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Principal Investigator

Brian M. D'Onofrio, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator | Professor

Email:: bmdonofr@iu.edu
Resume/CV

My research seeks to understand the etiology, assessment, and treatment of child and adolescent psychopathology using multiple designs, including quasi-experimental designs, longitudinal research, and intervention studies. My recent research has focused on using and combining several advanced epidemiologic approaches to better understand the consequences of perinatal risk factors, particularly medications during pregnancy, and the risks and benefits of psychiatric and pain medication for the individuals themselves. Furthermore, my research is focused on better understanding health disparities, particularly among vulnerable and marginalized groups of individuals. Most of my research consists of secondary data analysis of large datasets (e.g., national Swedish datasets, datasets of 30,000 twin pairs in Sweden, and health insurance claims datasets in the United States). I also conduct intervention and health services research, which is currently focused on how to best assess behavioral health problems in community settings, including primary care clinics, behavioral health clinics, emergency departments, educational institutions, and criminal justice settings.Google Scholar Citations

Affiliated Investigators

Patrick D. Quinn, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Applied Health Science | Adjunct Appointment, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Email:: quinnp@iu.edu

I study the causes and consequences of substance use. My research ranges across substances (e.g., from cigarette smoking to opioids) and across the lifespan (e.g., from prenatal drug exposure to medication treatment for ADHD in adults). Much of my current research examines pain and its management with opioid medications, using longitudinal data on individuals and families and methods from epidemiology and behavioral genetics. I am also interested in understanding the risks and benefits of other medications that have the potential for abuse (e.g., ADHD medications). From 2014 to 2018, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Developmental Psychopathology Lab, and I am still an active collaborator with the lab. I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from The University of Texas at Austin and completed my APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Note. I am available to serve as a primary advisor for doctoral students in the Clinical Science Program.

Natasha Chaku, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Phone:: (812) 856-8819
Email:: nchaku@iu.edu
Website:: https://psych.indiana.edu/directory/faculty/chaku-natasha.html

Dr. Natasha Chaku, PhD (she/her) is a developmental psychologist in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington. The overarching aim of her research is to understand “what works when and for whom,” by developing and using increasingly personalized methods to understand adolescent behavior. Specifically, Dr. Chaku's research examines the effect of pubertal development on cognition, health, and behavior. She uses intensive longitudinal assessments (e.g., daily diaries), physiological data collection (e.g., saliva), and behavioral assessments (e.g., neurocognitive testing) alongside secondary data analyses and community-oriented data collection (e.g., youth participatory action research) to better understand youth’s lived experiences.

Tennisha Riley, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Florida

Email:: tennriley03@ufl.edu
Website:: https://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/directory/tennisha-riley/

Dr. Riley is the principal investigator of the Black Youth Emotional Development and Identity in Group Contexts (BEInG) Research Lab. Her research examines emotional development and emotion regulation during adolescence, with particular attention to how social contexts such as families, peer relationships, and schools shape emotional processes. A central aim of her work is to understand how emotion regulation processes contribute to both adaptive outcomes (e.g., prosocial behavior) and health-related risk behaviors during adolescence. Dr. Riley’s research takes a developmental and ecological approach to adolescent well-being, integrating theory and methods from developmental psychology, prevention science, and family studies. Her work is informed by prior clinical experience working with families as a multisystemic therapist and by applied research partnerships that support intervention and prevention efforts aimed at promoting healthy adolescent development.

Doctoral Students

Emma N. Cleary

Email:: encleary@iu.edu

My current research projects focus on prescribed opioid medications, both for management of pain and treatment of opioid use disorder. I am particularly interested in studying the safety of these medications during pregnancy, including consequences for child development, such as risk for adverse birth outcomes and neurodevelopmental disorders. My work utilizes large datasets and epidemiologic methods to help disentangle effects of opioid medications from effects of other factors that may be associated with adverse outcomes, including genetic and environmental factors, and indication for prescription opioid use. Before joining the Developmental Psychopathology Lab in 2020, I received my BA in Psychology and Modern Foreign Language from Syracuse University and worked as a project coordinator at Penn State.

Kelsey Isman

Email:: kisman@iu.edu
Resume/CV

My research is focused on substance use disorder epidemiology. Specifically, I am interested in community level trends in substance use, the stigma associated with substance use disorders, and barriers to accessing medications for opioid use and harm reduction resources. Before coming to IU, I graduated with a BA in psychology, neuroscience & behavior, and Spanish from Wesleyan University in 2023 and worked at the National Institute on Drug Abuse as a postbac researcher in the Technology and Translational Research Unit.

