Jonae Lloyd, B.S. (she/her/hers)

Jonae Lloyd is currently a research project assistant running the Studies in Treatment of Emotion & Affect Dysregulation in Youth (STEADY Study) at the University of Pittsburgh. She previously coordinated the Mood Dysregulation in Youth (Mood-Y) Study at the University of Pittsburgh. Jonae graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2015 with a B.S. in Psychology. As an undergraduate, Jonae worked in the Brain Aging and Cognitive Health Lab with Dr. Erickson at Pitt, while also spending her summers working at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Dr. Rappoport's Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia Lab. After graduation Jonae joined Family Links, working at their Therapeutic Learning Center, where students in grades K-6 participate in learning activities and receive mental health treatment. Jonae is particularly interested in the dynamic interplay between family contexts and child biological vulnerabilities predicting emotion regulation development. In her future she hopes to attend graduate school and pursue a career that incorporates all of her interests: being involved in the research community, spreading knowledge, working with children, and helping others in her community.

In my time working on the MoodY and STEADY studies, I had the pleasure of working with Vera, who was a postdoc at the time. Through working together for about three years, Vera became an important part of my own research career and professional development. Vera was in charge of the clinical interviewing team and reliability meetings, where I truly learned a lot from Vera about the various mental health disorders and how they are diagnosed, the clinical interviewing process, and most of all I got to see a great example of how to run a team effectively. Vera's wealth of knowledge has made her a mentor in my life as I am searching for that next step to take in my research career.