Principal Investigators
Jennifer Silvers, PhD
Dr. Jennifer Silvers an Associate Professor in the Developmental and Social areas of the Psychology Department at UCLA as well as at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA, she completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. and postdoctoral training at Columbia University. Using a combination of behavioral, physiological, and neuroimaging measures, Dr. Silvers is interested in understanding how children, adolescents, and adults regulate their emotions and how other people (friends and family) may regulate our emotional experiences as well.
Tara Peris, PhD
Dr. Tara Peris is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and Associate Director for Research and Academic Affairs within the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She is the Co-Director of the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program, where her work has focused on understanding developmental trajectories of anxiety disorder, and on developing novel intervention approaches for youth who fail to respond to current treatment options. Dr. Peris is the recipient of awards from the Brain and Behavior Foundation, the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Team Members
Dr. Benjamin Rosenberg | Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Rosenberg is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NIMH T32 Biobehavioral Issues in Mental and Physical Health Program. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University in 2014 and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA in 2023. He is broadly interested in translational and clinical research to increase understanding of 1) development of anxiety, depression, and related mental health concerns, 2) mechanisms of effective treatment or prevention, and 3) behavioral, physiological, and neural correlates of these processes.
Saché Coury | Graduate Student
Saché graduated from Stanford University in 2020 where she received a B.A. in Psychology with honors with a specialization in Neuroscience. She is broadly interested in how early life stress shapes and alters neurodevelopment and increases risk for psychopathology in youth, with a special interest in neuro-inflammatory processes. Her research currently focuses on exploring neuroimmune mechanisms that may explain how exposure to early adversity increases maladaptive emotion regulation strategies that impact mental health outcomes in youth.
Isabel Enriquez | Research Coordinator
Isabel graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a B.S. in Psychobiology. Her research experience includes probabilistic learning, Pavlovian conditioning in rats, and value-directed memory. Isabel also worked with a digital therapeutic start-up before starting her position as a Research Coordinator for the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program.
Elizabeth Gaines | Research Coordinator
Elizabeth graduated from UCLA in 2021 with a degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Film and Television studies. As an undergraduate, she volunteered as a research assistant in the SAND Lab, and completed her major thesis project on reappraisal capacity in youth during COVID. As lab manager, she is responsible for coordinating and conducting each phase of the lab’s several research projects.
Helen Khaw | Research Coordinator
Helen graduated from UCLA in 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology. She volunteered as a research assistant in the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program before becoming a Research Coordinator. Helen has worked with data from a longitudinal study, randomized clinical effectiveness trial, and a partial hospitalization program.