PGSO President:
Hugh Farrior
Program: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience area representative
Email: hugh910f@ufl.edu
Hugh (he/him) works in substance use research with Dr. Ben Lewis, focusing on predictors of treatment outcomes and the role of comorbid conditions like pain.
PGSO Vice President:
Caeli
Program: Behavior Analysis area representative
Caeli (she/her) works with Dr. Iser DeLeon in the Behavior Analysis department. Her research interests include the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior and methods for mitigating behavioral relapse.
PGSO Treasurer:
Wafaa Ateyah
Program: Counseling area representative
Wafaa Ateyah (she/her) is a third-year counseling psychology doctoral candidate. Wafaa’s main interests are in research, clinical, and community work. Her current research interests revolve around the psychosocial and contextual factors that influence multiply marginalized youth and/or emerging adult identity development, healing, liberation, and overall mental health experiences.
PGSO Secretary:
Ileri
Program: Social area representative
Ileri (he/him) is a second-year social psychology graduate student interested in understanding the relationship between self-identity and trust in, and attitudes toward, different leaders. He also is interested in how people deal with conflicting/competing identities. He particularly focuses on religious and academic identity and leaders of those areas.
PGSO Events Coordinator:
Rebecca Polk
Program: Developmental area representative
Email: r.polk@ufl.edu
Rebecca (she/her) works in Dr. Ebner’s Social Cognitive and Affective Development lab studying the cognitive, socioemotional, and neurobiological changes in aging, with a focus on the role of the endogenous oxytocin system in brain-behavioral associations.
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Darragh Devine
Program: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience
Email: dpdevine@ufl.edu
Dr. Devine is a Professor of Psychology, Director of the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience program, and serves as the Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Psychology. Dr. Devine’s research focuses on the neurobiological basis of aberrant behaviors in neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders. Children with these disorders frequently exhibit co-morbid sensory processing disorder, motor incoordination and balance problems, pathological anxiety, and self-injurious behaviors. Dr. Devine is using rodent models to dissect the origins of these problems, to track their etiology, and to investigate underlying neurobiological mechanisms that confer vulnerability for behavioral pathology.