Lab Director
Eva Telzer, Ph.D.
Email: ehtelzer@unc.edu | CV | Publications
Eva Telzer is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill. She is an Associate Editor at Child Development and Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, and the co-director of the Winston Center for Technology and the Developing Mind. Her research examines how social and cultural processes shape adolescent brain development, with a focus on both prosocial and risk-taking behaviors, family and peer relationships, and the role of social media in youth’s lives. She has authored nearly 200 publications and has received numerous awards for her work including an Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, an early career award from the Society of Research on Adolescence, a Young Investigator Award from the Flux Congress Society for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, and the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology. She is regularly featured as an expert in psychological science in consultation to government agencies and non-profit associations as well as media appearances in The New York Times, NPR, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC. In her free time she enjoys drawing biological illustrations, cooking and baking, reading novels, and playing with her toddler.
Research Professor
Kaitlyn Burnell, Ph.D.
Email: burnellk@unc.edu
Kaitlyn Burnell is a Research Assistant Professor with the Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain and Psychological Development. She received her Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, with a concentration in developmental psychology. Her research adapts a developmental focus to study how adolescents and emerging adults use digital technologies, including social media and smartphones. Kaitlyn’s research examines the associations between digital technology use and a wide array of psychosocial outcomes, including well-being and mental health, body image, and risky behavior such as substance use. She has a special interest in applying cutting edge methodological approaches to study these linkages, such as the use of passive sensing, eye-tracking, and observational coding. In her free time, she enjoys biking, paddle boarding, reading, and hanging out with her husband, Jake, and dog, JP.
Anthony Vaccaro, Ph.D.
Email: avaccaro@unc.edu
Anthony is a Research Assistant Professor with the Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development. He received his Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Southern California. His research uses neuroimaging methods to understand complex emotions induced by media and technology. Anthony’s work examines the messy emotional states induced by media, such as fear-of-missing-out, nostalgia, and ambivalence, as well as the cognitive processes related to media-use experience such as event segmentation, immersion, and social perception. He is frequently involved in science communication with the media, and his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and U.S. News World & Report. In his free time he enjoys video games, karaoke, and board games with friends.
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Angelica Carranza, Ph.D.
Email: afcarran@unc.edu
Angelica Carranza is a postdoctoral fellow in the DSN Lab within the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of California, Davis under the mentorship of Dr. Johnna Swartz. Angelica’s research focuses on how environmental factors and social contexts shape brain development and mental health across adolescence. She aims to identify risk and protective mechanisms that can help inform novel strategies to promote well-being in youth across diverse contexts. In her free time, she enjoys running, yoga, and spending time with friends and family.
Jimmy Capella, Ph.D.
Email: jcapella@unc.edu
Jimmy Capella is a postdoctoral research associate in the DSN Lab within the Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development. He is returning to the lab after receiving his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at UNC Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. Eva Telzer. Jimmy’s research examines how individual differences in adolescents’ neurodevelopment shape the ways in which the interact with their varying social contexts, including their in-school peer networks and their social media environments. Jimmy aims to identify how features of individuals’ neural function and their social contexts interact with one another to differentially contribute to positive and negative psychosocial trajectories. In his free time, Jimmy enjoys hiking, playing volleyball, and performing music through singing, guitar, and trombone.
Mohammadreza Khodaei, Ph.D.
Email: khodaei@unc.edu
Mohammadreza Khodaei is a postdoctoral research fellow in the DSN Lab in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina and the Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development. He earned his Ph.D. from the Virginia Tech–Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, where he trained in the Laboratory for Complex Brain Networks (LCBN) under the mentorship of Dr. Paul Laurienti, Dr. Sean Simpson, and Dr. Heather Shappell. His research focuses on developing and applying advanced methods to study both static and dynamic brain networks across diverse populations. He recently developed MIND-Map, a toolbox that employs a hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM) to identify and compare dynamic brain states. Mohammadreza’s current work aims to identify how prolonged social media exposure affects the dynamic brain states in young adults.
Graduate Students
Shedrick Garrett, B.S.
Email: sgarrett@unc.edu
Shedrick Garrett is a fifth-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program. He received his B.S. in Psychology and Neuroscience with an area of emphasis in Behavioral Neuroscience from West Virginia University in 2021. As an undergrad, he also worked as a summer research assistant at the University of Virginia. His research interests explore the role of social and digital domains on marginalized youths’ socialization experiences and development. In his free time, Garrett enjoys reading, watching movies, and swimming.
Ryan Tsai, M.S.
Email: ryantsai@unc.edu
Ryan Tsai is a third-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Psychology from National Taiwan University. He is interested in how adolescents understands themselves in the social world. In his free time, Ryan loves playing video games and cooking.
Jack David, B.S.
Email: dbjack@unc.edu
David Jack is a third-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program. He received his BS.c. in Psychology from the University of Jos, Nigeria, in 2019. Following graduation, he worked as a research assistant with the Culture and Mental Health Research Group, supervised by Dr. Dung Jidong at Nottingham Trent University. His research aims to explore social media use and adolescent development from cross-cultural perspectives with a specific focus on adolescents from low-and-middle-income-countries. In his free time, he enjoys photography and spending time with family.
Elizabeth Escalante, B.S.
Email: ese@unc.edu
Elizabeth Escalante is a third-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program. She received her B.S. in Cognitive and Brain Science from Tufts University in 2021. Following graduation, she worked as a research assistant for Dr. Nadine Gaab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, looking into the development of reading and math difficulties. In graduate school, Elizabeth is interested in the impact of environmental factors on adolescent neurodevelopment and risk-taking behaviors. She enjoys reading, baking, and hiking in her free time.