Austin Medlin

Email:: encleary@iu.edu
Resume/CV

I am pursuing a PhD in Health Behavior in the School of Public Health at Indiana University Bloomington. My research focuses on understanding pathways linking psychiatric conditions, psychoactive medication use, and cardiometabolic health across the life course. Currently, I am particularly interested in clarifying how stimulant medication use intersects with cardiometabolic risk among adults with ADHD. My work leverages large-scale healthcare data and epidemiologic methods to identify real-world cardiometabolic effects of psychoactive medications. Prior to joining the Developmental Psychopathology Lab, I earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and mathematics from Oklahoma State University (2021) and an MS in biostatistics from Indiana University (2024).

Linnea Sepe-Forrest

Email:: lisepe@iu.edu

The primary aim of my research is to understand the impacts of prescription and recreational drug use on the development of severe mental illnesses. I am especially interested in understanding how early antipsychotic use may be either protective or harmful against later psychopathology outcomes. In my current projects, I am using large datasets to measure how different types of drug use during youth influence risk for psychiatric hospitalizations. Before joining Indiana University, I received my BS in Neuroscience at UCLA and worked as a post-bac in the National Institute of Mental Health under Dr. Allison Nugent.

Alynna Summit

Email:: agsummit@iu.edu
Resume/CV

I joined the Developmental Psychopathology Lab as a doctoral student from the School of Public Health’s Health Behavior program at Indiana University. Broadly, my research interests encompass assessing correlates of prescription drug misuse. Much of my doctoral research has involved applying causal inference methods and structural equation modeling techniques to assess relationships among substance use and its correlates, such as psychosocial trauma and chronic pain. I am also interested in research focusing on prescription stimulant misuse among college students. Before becoming a doctoral student at Indiana University, I received a B.A. in Psychology (2019) and an M.A. in Psychological Science (2021) from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Research Scientists and Data Engineers

Richard F. Meraz

Research Data Engineering Lead

Email:: rfmeraz@iu.edu

I have held a range of technical, leadership, and consulting roles in the public and private sectors. I currently lead the data engineering efforts in the lab using large observational health data sets. I also consult with the Office of the Vice Provost to support campus-wide projects related to research data in the health sciences.

Martin E. Rickert, Ph.D.

Research and Data Scientist

Email:: rickertm@iu.edu
Website:: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Rickert

I specialize in computational work and bring extensive expertise in scientific research and high-performance computing to the lab. My primary responsibility involves developing software to extract and integrate information from large population registries and observational health datasets. I also mentor graduate students on data visualization, statistical estimation, and modeling using SAS, Stata, and R.Google Scholar Citations

Hailemichael B. Shone, Ph.D.

Data Scientist

Phone:: (+18) 285-2507
Email:: hashone@iu.edu
Resume/CV

My background is in health economics and applied econometrics, with extensive experience analyzing large administrative and observational health datasets. My responsibilities include designing data analysis pipelines to process health claims data and implementing analytical and statistical methods that supports the research activities of the lab. I also mentor graduate students in working with large claims databases and applying causal inference methods.

Laboratory Alumni

Sydney M. Adams

Graduate Student, Univeristy of Michigan

Email:: sydneyad@umich.edu

I am an IU grad and DPL alum. I’m interested in using approaches from psychiatric epidemiology to examine risk and protective processes that contribute to self-harming behaviors, substance use problems, and related conditions across development. I am particularly interested in research focused on neurodevelopmental conditions, such as ADHD, as well as research that helps to understand and improve health inequities. As an undergraduate, I completed an honors thesis studying racial-ethnic differences in ADHD treatment during adolescence and emerging adulthood. As a post-bacc research assistant in the DPL, I assisted with projects using real-world healthcare data to evaluate the risks and benefits of psychotropic medication use. I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Logan Gillenwater

Doctoral student, Michigan State University

Email:: gillenw6@msu.edu

I graduated with a BS in clinical psychological science in 2023 and am currently a doctoral student in Clinical Sceince at Michigan State University. I am interested in investigating the mechanisms underlying the "biological embedding" of adversity and how these processes create risk for psychopathology in adolescence.

