The People Behind the Research
Our interdisciplinary team brings together expertise from neuroscience, education, psychology, and technology to explore the frontiers of experiential learning.
Dr. James Stellar
Stellar’s career began as a basic neuroscientist, trained at the University of Pennsylvania as a PhD and postdoctoral fellow, and then appointed as an assistant and associate (untenured professor) at the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. In 1985 he wrote a book, The Neurobiology of Motivation and Reward, with his father, Eliot Stellar, also a neuroscience professor who had then returned to the faculty after serving as Provost at the University of Pennsylvania.
Natalia Baron
UA'25nbaron@albany.edu
Natalia met Dr. Stellar in Introduction to Psychology in her second semester at the UAlbany where she asked him a question after class. It sparked up a conversation that later turned into a partnership in writing their first blog post together in the summer of 2023. Natalia’s interest in psychology and neuroscience is specifically in anxiety disorders and autism, which she sees as fitting into the general cognitive-emotional integration theme of the lab. Natalia is currently a mentee of Stellar, continuing to pursue her undergraduate degree in psychology and human biology with a concentration in counseling. She hopes to receive a PhD in psychology or neuroscience.
Catherine Lienemann
Salutations! I'm an undergraduate at the University at Albany majoring in Biology and minoring in Public Health and Spanish. I've been working as an EMT since 2022 in my hometown of Goshen, New York. I met Jim Stellar my Spring 2024 semester in his Introductory Psychology course, and he's taken me under his broad wings alongside his many other mentees. As of Fall 2024 I've joined his lab and now my fellow mentees are my colleagues. I am on the Premed track which could mean many things. But I have a passion in Genetics and Pediatrics since my time working as an EMT as Legoland EMT. Working with children and adolescences brought a new passion into my life. My goal is to get my hands dirty in every aspect of the science field to broaden my horizons and make educated decisions on my future. I can't wait to explore the vast number of topics this research cohort tackles. Currently, I am most intrigued about the Vagus nerve and the many aspects of brain and stress response it affects. As I college student and a First Responder, I think I have a very unique perspective on stress as I'm in the middle of a Venn diagram titled "two most stressed populations."
Zaila Brinson
UA'27zbrinson@albany.edu
Hello! My name is Zaila Brinson and I am currently a junior at the University at Albany. I am double majoring in English and Psychology with a minor in Creative Writing. I met Professor Stellar during my UNI 100 course my freshman year, when I was still a Biology major who intended to pursue medical school in the future. Thanks to my assignments in the course, talks with Professor Stellar, and my experiences with the English Department, I gained the confidence to pursue what I really enjoy. Some of my goals include attending graduate school and continuing to publish my writing, eventually completing a full length novel.
Madeline Martin
UA'26mmartin6@albany.edu
I am a twenty-year-old aspiring politician with an interest in psychology. I love educating the people and finding solutions to problems. I want to go straight to my PhD and help improve the world. My interest in this field and many others is always about giving back and building a better future. Dr. Stellar was my freshman seminar professor and that opened my eyes to the opportunity to act now. I am currently a peer mentor for his psych 101 class and started as a Freshman. I am interested in cognitive-emotion integration in learning and learn myself every day
Vanessa NyBlom
UA '25vnyblom@albany.edu
I am a junior at the University at Albany, double majoring in Human Biology and Psychology, as well as minoring in Neuroscience. I am currently the lab manager, but I met Dr. Stellar in my Introduction to Psychology class, my first semester. I came to the university with an interest in behavioral neuroscience and had a specific interest in sleep, and brain activity during sleep and dreaming. This led me to work with Stellar on a research paper covering the brain areas involved in lucid dreaming. Towards the end of my first semester, Stellar invited me to do a directed study with him during Spring of 2022, the second semester of my freshman year. This directed study gave me the opportunity to work with Stellar, studying cognitive-emotional integration in the prefrontal cortex, continuing to do research on this subject, now having four blogs currently posted on our site. I now work at Albany Medical College as a Research Intern, as well as at Albany Medical College as a Patient Care Associate, and I plan to continue working with Stellar on our ideas regarding cognitive-emotional integration and the functions of the limbic system in experiential education.
