previously completed a group research project via the UBC SEEDS program that focused on how much UBC students were willing to pay for sustainable food items in comparison to regular food items in resident dining hall menus. His interest lie in uncovering the differences between perceptions of mental illnesses and distress between parents and their children especially within an intercultural context. Some of his hobbies include being a foodie, taking nature walks, and travelling.
Khian Tan (He/Him)
Khian is a 4th year student in the BA Psychology degree at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. As an RA, the roles he is involved in include running participants in studies, coding and entering data, and translating and back-translating research documents and participants’ responses. The studies he has been involved in are PRISM and “Family Perception on Child’s ADHD”. Having graduated last term, Khian has returned to Malaysia to explore job roles relating to business development, though he does intend to pursue a Masters in Clinical Psychology later on.
Alfred Han (He/Him)
Alfred is a 4th year student in the BA Psychology program at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. Besides psychology, he also enjoys learning art history which he finds beneficial to his understanding of the human condition. Outside of school, he has a passion for fencing and motoring (held the lap record at a local go kart track for a brief while). He hopes that his cultural background can improve the cultural competency of psychological studies and services.
Cheuk Yiu Cheryl Wong (She/Her)
Cheryl is a 4th year student in the BA Psychology program at the University of British Columbia Vancouver. She is currently a research assistant in this lab and is working on her directed studies with PEBL at UBC. She is interested in bringing intersectionality into the Psychology literature. Cheryl has had experience working in a lab since high school and intents on continuing her lab work in graduate school. In her free time, you can find her swimming or jamming out to music.
Steffi Lau (She/Her)
Steffi is a 4th year student in the BA Psychology program working towards an honours in psychology and a minor in urban studies at the University of British Columbia. At the lab, she is working on the Family Perceptions of ADHD in Children study and completing her honours project with the MOSAIC study. She enjoys using her interdisciplinary background to examine the fields of psychology and education from different perspectives. In her free time, you can find her doing photography, drinking coffee and spending time in nature.
Chantelle Chin (She/Her)
Daniela Carbonell (She/Her)
Daniela is a 2nd year student in the Psychology program at UBC from Tampico, Mexico. She is currently working as an RA at the Peer Lab. This is her first time working on a research lab and is enjoying learning about the influence ADHD has on how children form peer relationships. She plans on pursuing a minor in Special Education on the road of getting a PhD in Clinical Psychology. This lab has been a new experience for her but she looks forward to engaging and learning more about the research process. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, reading and going to the beach.