Past & Current Research Assistants

Andrea is currently an undergraduate at the University of New Brunswick working toward completing an honours degree in psychology, minor in sociology and a certificate in family violence intervention. She has a previous BA with a major in psychology and a minor in history from St. Thomas University. She joined the Child and Teen Studies Lab in January 2022 and feels this is an unexpected opportunity that will not go to waste. Andrea hopes to be accepted into UNB’s clinical psychology graduate program to earn a PhD. She would like to work with individuals (especially military and first responders) who suffer with PTSD. In her spare time she can be found foraging for wild edibles (lobster mushrooms are her fav!), tending her veggie garden, reading or enjoying her watercolors.

Amy graduated from the University of British Columbia in May 2023 with a BSc in Combined Chemical Biology. She has been working with Dr. Cameron in the Child and Teen Studies Lab since the fall of 2019 and now coordinates the Academic Integrity study. Currently, she is also involved in the Boy’s Navigation of Romantic Relationships, Girl’s Friendships, and Day In The Life studies. The work she does in the lab has been a huge support in her development as a researcher and fuels her passion for psychology. In the future, she will implement the teamwork, writing, and analytical skills she gained in the lab while pursuing an MSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Angel graduated from UBC in May 2023, and received a Bachelors’ degree in Psychology with a minor in Family Studies. She loves working with children, and she spent the past summers volunteering for an organization dedicated to alleviating mental health concerns of families during the COVID-19 pandemic. As an aspiring clinical psychologist, she is excited to learn about data collection and analyses for research in the Child and Teen Studies Lab. In her free time, she loves to explore coffee shops and binge watch television shows!

Anjali joined the Child and Teens Studies Lab as a 4th year undergraduate student taking PSYC 240. She is an international student from Darjeeling, India. She just graduated from UBC with a major in Psychology. She has worked with the team on various abstracts and conference posters. They collect data for the Integrity Project and have also done coding for the Truth and Trust Project. She is interested in cross-cultural data collection and analysis. Anjali hopes to earn a doctorate in Child Psychology and pursue their dream of bringing change to the world through academia.

Christy is a postgraduate at University College London in the Division of Psychiatry, undertaking a MSc in Clinical Mental Health Sciences. Prior to this, she graduated from the University of Durham in the UK with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology; her dissertation explored the impacts of zero-sum love beliefs on romantic relationship perceptions and decisions following infidelity. Since her involvement in Dr. Cameron’s lab as a Mitacs Globalink Research Intern at UBC, she has continued to stay in the lab and is excited about being able to engage in multiple research projects across a range of topics. Outside of the lab, she is a keen dancer, choreographer and linguist, and particularly loves to teach dance to little kids!

Elizabeth graduated from the University of New Brunswick in 2017, with honours, and received a Bachelors’ degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. Her honours thesis focused on the differential treatment and discrimination faced by female firefighters in Canada. She started in the Child Studies Lab as a research assistant in the Fall of 2016 and is now helping Dr. Cameron manage the Child Studies Lab at UNB. Over the past four years She has been involved in almost every study in the Child Studies Lab. Right now, she is focusing on a Girls’ Friendships study, Truth & Trust, and Academic Integrity studies. She is planning to continue graduate education, focusing on Forensic Psychology and policy change.

Emily is studying a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and working remotely with the lab on the Girls’ Friendships and Day in the Life projects. A personal highlight of her time with the lab was her visit to Vancouver in winter 2022, which gave her the opportunity to spend time with the lab and to be involved in a Day in the Life study. During research, she enjoys seeing the similarities between participants and the children she works with as a preschool educator/therapy assistant. Emily would love to one day work as a child clinical psychologist, as well as continuing a career in research.

Karin is a behavioral Neuroscience student at the University of British Columbia. She is interested in a variety of topics related to development and bilingualism. She is currently doing direct studies under Dr. Cameron’s supervision on emergence of literacy in a first-grade student while adhering to physical distancing measures. She is very interested in cognitive development and therefore really excited to be working on this project. Following graduation, Karin would like to further her education and earn a PhD in developmental clinical psychology and then practice as a child psychologist.

Jessica Song is an incoming undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Sciences. Having joined the team in March 2020, she has been with the lab since Grade 10. She is involved with graphic design and development of the lab Facebook page, entering data for the Academic Integrity project, and being a part of the Girls’ Friendships research team. Her time in the lab has been surrounded by wonderful people, fascinating projects, and meaningful discussions! Jessica is grateful and ecstatic to be a part of the lab, and hopes to pursue higher education in clinical psychology or neuroscience in the future. In her free time, Jessica loves swimming, visiting used bookstores, and singing karaoke with friends.