Kassie von Stein
UA'25kvonstein@albany.edu
Hi! My name is Kassie von Stein, an undergraduate at the University at Albany majoring in Biology and minoring in Neuroscience. I met Jim in my Fall semester Freshman Seminar course, "How the Brain Decides". Jim offered intuitive guidance to our class on how to choose our careers, as well as how to cognitively differentiate genuine passions from passions we think “make the most sense”. I began meeting with Jim routinely as I shifted from a Pre-Med focus to a Neuroscience interest and we are currently working on a blog on symbolic representation in the neocortex, and what it is specifically about its six layers that allows for such representation. To counterweigh UAlbany not having a Neuroscience major, I started researching at Damian Shin’s lab at Albany Medical College (DNET) during my sophomore year and still love and am immersed in the work I am completing! I currently have my own solo project where I am investigating the NTS and DMV brain locations- via single-recording electrodes. With targeting Focused Ultrasound Treatment on the Celiac Plexus, I am accessing whether FUS increases brain wave amplitudes in Hemi-Parkinsonian rat models, and if it does, what the next step for FUS is in the research world.
Sophia DiLavore
UA'25sdilavore@albany.edu
Sophia is a senior at the University at Albany majoring in Psychology and minoring in Business and Sociology. She is interested in psychology research, adolescent psychology, developmental disorders, behavioral neuroscience, psychopathology, and meditation. She began working with Professor Stellar writing papers that explore the ADHD brain, brain structures, and neurotransmitters. Her curiosity extends to understanding specific brain regions and neurochemicals that contribute to behavioral abnormalities and cognitive emotional integration. Sophia plans to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology to continue learning about both research and clinical aspects of the field. She believes working on research with Stellar will allow her to dive deeply into topics that interest her so that she can gain a more comprehensive understanding of how the brain works.
Jenay Bartlett
Hello! I am currently a senior at UAlbany, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Biology, having transferred in from Williams College. I began as a mentee of Dr. Stellar in the fall of 2023, and I am now grateful to be a part of the lab! During my junior year, I was a research assistant in Dr. Altarriba’s Language and Cognition Lab at UAlbany. Additionally, I worked in Dr. Modi Wang’s Chemistry and Biomolecular Science Lab at Clarkson University in the summer of 2024. My long-term goals are to become a researcher and professor, and I plan to attend a PhD program in neuropsychology next year. My interests include mental and neurodevelopmental disorders, drugs, states of awareness, and cognition. Particularly, I am also interested in how these things influence our conscious mind. I envision a career that spans education, research, and possibly clinical work. Overall, I hope to conduct research to discover more about the intricacies of the brain that guides our behavior and be able to apply this to improve health and wellbeing.
Arun Venkitanarayanan
I am a 2025 graduate of the University at Albany with a B.S. in Cybersecurity and minors in Spanish and Biology. I joined Professor Jim Stellar’s lab to explore how people learn through experience and how new tools like AI could enhance that process. As a peer mentor in his class, I helped implement and assess AI avatar quizzes from the company InStage Practice, which deepened my interest in the role of technology in learning and decision-making. Although my background is in cybersecurity, I’m especially drawn to its human side— how instinct, behavior, and real-world experience influence the way we understand, use, and respond to technology. I plan on pursuing a master’s in Cybersecurity with a focus on AI. Outside of academics, I enjoy volunteering as an EMT and playing tennis.
Onoseta Momodu
UA ' 24omomodu@albany.edu
A biology major in the honors college. Onoseta was a student in Jim Stellar’s Psychology 101 in 2021 and has been his mentee since 2020. She began working on the Wisdom project alongside Brandy Eggan and Noor Ahmed, helping research and provide evidence-based research papers to produce an anonymous questionnaire asking randomized individuals about their definition of the word "wisdom." Onoseta is currently on a Pre-Med track to medical school.
Nina Pluviose
Nina Pluviose, a native of East Flatbush, NYC, is currently pursuing a psychology major with a sociology minor at St. Francis College. She is enrolled in a dual degree BA/MA program and expects to graduate with a Bachelor's in Psychology and a Master's in Applied Behavioral Psychology by 2025. Nina currently serves as the president of her Psi Chi Honor Society chapter. Nina is in the McNair Scholars Research Program and has worked as an undergraduate researcher in the Evolution and Cognition Lab under the guidance of Dr. Wilke for two summers. Additionally, she completed a year-long practicum at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Hospital Pediatric Psychiatry Practicum. As part of her academic journey, Nina participated in the University at Albany Summer Research Program in 2022, collaborating with Noor Ahmed under the guidance of Dr. Brandy Eggan and Dr. James Stellar. Their research, titled 'The Impact of Sociodemographic Variables on the Perception of Wisdom and the Call for Experiential Learning Opportunities,' delved into how individuals define wisdom, specifically examining the influence of experience and age on these definitions. Their hypothesis suggested that as individuals grow older, experience increasingly shapes their perception of wisdom. Their informal survey highlighted that experiential knowledge emerged as a critical component of wisdom. Ultimately, their findings underscored that wisdom extends beyond theoretical knowledge to encompass practical application in life.