Pari Dhayagude, B.S.
Email: pdhaya@unc.edu
Pari Dhayagude is a third-year graduate student in the Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience program. She received her B.S. in Neurobiology and Behavior from the University of California, Davis. After graduation, she worked as a research assistant for Dr. Scott Moeller at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, studying the neural correlates of insight and metacognition in opioid use disorder. Her current research uses neuroimaging data to understand the initiation and consequences of substance use during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Outside the lab, she enjoys reading, playing tennis, and baking sweet treats.
Yanrong Chen, M.Ed.
Email: yanrongc@unc.edu
Yanrong Chen is a first-year Ph.D. student in Dr. Eva Telzer’s lab. She is broadly interested in how social experiences shape adolescent brain development and behavior. Yanrong received her B.S. degrees in Nursing and Psychology from Peking University, China in 2020. During her master’s study at South China Normal University, under the mentorship of Dr. Wei Zhang, she investigated the influence of family and peer contexts on adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Intrigued by the neural underpinnings of adolescent behaviors, she then spent two years as a research assistant in Dr. Chao-Gan Yan’s lab at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and subsequently Tsinghua University, China, where she gained expertise in fMRI methods. Her desire to integrate her interests in developmental psychology and neuroscience led her to the Telzer lab. Here, she plans to explore how life experiences impact the structure and function of the adolescent brain, and how these neural changes, in turn, influence behaviors such as risk-taking. In her free time, she enjoys shopping in the grocery store and spending time with friends.
Hannah Evans, B.S.
Email: hlyndsey@unc.edu
Hannah Evans is a first-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program. She received her B.S. in Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2022. Upon graduation, she continued her research career at UNC as a lab manager in Michael Hallquist’s lab, exploring how internal state and external social cues alter the neurobiological mechanisms that guide decision-making. Her research aims to explore how social information and goals modulate valuation and decision-making processes in the brain, and how this varies across adolescence and social context. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, cooking, and watching reality television.
Research Staff
Lexi Bendl, B.A.
Email: abendl@unc.edu
Lexi Bendl (she/her) is a Project Coordinator at the DSN Lab. She is a 2024 graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. Lexi is interested in the effects of social media and other advancing technologies on how adolescents communicate with others and plans on pursuing this through a PhD in Psychology. In her free time, Lexi enjoys reading and hanging out with her cat, Suki.
Lance Adkins, B.A.
Email: lacar@unc.edu
Lance Adkins (he/him) is a Project Coordinator at the DSN Lab. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2024 with a B.A. in Psychology. Lance’s research interests focus on the impact of parental behavior within the family context, particularly how it influences youth development, psychopathology, emotional regulation, and external behaviors in adolescence. He is devoted to furthering his passions through a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, with the aspiration of serving as a Clinical Psychologist in the United States Air Force. In his free time, Lance loves going to the gym and exploring nature.
Caroline Cahill, B.S.
Email: ccahill1@unc.edu
Caroline Cahill (she/her) is a Project Coordinator in the DSN Lab. She graduated from Binghamton University in 2024 with a B.S. in Integrative Neuroscience. Caroline is passionate about studying the brain and how various internal and external factors affect adolescent development and psychopathology. Specifically, she is interested in studying how adolescents who are at a higher risk of developing depression may respond differently to digital social rewards and how this impacts their social media experiences. Caroline hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. In her free time, she enjoys reading, thrifting, running and hiking.Sarah Isenhour, B.A.
Email: smisenho@unc.edu
Gabriella Gómez Saxon, B.A.
Gabriella Gómez Saxon (she/her) is a Project Coordinator at the DSN Lab. She graduated from Wake Forest University in 2023 with a B.A. both in Psychology and Spanish. As a former high school English teacher in Spain, Gabriella is passionate about bilingual education and loves working with Spanish speaking populations. Her research interests are education, social media use, Latine populations, risk and protective factors, and understanding physiological changes in the brain. She plans to pursue a PhD in developmental psychology in the future. In her free time she enjoys spending time with friends and family and listening to music.Laura Claire (LC) Walker, B.A.
Laura Claire (LC) Walker (she/her) is a Project Coordinator in the DSN Lab. She graduated from Temple University in 2025 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in digital media technologies. LC is broadly interested in the application and ethical implications of technology in psychological research. She aims to leverage coding and technology to deepen our understanding of behavior and cognition, and is specifically interested in applying this to research on social media and body image. LC ultimately hopes to pursue a PhD in Psychology. In her free time, she enjoys reading and baking.Aiste Abeciunaite, B.A.
Aiste Abeciunaite (she/her) is a Project Coordinator and Lab Manager at DSN Lab. Originally from Lithuania, she graduated from Pomona College in May 2025 with a B.A. in Psychological Science. Her research interests center on protective factors for child and adolescent mental health, with a particular focus on how social connectedness can buffer against anxiety and mood disorders. Aiste plans to pursue a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology, with the goal of improving access to mental health services and developing community-level interventions. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with her horse – Torino – whether competing in the showjumping arena or simply going on trail rides.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
- Dianne Celemen
- Danielle Gaspar
- Annie DeGuzman
- Lilia Cottarel
- Lauren Hughes
- Srinithi Raj
- William Malone
- Chelsea Barnes
- Jennifer Padilla
Alumni
To see where our lab alumni are now, please visit our DSNLab Alumni page!