Members

Krista Lisdahl, PhD

medinak@uwm.edu

Dr. Lisdahl (formerly Medina) serves as the Director of the UWM Brain Imaging and Neuropsychology (BraIN) laboratory. She completed a Clinical Neuropsychology Internship at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, as well as a NIDA-funded two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of California, San Diego under the mentorship of Susan F. Tapert. Dr. Lisdahl's main specialization is in clinical neuropsychology, addiction, adolescent brain development, and neuroimaging. At UWM, she teaches courses in Neuropsychology, Brain Development, Assessment, Psychopathology, and Drugs & Behavior/ Psychopharmacology.

Recent Honors:

2013: Received a UW-Milwaukee Graduate School/Foundation Research Award.
November 2012: Named a Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and invited to attend the Japanese-American Kavli Fronteirs of Science Symposium.
July 2012: Received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama and the National Institute of Health (NIH).
2011: Received the NIDA Division of Clinical Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Behavioral and Brain Development 2011 Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Megan Kangiser

kangiser@uwm.edu

Megan is a 4th year doctoral student at UWM studying clinical neuropsychology. She graduated from Creighton University in 2015 with a B.A. in Psychology. Megan’s current research interests include examining the effects of substance use, particularly alcohol and nicotine use, on cognitive functioning and brain structure in young adults. She is also interested in understanding the influence of gender and the underlying mechanisms of these effects.
Megan is currently an advanced practicum student in neuropsychology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and aims to become a board certified clinical neuropsychologist.

Kyle Jennette

jennette3@uwm.edu

Kyle is a 5th year Ph.D. student studying clinical neuropsychology at UWM. He earned his B.A. in Psychology from Flagler College, and M.A. in Gerontology from the University of South Florida (USF). While completing his Master’s, he worked as a board certified psychometrist for the USF College of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals. He then took a position as lead clinical research coordinator for Emory University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, where he also supervised and trained neuropsychology technicians.
Kyle’s current research interests focus on the influence of aerobic fitness on functional connectivity in the brain and subsequent effects on cognition, especially executive function, learning, and memory. He is also interested in neuropsychological test development and novel applications of common assessments to better predict risk for, and course of, cognitive function and impairment across the lifespan. Kyle is currently an advanced neuropsychology extern in both the Health Psychology Service in the Department of Transplant Surgery at Froedtert Hospital and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center. Kyle plans to be board certified clinical neuropsychologist in an academic medical setting and maintain his clinical research interests in psychometrics and complex medical/neurologic populations across the lifespan.

Ryan Sullivan

rmsul@uwm.edu

Ryan is a first-year doctoral student studying clinical neuropsychology. He graduated from Stony Brook University in 2018 with a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology. Ryan has previously worked on research at Yale Psychiatry with Dr. Brent Moore and Dr. Frank Buono studying illicit substance use treatment in methadone/buprenorphine populations. Additionally, he has worked on research at Stony Brook Psychiatry with Dr. Roman Kotov and Dr. Greg Perlman on longitudinal studies of female adolescent major depressive disorder onset and first-episode psychosis patients; and with Dr. Scott Moeller on reviews and analyses of substance use literature.
Ryan is primarily interested in researching etiology, manifestation, and maintenance of substance use disorder and the comorbidities that may follow and/or precede onset. He is also interested in neuropsychological outcomes, ERP-related measures, and meta-analytic techniques in this field.

Alex Wallace

walla228@uwm.edu

Alex is a 3rd year Ph.D. student studying clinical neuropsychology at UWM. He earned his B.S. in Psychology from University of Iowa and a minor in Human Relations. After college he worked as a research assistant in the Iowa ADHD and Development Lab and the Cognitive Brain Development Lab studying adolescent brain development, substance use, and risky behavior. Alex’s research interests focus on the intersection between externalizing disorders, specifically in comorbid substance use and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. This interest extends to how these symptoms affect cognition and both structural and functional brain development. Additionally, Alex is interested in how health factors, such as exercise, affect brain development of adolescents and young adults and how these changes in brain development alter neurocognition.

STAFF & RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

MaryBeth Groth

Kelah Hatcher, BA

Kelah graduated with a BA in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2016. She started at the BraIN Lab as an undergraduate research assistant in 2015 and became lab manager in 2017. She plans on attending graduate school to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Her research interests include the study of severe mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, and its development and prevention in adolescents and adults.

Christine Kaiver

Bridgette Knecht

Sarah Lehman

Eddie Linn

Phlebotomy Technician

Angelina Lochner

Bridget Stemper

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Erick Bernal

Jose De La O

Lukas Dommer

Michael Esson

Sara Hagen

Lisa Lee

Kristen Leer

Thomas Maslan

Miranda Massman

Natalia Sotelo

Hailey Wirtz

LAB ALUMNI

Kristin Maple

Kristin is currently completing her internship at the Baltimore VA. She completed her 5th year as a graduate student at UWM studying clinical neuropsychology in Spring 2018. She earned a B.S. in Biology with a Psychology minor from Gonzaga University in 2011. After college, she worked as a research assistant for Dr. Bonnie Nagel at Oregon Health & Science University, studying adolescent brain development. As a member of the UWM BraIN Lab, Kristin is interested in using multimodal neuroimaging techniques to characterize the affective and neurocognitive correlates of adolescent marijuana and alcohol use. Additionally, she is interested in investigating how individual differences such as gender, genetics, and sleep quality may moderate the effects of substances on brain development.

