lab Director
Brady D. Nelson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Clinical
Dr. Nelson received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his clinical internship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to joining the faculty, he served as a post-doctoral research fellow and research scientist in the Department of Psychology at Stony Brook University. Dr. Nelson’s research bridges the areas of affective neuroscience, clinical psychology, and developmental psychopathology and aims to better understand the cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms that contribute to the development of anxiety disorders and depression. His research spans a variety of clinical phenomenology (disorders and symptoms, clinical traits, personality traits, and transdiagnostic factors), affective neuroscience techniques (EEG, ERPs, fMRI, HRV, and startle EMG), research designs (cross-sectional, high-risk, and prospective/longitudinal), and populations (children, adolescents, and adults).
E-mail: brady.nelson@stonybrook.edu; Phone: 631-632-7697; Office: Room 420, Psychology B Building; Google Scholar; CV
Graduate Students
Clare Beatty, M.A.
Clare is a 6th year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology Program. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Vanderbilt University in 2018. Clare is interested in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and sensitivity to unpredictability as transdiagnostic mechanisms underling psychopathology. More specifically, she hopes to explore the psychobiological response to uncertain/unpredictable threats using neuroscience techniques like electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs). Clare was awarded a competitive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, supporting her from 2022 through 2025. Clare is currently completing her clinical internship at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Elise Adams, M.A.
Elise is a fifth year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology Program. She obtained her B.A. in Neuroscience from Swarthmore College in 2019. Elise is interested in transdiagnostic predictors of psychopathology across the lifespan. In particular, she hopes to use neuroscience methods like electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate variability to measure these predictors and make them more accessible for different settings and populations.
Sarah Barkley, M.A.
Sarah is a fourth year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology Program. She obtained her B.S. in Human Development from Cornell University in 2020. She is interested in the use of neurobiological markers to predict, characterize, and treat psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Particularly, she hopes to utilize EEG and fMRI methods to explore neural systems underlying social processes and how they converge and diverge across disorders.
Jadyn Trayvick, M.A.
Jadyn is a third year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology Program. She obtained her B.S. in Psychology from Yale University in 2021. Jadyn is interested in the use of neuroscience methods to identify neural markers of developmental trajectories of psychopathology risk and emergence. More specifically, she hopes to use EEG and MRI methods to explore transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying psychopathology and to identify markers that will be useful to better predict, classify, and inform treatment across psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Mary Kowalchyk, M.A.
Mary is a third year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology Program. She obtained her B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University in 2016 and her M.A. in Psychology from New York University in 2019. Mary is interested in the use of neuroscience methods to understand cognitive functioning and symptom dimensions in individuals with psychotic disorders. More specifically, she hopes to use EEG and other methods to explore transdiagnostic mechanisms of psychosis to investigate the onset and progression of psychotic illnesses across time.
Iris Li, B.A.
Iris is a second year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology Program. She obtained her B.A. in Psychology and Chemistry from Wellesley College in 2022 and then worked as a research assistant at McLean Hospital from 2022 to 2024. She is interested in using a multimodal and culturally sensitive approach to identify predictors and protective factors of adolescent depression, with the long-term goal of developing accessible and effective interventions.
Graduate Student Alumni
Aline Szenczy, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) – Post-Doc at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York-Presbyterian
Rachel Ferry, Ph.D. (Integrative Neuroscience) – Post-Doc at Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, College of Medicine, Ohio State University