Iliad Nazari

Iliad is a third-year undergraduate student in Linguistics and Developmental Psychology. He is very interested in Central Asian languages, phonetics, language acquisition, and the psycholinguistics of multilingualism. He has started working in the Early Language and Experience Lab in Spring 2023.

Naomi Glunz-Kennedy

Naomi is a junior undergraduate student majoring in Psychology (B.A.) with a concentration in Community and Global Health at Macalester College. As of Summer 2023, she began working in the Early Language and Experience Lab.

Erika Deangelis

Erika is a fourth-year graduate student at the Institute of Child Development. She is broadly interested in social cognitive development. More specifically, she studies how children understand and use testimony to learn from others. She is also interested in the development of children’s social biases and prejudice. She grew up in upstate New York and graduated from Amherst College in May 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish.

Norwood Glaspie

Norwood is a third-year graduate student at the Institute of Child Development. His interest encompasses topics such as Cognitive Development, Social Cognition, and Early Learning in children. Specifically, the role language plays in children’s understanding of social categories and concepts. Norwood is from North Carolina, where he received his Bachelors in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2018.

Carol Messias

Carol is a Ph.D. student at Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar) in Brazil. She was a visiting researcher at the ELEL in 2020-2021 and continues collaborating with the lab. She is interested in social cognitive development. Specifically, she is investigating the effects of gender and body type on children’s selective trust. Carol is Brazilian and also got her bachelor’s degree in psychology at UFSCar.

Isaac Bisla

Isaac is a third-year graduate student at the Institute of Child Development. His primary interests include topics such as Cognitive Development, Social Cognition, Selective Trust, and Suggestibility to Misinformation. Specifically, he is interested in how selective trust plays a role in children’s ability to resist misleading suggestions. As well as the role individual differences such as executive functioning, theory of mind, vocabulary knowledge, and SES background might play. Isaac is from California, where he received his Bachelors in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 2020. 

Diqi Zeng

Diqi (pronunciation: Dee-chi) is a second-year graduate student at the Institute of Child Development. She is interested in speech sound development and children’s learning preference towards speaker of various acoustic features. Diqi is originally from Hunan, China and raised in Guangdong, China. She received her B.S. in Geography and Psychology from University of Cincinnati in the U.S., her B.E. in Hydrology and Water Resource Engineering from Sun Yet-san University in China, and her M.A. in Social Science from University of Chicago.

Yeonju Suh

Yeonju is a second-year doctoral student on the developmental science track at ICD. She graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Psychology in 2020 and worked as a lab manager for Dr. Tamar Kushnir before coming to ICD. As a first-year student, Yeonju is actively exploring her academic interests, but she is broadly interested in children’s intergroup social cognition. Specifically, she wants to know how children perceive social groups, how group membership relates to self-identity, and how children learn of stereotypes. In the ELE Lab, Yeonju is working on a project that looks into how children learn of stereotypes.

Muzi Chen

Muzi is a graduate student majoring in Early Childhood Education. She is excited to learn more about the rationale and process of the research and interact with children of different ages. She has been working with the Early Language and Experience lab since the Spring of 2023.

Maggie Brown

Maggie is a senior undergraduate student majoring in Developmental Psychology (B.S). As of Fall 2023, she has started working as an RA in the Early Language and Experience Lab.

Alyssa Gahr

Alyssa is a senior undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies with a focus on the Arabic language. She’s excited to explore the ways in which socialization during early childhood can contribute to the replication of prejudicial attitudes intergenerationally and to understand more about the development of autonomy and critical thinking skills in children. She joined the ELE lab in Fall 2023.

Houaci Lor

Houaci is a senior undergraduate student majoring in Developmental Psychology (B.S.) with a double minor in Art and Psychology. She is excited to learn more about the resilience of language and communication as well as enjoys creating arts and crafts with kids. As of Summer 2023, she has started working as an RA for the Early Language and Experience Lab.

Vanina Lyfoung

Vanina is a senior undergraduate student majoring in Psychology (B.A.). She is excited to work with children and learn more about the fundamentals of research. As of Fall 2023, she has started working as an RA for the Early Language and Experience Lab.

Abbie Jordan

Abbie is a junior undergraduate student double majoring in Developmental Psychology (B.S) and Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences. As of Fall 2023, she has started working as an RA in the Early Language and Experience Lab.

Natalie Worzalla

Natalie is a junior undergraduate student majoring in Psychology (B.A.) with a minor in Developmental Psychology. She is excited to learn more about the interworking’s of research studies and to work with and interact with children. She is especially interested in forensic and clinical psychology in adolescents and young adults. As of Summer 2023, she has started working as an RA for the Early Language and Experience Lab.

Natalia JaHnke

Natalia is a sophomore undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota majoring in Psychology (B.A.) with minors in Developmental Psychology and Family Social Sciences. She has been working with the Early Language and Experience lab since the Summer of 2023.

Rose Kindred

Rose is a sophomore undergraduate student majoring in Developmental Psychology (B.A.) with a double minor in Integrative Neuroscience and French Studies. She is excited to learn more about children’s group socialization and work with children in the lab. As of Fall 2023, she has started working as an RA for the Early Language and Experience Lab.

Rose is currently studying abroad!

Cynthia Ghannoum

Cynthia is a freshman undergraduate student majoring in Psychology (B.S.) and minoring in music. She is excited to learn and apply knowledge within her field to research. Her interests in psychology are specifically in child development and medicine. As of Fall 2023, she has been working as an RA at the ELE lab.

Natalie Warnke

Natalie is a freshman undergraduate student majoring in Psychology (B.A.) with a minor in Developmental Psychology. She started working as an RA at the Early Language and Experience lab in the fall of 2023.

Charisse Pickron

Dr. Pickron earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 2018 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in Amherst Ma., after having earned her M.S. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2015 and her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Ma., in 2008. Her research program examines the ways in which social experiences shape how infants perceive and represent people in their environment. During her graduate training under the advisement of Dr. Lisa Scott, she used electrophysiological and eye-tracking measures to explore infants’ face perception. During her dissertation research with Dr. Erik Cheries, she trained in several behavioral measures including infant looking, reaching, and crawling to examine socio-moral judgements and conceptual representations that infants have about people in their environment. In particular her work examines the way early experiences shape the perceptions and representations of people that vary along race and gender. Her work as a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow will use multiple methodologies to measure face processing and social cognitive development. Additionally, her goal is to actively work with families of diverse backgrounds to build a collaborative bridge between communities in the Minneapolis area and her work in child development.