Zuri Steadman
UA'25zsteadman@albany.edu
I’m a junior at the University at Albany, SUNY, where I am pursuing a major in Informatics with a concentration in data analytics, along with a minor in forensic science. During the summer of 2023, I had the opportunity to participate in the University at Albany's summer research program, where I was introduced to Dr. Stellar and Dr. Eggan. I worked and continue to work with Dr. Stellar and Dr. Eggan on a project focused on creating three insightful blogs about the neuroscience of restorative justice. With my ongoing research efforts and perspectives, I hope to make a meaningful impact on the world of informatics and justice.
Andrew Keating
UA '22drewkeating516@gmail.com
A Psychology major at the University at Albany, with a minor in Communications. Drew aspires to master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He seeks to promote a culture of communication on topics such as stress and emotion regulation. He is especially interested in using social media as a tool for understanding and communicating these ideas to the general public, with a goal of assisting students and others in managing workloads and producing meaningful outcomes. He is now a graduate student at UAlbany in the Social Welfare School in Social Work.
Rachel Orenstein
I just graduated from the University at Albany, from the Business Administration school with a degree in entrepreneurship and marketing. Studying business was a strategic decision, but my passions lie more with human nature and how we grow from experiences. I met Dr. Stellar in my first-semester Introduction to Psychology class and have been working with him on neuroscientific intrigues ever since. Together in our co-authored blogposts, we have explored the effects of experiential education on decision-making and self-perception. I worked with this lab as a business advisor and serial blogger. I am now working with Brandy and Jim on their new book.
Pauline Meunier
I am a recent Pennsylvania State University graduate, having received my B.S. in Psychology with a focus in neuroscience. When I started working with Dr. Stellar, I was interested in insular involvement in the development of PTSD and other trauma-related disorders, as well as the nested neural hierarchy and Cotard’s delusion. This led me to work on a blog post with Dr. Stellar regarding insular function, as well as insular involvement in cortical re-representation and decision-making in terms of experiential learning. Following publishing this blog, I was invited to join the lab in September 2023, with the goal of continuing to research the emerging role of the insula and salience network in cortical re-representation. I am currently a research assistant at UAlbany in Dr. Zuloaga’s lab, investigating sex differences in the effects of androgens on actions of the HPA-axis. In the future, I am interested in continuing to investigate the role of the insula in the development of trauma disorders, especially dissociative disorders.
Kathleen Larsen
A graduate of the University at Albany as a Psychology major and education minor. Was a Mental Health worker for New York Presbyterian hospital and now is in graduate school at Baruch College, CUNY, where she will obtain a Masters degree in Mental Health counseling . Her goal is to one day opening her own practice. She produced a blog series most recently on clinical insight and she remains interested in reflection as it combines both "heart and head" types of thinking and decision-making.
Rachel Dolowich
UA '22racheldolowich@gmail.com
A junior at the University at Albany, studying Human Development with a concentration in Counseling Psychology and a minor in Psychology. Rachel met Dr. Stellar her sophomore year in Psychology 101 and has since taken his Psychopharmacology course. There Rachel developed an interest in basic unconscious limbic brain circuits of homeostasis and well-being, and how they interact with mindfulness, psychoneuroimmunology, and drug treatments for emotional disorders. She is working on blogs on this topic and is planning to pursue a PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology promoting mental health.
Mecca Brooks
UA '22brooksmecca12@gmail.com
A graduate of University at Albany with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, minoring in Neuroscience. Also, a graduate of Stony Brook University School of Social welfare with a Master of Social Work degree, specializing in integrated health. Mecca has worked in behavioral healthcare and hopes to continue serving historically unrepresented groups in mental health treatment. She holds an interest in connecting clinical relevance to the underling neuropathways of emotional regulation and cognitive processes as it pertains to reward/pleasure and fear/anxiety and is actively working on blog posts that explore these neuropathways and their role in experimental education. Mecca is currently pursuing licensure in Social Work and planning to further her education in a in Clinical Psychology doctoral program.
