About Us
The Research Team
Nancy Jones
Nancy Aaron Jones is a Professor of Psychology and Biomedical Science. She directs the WAVES Emotion Lab, which investigates biological and socio-emotional factors that influence development, specifically focusing on the processes by which individual differences in emotional resilience and maternal psychopathology influences infant and childhood development. Dr. Jones' research is built on the developmental psychophysiological theory that both biological and social factors interact during development and influence our emotional lives. E-mail: njones@fau.edu
Current Doctoral Students
Samantha C. Gott
Samantha C. Gott is an experimental psychology Ph.D. candidate specializing in behavioral neuroscience at Florida Atlantic University. Her research spans developmental neurophysiology, neurogenetics and neurochemistry, with a primary focus on infant temperament, biobehavioral processes, and neurophysiological development. Through multisite collaborations, Samantha’s work integrates electroencephalography (EEG) coherence metrics, oxytocin, and cortisol measures to examine the interplay between neurological activity, temperament, and epigenetic programming across early development.
Samantha serves as the Laboratory Coordinator for the WAVES Emotion Laboratory and a Co-Principal Investigator on the laboratory’s Baby BEAR Study. She is also a visiting scholar at Washington State University, contributing to an NIMH-funded collaboration between FAU, Washington State University, and Virginia Tech.
Beyond her research, Samantha is an active leader in academic and professional organizations. She is the President of FAU’s Psi Chi chapter, the Secretary of FAU's Neuroscience Student Organization, and a Graduate Student Committee Chair for the International Congress of Infant Studies (ICIS). Additionally, she has experience in applied mental health administration, having worked as a BrainsWay transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technician at the Delray Center for Brain Science and having been trained and mentored in a variety of clinical settings through graduate programs, internships and shadowing.
She is deeply committed to mentorship, academic integrity and translational research that informs early intervention and mental health strategies for infants, children and families across their lifespan.
Email: sgott2016@fau.edu, waveslab@fau.edu or samgottmail@gmail.com
Nicole Acosta
Nicole Acosta is a Psychology Ph.D. student working under Dr. Nancy Jones, specializing in parent-child connections. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Florida Gulf Coast University with a BA in Psychology in 2023. Utilizing behavioral and clinical methods, she aims to explore mother-child developmental and psychological outcomes. Her master's thesis focuses on screen time and how it impacts toddlers’ internalizing behaviors. She serves as a graduate research supervisor for the Baby BEAR study, where she oversees the administration of the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (PAPA). Additionally, she is a graduate research assistant for a qualitative COVID-19 maternal study, investigating the impact of the pandemic on mothers and their newborns during perinatal and postnatal periods. The research she hopes to complete can be shared, taught, and applied in a variety of settings, from scholarly to domestic, and aims to provide children and families with resources to promote healthy home environments.
Email: nsotolongo2021@fau.edu
Camila Salidas-Manieu
Camila Saldias-Manieu is Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D. student under the guidance of Dr. Nancy Jones. She began as a volunteer in the WAVES Emotion Lab, where she assisted with the Baby BEAR Study, which explores factors contributing to risk and resilience in early childhood development by investigating EEG, temperament, and maternal sensitivity measures. She is currently focusing her efforts on this study and is particularly interested in investigating brain activity and how it relates to emotion regulation in infants and toddlers. Camila is also passionate about exploring mindfulness-based interventions to support self-regulation and overall well-being in mothers and young children. Her goal is to contribute research that bridges the gap between academia and real-world impact, especially in the areas of early childhood development, education, and public health. She hopes to help equip the next generation with the tools they need for emotional resilience and lifelong wellness.
Email: csaldiasmani2014@fau.edu
Katy Brooks Wagner
Email: katybrooks2017@fau.edu
Current Master’s Students
Ainsley Richards
Ainsley Richards is a MA student graduating in Spring of 2025. Her current research project focuses on mothers’ experiences with postpartum depression and how this influences mothers’ responses to and behavior with their infants. After graduation, Ainsley plans to move on to doctorate-level studies in clinical psychology.
Email: richardsa2019@fau.edu
Melissa Ayala
Melissa Ayala is currently a Master's student with a focus on understanding the intricate relationship between mothers and their infants. Her research centers on the impact of stress levels on early developmental outcomes, exploring how maternal stress influences infant growth and bonding. Originally from Port Saint Lucie, Florida, Melissa is deeply passionate about advancing knowledge in developmental psychology and contributing to improved maternal and infant well-being. Through her research, she aims to shed light on the early stages of human development and the factors that shape them.
