I completed my PhD in Developmental Psychology at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, where I was National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Prior to graduate school, I received my B.A. in psychology from Bates College. I then spent two years as a Sara S. Sparrow Fellow in Clinical Neuroscience at the Yale Child Study Center.
I am committed to promoting equity and social justice through creating inclusive spaces and amplifying the voices of traditionally underrepresented and marginalized individuals across the lifespan. I also strive to promote neurodiversity through advancing a strength-based model about how individuals adapt to their underlying propensities and environmental circumstances, rather than the traditional deficit-based lens.
My major research interests lie in the formulation of an integrative neurobiological and developmental theory that can account for both neurotypical and neurodivergent forms of ontogenesis. As a developmental psychologist, I use the tools of cognitive neuroscience and developmental psychopathology to reveal the psychological and neurodevelopmental mechanisms of (mal)adaptation across development. My work incorporates quantitative, developmental, clinical, and neuroscience methods. Using the theoretical framework of developmental psychopathology (Cicchetti, 1984; Cicchetti & Cohen, 1995; Cicchetti & Toth 2009), my program of research addresses the following questions using multiple levels of analysis (i.e., brain, behavior, and cognition):
Establishing the (1) underlying mechanisms and (2) empirically defined structure of (mal)adaptation from a dimensional perspective (Altschuler & Krueger, 2021) improves our conceptualization of adaptation and therefore enables discovery of (3) the developmental processes involved in adaptation despite underlying cognitive or neurobiological vulnerabilities. Through uncovering the developmental and neurobiological processes that support children’s adaptation, I aim to inform efforts that promote neurodiversity and adaptation across the lifespan.
I am committed to promoting equity and social justice through creating inclusive spaces and amplifying the voices of traditionally underrepresented and marginalized individuals across the lifespan. I also strive to promote neurodiversity through advancing a strength-based model about how individuals adapt to their underlying propensities and environmental circumstances, rather than the traditional deficit-based lens.
My major research interests lie in the formulation of an integrative neurobiological and developmental theory that can account for both neurotypical and neurodivergent forms of ontogenesis. As a developmental psychologist, I use the tools of cognitive neuroscience and developmental psychopathology to reveal the psychological and neurodevelopmental mechanisms of (mal)adaptation across development. My work incorporates quantitative, developmental, clinical, and neuroscience methods. Using the theoretical framework of developmental psychopathology (Cicchetti, 1984; Cicchetti & Cohen, 1995; Cicchetti & Toth 2009), my program of research addresses the following questions using multiple levels of analysis (i.e., brain, behavior, and cognition):
- What are the mechanisms underlying the development of social cognition and self-regulation skills?
- What is the empirically defined dimensional structure of (mal)adaptation?
- What are the developmental processes contributing to compensation (i.e., adaptive behavioral presentation, despite underlying cognitive or neurobiological vulnerabilities)?
Establishing the (1) underlying mechanisms and (2) empirically defined structure of (mal)adaptation from a dimensional perspective (Altschuler & Krueger, 2021) improves our conceptualization of adaptation and therefore enables discovery of (3) the developmental processes involved in adaptation despite underlying cognitive or neurobiological vulnerabilities. Through uncovering the developmental and neurobiological processes that support children’s adaptation, I aim to inform efforts that promote neurodiversity and adaptation across the lifespan.