Tasha Wade (Wright), PhD

Tasha is a post-doctoral fellow at UCSD working with Dr. Kara Bagot. She completed her internship at the VA Puget Sound American Lake receieved her PhD at UWM studying clinical neuropsychology in Spring 2017. She is interested in the neurological and biopsychosocial factors in the etiology and effects of substance abuse.

Skyler Shollenbarger, PhD

Skyler graduated from the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 2008 with his bachelor's in psychology. Following graduation, he worked as the research coordinator for the Alcohol and Anxiety Lab at UC. He joined the UWM BraIN lab in 2011 and received his doctorate in clinical psychology in 2017. His research experiences have broadly focused on addiction and substance use, and specifically how substance use impacts brain structure, functioning, and mental health outcomes. Skyler employs multifactorial approaches (e.g. neuroimaging, genetics, neurocognitive testing, self-report measures) to address particular research questions. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Henry Ford Health System Clinical Neuropsychology Fellowship Program.

Alicia Thomas, PhD

Alicia is a post-doctoral research associate at UWM in the psychology department. Her research focuses using the application of multimodal brain imaging to better characterize consequences of chronic drug use during adolescence. More specifically, her work examines the effect of marijuana and alcohol use on brain function and neural connectivity. Her research interests also include determining whether lifestyle factors like BMI or activity level moderate the effects of chronic drug use.Dr. Thomas received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN respectively. After completing her Master’s degree Dr. Thomas spent 6 years with GE Healthcare, designing applications for cardiac imaging equipment. She received her doctoral degree in 2014 from the Pharmacology Department at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her graduate studies included using functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the neuro-pharmacological action of chemotherapy and drugs of abuse. Her dissertation work examined the effects of adjuvant chemotherapy on cognition and brain function in breast cancer patients. During her tenure in graduate school her research also sought to determine the neurocognitive effects of various psychoactive compounds found within marijuana.

Jenessa Price, PhD

Faculty profile: https://fcd.mcw.edu/?module=faculty&func=view&name=Jenessa_Price_PhD&id=6653MCW Health Psychology Residency page: https://www.mcw.edu/Psychiatry-Behavioral-Medicine/Health-Psychology-Residency-Doctoral-Internship-Program/Core-Faculty.htm

Dr. Price is an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Psychiatry and Transplant Psychologist within the Division of Transplant Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). She serves as a core faculty member within the APA-approved MCW Health Psychology Residency (Internship) Program. Additionally, she developed the Neuropsychology and Intervention Clinic within the Transplant Mental Health program and provides supervision of neuropsychological assessment and psychological treatment through the MCW Health Psychology Practicum. She completed APA-approved doctoral training in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology at the University of Cincinnati (PhD) and Boston Consortium in Clinical Psychology (Clinical Internship). She then completed a T32 postdoctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital–Harvard Medical School specializing in neuroimaging and addiction. Dr. Price’s clinical practice utilizes biopsychosocial assessment to inform clinical intervention among those with critical medical illness. Her research examines neurocognitive correlates of addiction and psychiatric disease states, towards the identification of at-risk cohorts and optimization of transplant outcomes.

Claudia Padula, PhD

https://med.stanford.edu/bravelab.html

Dr. Padula is a Research Health Science Specialist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (MIRECC) and Instructor (Affiliate) at Stanford School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Padula completed her undergraduate work and research assistant positions at UCSD and received her masters and doctorate degrees at the University of Cincinnati in psychology with an emphasis in neuropsychology. She fulfilled her APA-accredited clinical internship in neuropsychology at Patton State Hospital and is an alumni of the APA-accredited Sierra Pacific MIRECC postdoctoral fellowship with an emphasis in geropsychology. She ultimately wants to improve treatment outcomes for Veterans suffering from addiction by leveraging the power of where neuroscience and clinical psychology intersect.

PREVIOUS STAFF

Jenna Ausloos, BA

Jenna is currently a 1st year graduate student at the joint Clinical and Rehabilitation Psychology Ph.D track working in Dr. Eun-Jeong Lee's lab. She will be studying transition age youth with ASD.

Danny Mulligan, BA

Danny just started his first year of the clinical psychology PhD program at Wayne University with Dr. Christopher Trentcosta. Dr. Trentcosta does longitudinal research examining the development of self-regulation skills and emotional competence in children at risk due to low SES and other environmental factors. He’s also on a project looking at fetal fMRI data and self-regulation issues at age 4.

Erika Gilbart, BA

Erika graduated from UWM with a B.A. in Psychology in 2013. She worked full-time in the Brain Lab as a research intern until 2017. She is currently a 1st year clinical psychology student at Florida International University studying under Dr. Raul Gonzalez. Erika is interested in the development and treatment of addiction, substance use, effects of drugs on the brain (particularly during adolescence), neuropsychology, and neuroimaging techniques.