Lab Members
Dr. Gabriel Schlomer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, Division of Educational Psychology and Methodology and Director of the PAD Lab. My background is in evolutionary developmental psychology and I use life history theory to frame most of my evo-devo work. My research in this area has largely consisted of examining the relations between early developmental adversity and pubertal timing and reproductive behaviors. I have increasingly incorporated genomic information into this research, examining genetic and epigenetic contributions to these associations. In addition, I also have an active research program examining how mothering and fathering are related to change in adolescent aggressive behavior problems and how differences in reports of these constructs impact research findings and conclusions. I have always had an interest in methodology and have published papers on missing data and genetically informed designs. I am currently developing research that critically examines asymmetries in how genetic and environmental constructs are conceptualized and measured in developmental psychology.
Qi Sun received her Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Education at the Nantong University in China and is currently a third-year doctoral student in Educational Psychology and Methodology at the State University of New York, Albany. Within the PAD Lab, Qi is working on a meta-analysis of growth modeling studies of adolescent aggressive behavior problems with the goal of synthesizing slope coefficients across studies and examining reporter differences (e.g. parent vs. adolescent report). To this end, she is also working on a paper to develop reporting standards for growth model results that will make published findings more amenable to meta-analysis.
Lab Alumni
Christopher Reddy is a full-time high school science instructor (molecular genetics, neuroscience). Chris’ research interests stem from his career as an educator and include the developmental origins of wellness, disease, cognition, and behavior. Further, he is interested in the biological mechanisms connecting childhood experiences with detrimental outcomes later in life (i.e., how do early experiences “get under the skin?”). Lastly, Chris is interested in the epigenetic underpinnings that seem to tie all the above together. In other words: Is the mechanism linking early childhood experiences with detrimental outcomes epigenetic? He defended his dissertation in 2022 investigating Epigenetic Age as a potential mediator of the relationship between indicators of poverty and an external locus of control in children. With his work in both the PAD Lab and science classroom, Chris is loving his role as a research practitioner.
Dr. Panpan Yang received her PhD in Educational Psychology and Methodology at the University at Albany, SUNY in 2021 and is currently a Research Specialist in the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Her research interests are focused on 1) preschoolers and adolescent development and parenting and 2) quantitative methods including mulitlevel modeling in single-case experimental designs, growth modeling, and structural equation modeling.
Dr. Jessica Murray received her PhD in Educational Psychology and Methodology at the University at Albany, SUNY in 2021 and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Colgate. Her research interests include the growing area of intersectionality between evolutionary developmental psychology and educational psychology. Specifically, she is interested in how research done in the Evo Devo field can inform classroom practices at the K-12 level. She is also interested in psychometrics and survey creation and implementation. Her teaching interests include developmental courses and courses with a focus on pedagogy, but she truly loves teaching and welcome the chance to teach anything and everything that comes her way.
Dr. Hyun-Jin Cho received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Methodology at the University at Albany, SUNY in 2020. Her dissertation focused on GxE interactions between parents-adolescent relationships and genetic influence on selected sexual risk behaviors among adolescents. Her current research interests focus on adolescents' risk behaviors and GxE studies that examine how genes modify the influences of environmental factors on risk behaviors.