Email: ayalam2023@fau.edu
Camila Zamora-Herrera
Camila Zamora Herrera is currently completing her Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. Her thesis examines whether the duration and quality of exclusive breastfeeding impacts maternal sensitivity during fear-inducing situations in infancy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Florida Atlantic University and is passionate about early socioemotional development and the parent-child relationship. She is particularly interested in how early caregiving behaviors influence emotional regulation and long-term developmental outcomes. Camila hopes to apply her research to the clinical field in the future to better support children and families.
Email: czamoraherre2021@fau.edu
Janairis Munoz-Perez
Janairis Munoz-Perez is a master's student in experimental psychology at Florida Atlantic University. Her research interests lie in developmental psychology, particularly the relationship between infant emotional responses and maternal stress. For her thesis, Is Infant Fear Related to an Increase in Maternal Stress?, she is examining how infant fear may contribute to heightened maternal stress levels.
Following the completion of her master's degree, she aspires to become a board-certified behavioral analyst and pursue a Psy.D. in clinical psychology. A unique aspect of her academic journey is that she earned her bachelor's degree at just 17 years old.
Email: jmunozperez2023@fau.edu
Chase Scott
Chase Scott’s academic and professional journey reflects a growing passion for the intersection of psychology and neurobiology—particularly how early emotional experiences shape brain development and influence later behavior. He is especially interested in the brain systems involved in fear and anxiety, and how dysregulation in these areas—often rooted in early attachment disruptions—can lead to maladaptive coping mechanisms.
Chase is particularly drawn to the dynamic interaction between nature and nurture: how genetic predispositions are not fixed determinants, but are shaped, amplified, or buffered by early environmental experiences. The concept of environmental sensitivity is central to his perspective. Some children—often described as “orchids”—are especially responsive to both supportive and adverse environments. Understanding these individual differences is essential for developing targeted, effective interventions that honor each child’s unique developmental context, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.
Email: schase7@fau.edu
Isabelle (Belle) Origlio
Email: ioriglio2020@fau.edu
Current Laboratory Assistants
Laura Martinez
Laura Martinez joined the lab as a volunteer in 2021 and graduated from FAU with a B.S. in Cellular Neuroscience in 2023. She completed her undergraduate Honor’s Thesis in the WAVES Lab. The thesis project explored the correlation between maternal depression and oxytocin and the influence on the mother-infant bond. She currently works as a research assistant for the lab serving as the Participant Coordinator for the Baby BEAR study.
Email: lauramartine2019@fau.edu
Gabriel Lorenzetti
Gabriel Lorenzetti is the lab assistant to the WAVES Emotion Lab at FAU. He aspires for a career in clinical psychology, aiding children and their families as they navigate through difficult moments. Through his work in the lab, he has also found an interest in experimental psychology. It has inspired him to possibly pursue a position as an adjunct professor as well. Email: glorenzetti2019@fau.edu
Alumni
Krystal Mize
Krystal D. Mize, Ph.D. graduated from FAU’s Evolutionary Psychology program in 2008. Her graduate research centered on the evolved nature of jealousy. Specifically her thesis work focused on homicide between intimate partners (an extreme outcome of jealousy) and her dissertation project was on affective and behavioral responses to the loss of maternal attention to a social rival (infant jealousy). Dr. Mize’s research interests are eclectic. Beyond her extensive involvement in the WAVES Emotion Lab research, Dr. Mize is interested in a variety of other interpersonal relationship issues, including differential parental investment, romantic and sexual relationships, and intra-sexual competition. She is interested in religious beliefs, greed and denial as they are related to environmental values as well. Although her research interests are diverse, the overarching theme to Dr. Mize's work is examining the evolved psychology underlying behaviors. Dr. Mize works with the WAVES Emotion Lab as a Senior Research Manager, overseeing much of the research that goes on in the laboratory. E-mail: kmize@fgcu.edu
Nate Shanok
Nate Shanok graduated with his Neurodevelopmental Ph.D. in 2020. In the WAVES Emotion lab he also completed his master's degree at FAU in 2017. His master's thesis focused on finding neurological correlates to social symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. He is interested in researching some of the underlying neurological causes of various psychological disorders including anxiety/depression and finding treatments to improve behavioral symptoms. He is particularly interested in researching prevention strategies for early onset anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. E-mail: nshanok@fau.edu
Seanna Bellinger