Kaitlyn graduated from the University of New Brunswick in May 2022, having completed a concurrent BSc in Biology and BA with Honours in Psychology, specialising in Neuroscience. She will be continuing her studies at UNB in the Experimental Psychology PhD program. Kaitlyn joined the lab in the Fall of 2020 as a Work-Study student and has since completed her Honours project under Dr Cameron’s supervision. She has contributed to the Academic Integrity project, the study of Girl’s Friendships, and the Transition to University paper. In her free time, Kaitlyn enjoys reading, spending time outdoors, and visiting local coffee shops in the city of Fredericton.

Maria is a passionate psychology undergraduate at UBC and an aspiring therapist with a strong desire for working in public health and helping others. She joined the lab in the spring of 2022 and is currently involved in the lab’s ongoing integrity project. Maria’s previous experience includes conducting research with the Community-Based Research Centre as part of the Investigators group looking at the relationship between LGBTQ+ patients and their healthcare providers, with the end goal of creating a resource for practitioners to refer to when working with LGBTQ+ patients. She has also volunteered at a student-run mental health organization facilitating workshops for grade 7 students and as an Equity and Inclusion Officer for the UBC Arts Undergraduate Society. In her spare time, you can find Maria biking, beachcombing, and trying bubble tea around Vancouver.

Leo is a fourth-year psychology major at UBC who graduates in November, 2022. He has been in the lab for three years and takes interest in works associated with adolescents’ perceptions of gender norms and children’s rule-breaking behaviour. Aspiring to pursue a career in school psychology in the future, he will be applying to graduate degree programs in school psychology at various locations in late 2022. In his free time, Leo enjoys watching horror movies and gaming with friends.

Morgan graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a B.Sc. majoring in Biology and a B.A. (Hons) in Psychology. She is in the Experimental Psychology MA/PhD Program at the University of New Brunswick. She feels fortunate to have been with Dr. Cameron’s Child Studies Lab for three years and counting! She has enjoyed working on the following Child Studies Lab projects: Verbal Deception, Truth and Trust, Boys’ Navigational Processes of Romantic Relationships, Asian Masculinities, and Confidence in Communications. For fun, she loves to dance and is currently taking four classes per week.

Shawn graduated with a B.Sc. in Honours Behavioural Neuroscience from UBC in 2023. He joined the lab in the summer of 2021 and has worked on a variety of topics in the lab; as part of the honours program at UBC, he has also written two undergraduate theses, focusing on Truth and Trust and the Integrity Project. His fascination with how people interact has fuelled his interest in psychology. His time in the lab has especially helped develop his statistical knowledge through data analyses in R. He is excited to begin his journey as a graduate student at the University of Waterloo pursuing an MA in Social Psychology in the upcoming school year!

Shuai Shao earned a B.S. in Psychology from Beijing Normal University in 2017 and an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2018. He began working in the Child Study Lab as a Mitacs Globalink student during the summer of 2016, participating in Verbal Deception, Coping Strategies, and other projects. Shuai is especially interested in cross-cultural comparisons of moral development between Chinese and Canadian teenagers. He started his doctoral studies at UC San Diego in September 2019.

Tanisha is an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia working toward her degree in Psychology. She is an aspiring therapist with a strong passion for dynamic fields that revolve around meaningful interactions– counseling, event planning, and human resources. She loves working with children, which inspired her to apply to be a part of this motivated team back in 2022. In the lab, Tanisha has been involved with the Academic Integrity project, and data transcription for the Girls’ Friendships study. She is extremely grateful to be a part of the Child and Teen Studies lab and learn through the experiences of Dr. Cameron and other team members!

Yannie is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Hong Kong. Currently studying psychology, she has the privilege to join Dr. Cameron’s lab as a Mitacs Globalink student. Her involvement in the lab started in early 2023 whilst she has collaborated with other lab members in different projects. With great interest in children, teen, and parenting, she is planning to continue graduate education in related areas.

Vanessa is a Ph.D. student in Information Studies with a specialization in the design of human-centred interactive technologies at UBC. Her research explores ways of improving web-based information searching for elementary school children using an ecological approach. She believes that children have unique ways of perceiving and approaching information searching. After reading about some studies using the method “A Day in the Life”, she decided that the DITL would give her a foundation to explore a child’s information searching world. Since April/2020, she volunteered and worked closely with Dr. Cameron and other talented researchers at the Child Study Lab. Besides being a proud cat mama, she is a novice rower at the Vancouver Rowing Club.