Georgina Breihof
I first graduated from the the University at Albany in 2016 with my Bachelors degree, where I majored in psychology and minored in sociology. I continued my education at the University at Albany and graduated again in 2018 with a Masters degree in Educational Psychology and Methodology. I worked with Dr. Stellar in the lab and assist with implementing mindfulness lessons into the psychology 101 classes that he teaches each semester. While assisting in the lab, I am also got my Masters and certificate of advanced study in School Psychology. I am now in Washington State as ....
Agata (Buras) Greco
A former student with Stellar at Queens College and a blog co-author in both short and long forms, she worked at Queens College on the first flipped/hybrid introductory psychology course. She is also a co-author of a chapter in “Diversity at College: Real Stories of Students Conquering Bias and Making Higher Education More Inclusive,” published in 2020. She has continued her work at UAlbany on the flipped-hybrid introductory psychology course with Stellar and Georgina Breihof in spring and fall of 2020, and her videos on growth mindset are still shown in 2024. She is interested in neuroscience research and the application of principles of experiential education, growth mindset to promoting learning and student success, particularly in immigrant, underserved, and non-traditional students.
Pat Gareau
Pat is currently enrolled in a joint J.D. / M.B.A at Albany Law School and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He graduated from the University at Albany in 2017 with a double major in economics and psychology, and graduated from Hudson Valley Community College in 2015. Pat started a freelance writing, research, and consulting company in 2016 called Gareau LLC, and has primarily contracted with economic development organizations. Pat became interested in experiential education as a member of the SUNY Applied Learning Steering Committee from 2015 - 2017 through his role as a member of the Executive Board for the SUNY Student Assembly, a system-wide student government. Pat continues to be involved in the local higher education community as a member of the Board of Directors for the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation, and looks forward to exploring ways to increase the level of student entrepreneurship at local colleges in the coming years. He has written several blogs on entrepreneurship and the brain, and has a current new interest in the social neuroscience of moral agency and responsibilities that is tied to his emerging law degree.
Noor Ahmed
UA ' 23nahmed8@albany.edu
I’m a recent graduate of the University at Albany, where I earned my Bachelor's in Biology with a minor in Psychology. Currently, I'm pursuing my Master's in Social Work at Columbia University, specializing in advanced clinical therapy. My aim is to become a clinical therapist, equipped with a comprehensive understanding of human behavior and the intricacies of mental well-being. In conjunction with my studies, I'm gaining invaluable experience as a therapist at a public school in New York City, applying my knowledge to make a positive impact on the lives of young individuals.
Natalie Seow
UA '22nseow@albany.edu
Natalie intends to use both studies of documentary film and psychology to communicate psychological advancements through different mediums. She is particularly involved in spreading mental health awareness, while also incorporating neurological explanations. As an example, she is currently working on a film that discusses alternative medicine being used to treat psychological issues, like, alcohol addiction or major depressive disorder. Natalie is very compelled to topics of connection; she believes connection exist simultaneously to everything else. This keeps her interested in new possibilities. Especially, with this new recent discovery of Sympathetic Intelligence which allows us to further understand human connection in a new way. Being a part of this lab is one of the best platforms to teach and learn about subjects like this.
Adrienne Dooley
Adrienne earned her Bachelors degree in Communications with a concentration in Media Studies as well as her Masters in Speech and Language Pathology from Northeastern University. She has been both a participant in Northeastern's Cooperative Education Program through as well as a student advisor to those participating in a cooperative education program abroad, NU international. She was one of the first blog co-authors in 2009 to write a post about some of her own experiences and was a key research assistant in Stellar's 2017 book, Education that Works. Currently, Adrienne works as a practicing Speech and Language Pathologist who after after years in the Salem Public School system has moved into private practices on the island of St. Thomas. She is part of a team of three that has launched a podcast, ExperiencED, that interviews thought-leaders about experiential education and is now in season three.
Brandon Ascencio
UA '23bascencio@albany.edu
A Human Biology major met Jim Stellar in an introductory psychology course in the Spring of 2020 in his Freshman year. He began working that summer working with Brandy Eggan, to produce a series of blog posts on the behavioral neuroscience of the brain’s Default Mode Network. The idea is that these kinds of networks and their interconnected nature could underlie how experiential education builds implicit professional knowledge on top of explicit knowledge in the discipline. Brandon is currently premed. He is president of the Minority Association of Premedical and Prehealth Students (MAPS), and he is attending Albany Medical School where he is already accepted and was so in his junior year.
Devin O'Brien
An ambitious Computer Science student who manages NeuroExed's website. Devin and the lab team brainstormed and assembled the redesign and relaunch of NeuroExed's web-presence.
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