Seanna’s research focused on the impact of early life experiences on longer-term developmental outcomes. Specifically, she’s interested in exploring how physiological changes during gestation alter offspring phenotype and neurobiological development. Her research involves a collaboration between two universities and the use of two different research models: human infants and Northern bobwhite quail. In Dr. Jones’ WAVES Emotion Lab, the physiological underpinnings, such as hormonal contributions, that influence socio-emotional development in infants is being investigated. Seanna is also collaborating with Dr. Robert Lickliter’s Developmental Psychobiology Lab at Florida International University, where she is researching the influence of maternally derived hormones on social recognition and perceptual learning and memory in Bobwhite quail. E-Mail: sbellinger2014@fau.edu
Jillian Hardin
Jillian Hardin is an associative professor at FAU in Human Development. She worked as an undergraduate RA in the WAVES Emotion Lab and as a Ph.D. student in the lab. She oversaw the Kangaroo Care Project, which examines how touch and breastfeeding facilitate mother-infant bonding and the development of optimal physiological patterns in infancy. Her research interests include the effects of maternal depression on infants and the role of breastfeeding in buffering impaired mother-infant communication in these dyads. E-mail: jsader@fau.edu
Maria Corbett
Maria Corbett graduated from the FAU Ph.D. program in neuroscience in 2017. Her major interests are to study interventions that reduce psychological stress and anxiety in school aged children. The human responses to stress and anxiety are twofold, often involving a physiological and an emotional component. Maria's current research goals are to investigate if a correlation exists between self reported measures of anxiety and the amount of cortisol released into the system. Cortisol is one of the main stress hormones released by the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (known commonly as the 'stress access'. Sustained hyper-activation of this system can lead to long term deleterious effects that manifest behaviorally as health problems. Additionally, sustained exposure to cortisol and other corticosteroids have deleterious effects on the health of neurons at the cellular level. Maria's research is examining if a 'mindfulness meditation' intervention can impact the two components of stress response; the emotional reporting of it and its physiological manifestations as measures by salivary cortisol samples. We are hoping that mindfulness meditation, an empirically supported stress and anxiety reducer in adults, can help to modulate both of these in school aged children. Specifically, we will be taking 3 cortisol samples at distinct time points, as well as pre and post intervention measures of attention / executive function, emotional regulation, state/trait anxiety, test anxiety, and mindfulness. E-mail: mcorbett@fau.edu
Melannie Pineda
Melannie Pineda graduated from the FAU Developmental Neuroscience Ph.D. Program in 2017. She also earned her master's degree at FAU and completed her undergraduate Honor's Thesis project in the WAVES lab. Melannie's thesis project involved looking at the stability of EEG and jealousy responses in infants between the ages of 9-months and 12-months of age. For her Master's thesis, Melannie would like to branch out to study the role of oxytocin and cortisol in early development. E-mail: mpineda4@fau.edu.
Aliza Sloan
Aliza Sloan received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at FAU in 2022. Her master's thesis focused on relationships between maternal depression and anxiety, infant EEG asymmetry, infant cortisol response to stress and mother-infant synchrony. The mom-baby pairs for this study were followed from the third trimester of pregnancy to 3-months after birth. Aliza is currently working to set up a wet lab at FAU to assess mom and baby urinary oxytocin for ongoing projects in the WAVES lab. Her doctoral dissertation explored how the perception of self as a causal agent (the realization that 'I did that!') develops through coordination with the environment in early infancy. E-mail: asloan2014@fau.edu.
Sarah Worch
Sarah Worch joined the lab as a volunteer and is currently a new Master's level student at FAU. Her thesis research with the lab is focused on changes in creativity levels as a function of 10-weeks of meditation practice in school age children.
Chantal Gagnon, Ph. D.
Bullying in Schools: The Role of Empathy, Temperament, and Emotion Regulation
May 2012
Miguel Diego, Ph.D.
Maternal Neuroendocrine Function and Fetal Development
August 2004
Assistant Resident Professor at University of Miami
Joseph Cotler, M.A.
Cardiac Patterns During Another Infant's Cry Sound in Neonates of Depressed Mothers
May 2013
Christopher Aults, M.A.
Psychophysiological Measures of Agression and Victimization in Early Adolescence
December 2012
Jillian Sader, M.A.
The Development of Mother-Infant Communciation through Touch and Gaze Patterns in Depressed and Non-Depressed Breast- and Bottle-Feeding Dyads
July 2011
Alexis Blau, M.A.
The Development of Jealousy
December 2010
Aviva R. Kadin-Pessoa, M.A.
Developing Mechanisms of Self-Regulation: An Intergrative Perspective
August 2010
Sara Klco, M.A.
A Neuropsychological Examination of the Effects of
Mindfulness Meditation in Elementary School Children
June 2010
Amanda Almeida, M.A.
EEG in Preschool Aged Children and the Development of Empathy
August 2009
Miguel Diego, Ph.D.
EEG in 1-week, 1-month and 3-month-old Infants
of Depressed and Non-depressed Mothers