Yingxi is a recent UBC graduate with a BA major in Psychology and minor in Speech Science. She is particularly interested in cross-cultural studies and joined the lab in January 2019. She has been involved with several projects, including Verbal Deception, Integrity, and Asian Masculinity projects. During her time in the lab, she really enjoyed her time working with various children and teenagers. Since this is the first lab Yingxi joined in her undergrad studies, she learned a lot about academic research and teamwork. Her experience in the lab has become an indelible memory of her undergraduate life. Inspired by her minor, she is hoping to pursue a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology and become a Speech-Language Pathologist in the future. Beyond school, she enjoys cooking and traveling.

Evokee is a third-year student majoring in psychology, minoring in finance and Korean at the University of Hong Kong. Evokee has been working in Child Study Lab as a Mitacs Globalink internship student since the summer of 2022. She mainly gets involved in moral development of children with diverse cultural backgrounds and adolescent girls’ friendships. Evokee is interested in cognitive and moral development of children, especially topics related to cultural differences, peer relationships, and sustained attention. She joined the lab to get better sense of working with young children, coping strategies, and data analysis, which can definitely benefit her academia path. Beyond school, Evokee enjoys reading detective fictions and listening to others’ stories.

Alessandra earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina and has a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of São Paulo, both in Brazil. She has finished her master’s thesis under Dr. Cameron and Dr. Laurie Ford’s supervision in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at the University of British Columbia (Canada). She started her collaboration in the Child Study Lab as a Mitacs Globalink summer intern in 2015. Her research interests are the processes of resilience among young children who thrive despite adversity. She is also interested in prevention science.

Anna Stanzel has graduated in B.Sc. Psychology at Leipzig University in Germany. She went to the US in her third year for a semester abroad to immerse her interest in Health and Positive Psychology and deepen her knowledge of Developmental Psychology. She says she is extremely grateful that she had the possibility to engage in child and adolescent research as a Mitacs Globalink Research Intern at UBC following her semester abroad. She is keen on exploring what factors contribute to healthy development. She is now enrolled in a Master’s Program in Psychology at Leipzig University and plans on pursuing her interests in Positive Psychology. Besides her studies, she loves to exercise to stay healthy, go rock climbing and hiking.

Ara is currently doing a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health in Miami, Florida. She works as a preschool teacher and she hopes to keep working with children. Once she finishes her Master’s, she plans to earn a PhD in Child Psychology. On her days off, she enjoys doing yoga, writing, and watching her favorite shows.

Claire graduated with a B.Sc. in Behavioural Neuroscience from UBC in 2018. She was born into a mixed-Asian household and attended a German international school in Singapore. Coming from such a diverse cultural background, she was drawn to Dr. Cameron’s cross-cultural work with adolescents. Being a part of this lab has given her invaluable insight and experience in the research process. Claire, with a great love for films and plays, took a gap year to work in the technical and design field in the film and theatre world. Back from her break, she is currently working in a research project on campus sexual assault interventions with a group of researchers from National University of Singapore. Claire aspires to pursue a medical degree in the future with the hope of contributing meaningfully in other people’s lives.

Dana graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Master of Arts degree in School Psychology. She held a position in the Child Study lab throughout her studies at UBC, where she also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. During her time in the lab, she contributed to studies of thriving children in the transition to kindergarten, including investigations of agency and communion as aspects of thriving and in children’s play. Her research contributions also included studies of teens’ dating relationships, with a particular focus on the role of gender norms in adolescent boys’ relationship navigation for her thesis study. Dana is currently working as a school psychologist and has particular interests in social-emotional learning, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and children and youth with complex developmental behavioural conditions.

Emma Yao is a graduating high-school student at University Hill Secondary School in Vancouver. Since the summer of 2019, she has been a volunteer in the Child Study Lab. Psychology has always been a fascinating area of exploration and a subject of her interest. Participation in the lab has sparked her interest in pursuing a career in social and psychological research. Even though she had learned different research methods prior to participating in the Lab, having the privilege to be involved in the process of studies is still an eye-opening experience. Over the years, she has participated in various lab projects exploring intimate relationships, gender differences, theory of mind, etc. and has been involved in many conference presentations.

Harleen graduated from the University of British Columbia in May 2020 with a BSc in Behavioural Neuroscience. She has worked with Dr. Cameron since the fall of 2017 and has been involved with several projects, including the cross-cultural work on verbal deception and adolescents’ stress responses and coping strategies. She feels that the lab has provided her with many opportunities to help collect data, analyze results, present posters, and work on publications. The Child Study Lab is like family and she has made lasting connections with her colleagues there. She hopes to attend graduate school for clinical psychology so that she can become a child-clinical psychologist.

Jesse completed the Psychology Honours program at UBC, and he is currently a graduate student in Special Education. He grew up in Hong Kong and moved to Canada for his high school and post-secondary education. His research interest lies in cultural differences in children development due to his bicultural identity. It is also his passion to support families with children with special needs coming from diverse cultural backgrounds. In his free time, he enjoys running and playing music with friends.

Jessica is a Child Study Lab alumna with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UBCO and Bachelor of Social Work from UBC; she now works in child and youth engagement with a Delegated Aboriginal Agency. Jessica first joined the lab as a Work Learn student in 2017 at the beginning of her BSW, and continues to connect with research being done in the lab and with current and former lab members. During her time in the lab, Jessica engaged with many projects including: Verbal Deception, A Day in the Life, Truth & Trust, Stress & Coping, Boys’ Navigation of Romantic Relationships, and Indigenous Education. She also engaged in research within the School of Social Work regarding experiences in Residential Schools and Culturally-Engaged Caregiving in the Child Welfare system. Being a part of the lab allowed Jessica to attend multiple conferences and speaking engagements, including the UBC Student Leadership Conference, the National Collegiate Research Conference at Harvard, and the annual Canadian Psychological Association conference. Jessica is passionate about Indigenous rights and sovereignty, harm reduction, holistic health and wellness, decolonizing and Indigenizing academia, and youth engagement/amplifying youth voices.

Katja M. Pollak is a graduate psychology student at the University of Ulm in Germany and she started working in Dr. Cameron’s Child Study Lab as a Mitacs research intern in summer 2018. She is interested in various research topics related to developmental psychology, biological psychology as well as sport and exercise psychology, especially responses to sports injuries. She likes to keep in touch with lab members and is still involved in lab projects.

Neringa is a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program of Social Work and Psychology at UBC. Her research interests focus on resilience among racialized young people in Vancouver. She is a clinical social worker at Vancouver Coastal Health. Neringa was involved with the UBC Child Study Lab working on the Day in the Life projects with kindergarten children and older adults in Canada and Lithuania.

During his time in the lab, Saman had the opportunity to be involved in many different projects. He attended numerous national and international conferences to present the work done at the lab. He is currently a medical student at UBC and is working on putting the finishing touches on a manuscript alongside Dr. Cameron and Dr. McKay regarding the cortisol stress reactivity of adolescents. While school keeps him busy, he still finds himself coming back to the lab. He finds opportunities to catch up at the delicious Bowen Brunches, with the wonderful people who made his time in undergraduate studies so memorable and special.

Serena is currently a PhD candidate in Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, studying under Dr. Robbin Gibb. Her research examines the effects of maternal preconception experience on offspring development. Specifically, she is investigating how maternal chronic exposure to alcohol or nicotine prior to conception impacts offspring development. She is also questioning if positive experiences, such as sobriety and complex environments, can mitigate the effects of drug use. She worked with Dr. Cameron for nearly three years during her Undergraduate degree studies at the University of New Brunswick, where she worked with Anne Hunt to collect data with two kindergarten children and an older adult as part of the Day in the Life project. Her hobbies include knitting, baking, and reading non-fiction, especially the works of Richard Dawkins.

Winni completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Master of Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia where I graduated in 2017. She currently works as an Occupational Therapist in the areas of pediatrics and community therapy. Her involvement in this lab began in early 2013 while pursuing her undergraduate degree in Psychology, and she has had the privilege of collaborating with other members of this lab in a variety of projects including the Verbal Deception, a Day in the Life, and the Boys’ and Girls’ Adolescent Relationships projects. She has a passion for working with children and has acquired 14 years of experience working with children as a swimming instructor, Sunday school teacher, summer camp counsellor, behaviour interventionist, and now, an Occupational Therapist.

Ye-Von graduated from UBC with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Health & Society. She initially joined the lab as a directed studies thesis student working with Dr. Cameron on Truth and Trust, but soon realized that she wanted to stay longer to work on more projects with all the wonderful team members and Dr. Cameron. Since then, she has worked on projects focused on verbal deception and coping strategies. After completing her undergraduate degree, she began working as a research assistant/coordinator at Oak Tree Clinic, a multidisciplinary clinic providing specialized clinical care for women and children living with HIV/AIDS. Since recognizing the complex challenges prevalent in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) through her work, she focused her time and interest in volunteering with advocacy groups and organizations addressing the needs of the DTES community. She is eager to complete nursing studies at the University of Toronto, so that she can pursue a career in healthcare in hopes of providing low-barrier, on-demand care through outreach medical services.