Lauren M. O'Reilly, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Email:: loreilly@iu.edu

I am interested in studying the etiology of suicidal behavior in adolescence through adulthood. To do so, I analyze longitudinal, population-based registers from Sweden and use genetically-informed designs to examine the extent to which genetic and environmental factors are associated with suicidal behaviors. These large databases and designs allow for the examination of causal relations between previously explored risk factors and later suicidal behavior. I am currently working on three main areas of research: 1) the intergenerational transmission of suicidal behavior using a Children of Siblings and Twins design, 2) the association between a variety of psychosocial risk factors (e.g., aggression and bullying) and suicidal behavior in an adolescent twin sample, and 3) short-term risk factors for suicidal behavior post-contact with outpatient specialists. I am also interested in how macro-level policy changes interact with suicidal behavior, including the Affordable Care Act young adult mandate and parity legislation.

Kelsey Wiggs, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Email:: kkwiggs@iu.edu

I am broadly interested in the etiology and treatment of neurodevelopmental problems (e.g. symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, seizures, and autism spectrum disorders) across multiple levels of analysis and time scales. In the Developmental Psychopathology lab at IU, I work with Dr. Brian D’Onofrio on two main areas of research using quasi-experimental designs and large longitudinal data sets. The first examines the extent to which perinatal risk factors impact neurodevelopmental problems. The second assesses the safety of medications independent of stable genetic and environmental factors within an individual. Current projects examine 1) the association between prenatal exposure to antiepileptic drugs and offspring birth defects, ADHD, and ASD, 2) the association between ADHD medication use and psychosis, and 3) the association between antidepressant use and seizures.

Ayesha C. Sujan, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University School of Medicine

Email:: ayesha.c.sujan@kp.org
Website:: https://divisionofresearch.kaiserpermanente.org/researchers/sujan-ayesha/

Ayesha Sujan, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research specializing in maternal mental health and substance use. She completed her doctoral training in the Department of Psychological and Brian Sciences at Indiana University – Bloomington and her clinical internship at the Medical University of South Carolina. Though her doctoral training focused on clinical psychology, her training spanned multiple disciplines, including developmental psychology, epidemiology, and pharmacology. She also received her master's degree in Human Development from Cornell University and did her undergraduate studies at Tulane University where she double majored in psychology and studio art. Broadly speaking, she conducts translational research focused on preventing early exposure to risk factors from having adverse consequences on child development. Her research initially focused on early-life adversities, particularly abuse and neglect, and then expanded to include the prenatal period. Though she studies the consequences of a number of pregnancy-related risk factors, including early and advancing maternal age at childbearing and short and long interpregnancy interval, her work mainly focuses on in-utero exposure to psychoactive substances (e.g., antidepressants, opioids, and cannabis) and risk for adverse birth outcomes (e.g., preterm birth) and neurodevelopmental problems (e.g., autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).

Erikka B. Vaughan, Ph.D.

Planning Support Manager, New York Institue of Technology

Email:: evaughan@nyit.edu

I am broadly interested in the etiology of depression in children and adolescents. While research has highlighted an array of risk factors for depression, I am interested in learning more about the specific mechanisms by which these risk factors result in depression in some adolescents and not in others. As there is empirical evidence for an association between pubertal timing and outcomes of depression in adolescence, I am currently working on a project examining predictors of variations in age of menarche in girls. In examining these factors, I am utilizing a longitudinal design with a large, nationally representative sample.

Quetzal A. Class, Ph.D.

Research Associate Professor, Director Residency Research

Email:: qaclass@uic.edu

I am an Assistant Professor at University of IL, Chicago School of Medicine. I investigate the long-term ramifications of insults that occur immediately before and during pregnancy on the mother and baby. I am currently investigating the impact of inpatient psychiatric admission during pregnancy on birth and obstetric outcomes. I am also working to investigate cannabis exposure in utero. I serve as the Director of Resident Research and love supporting OBGYN residents through all steps of the research process.

Claire A. Coyne, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University

Email:: ccoyne@luriechildrens.org

My primary research interest is the etiology of childhood and adolescent antisocial behavior and the pronounced sex difference in antisocial behavior that persists from childhood into adulthood. I am interested in the genetic and environmental influences on sex differences in the development of antisocial behavior, as well as exploring sex differences in sensitivity and exposure to risk factors, and the role of sex-specific risk factors for antisocial behavior. I am also interested in the possible causal relationships between teenage childbearing and offspring antisocial behaviors. My research uses genetically informative and longitudinal approaches to study the causal associations between various putative risk factors and antisocial behavior.

Kelly L. Donahue, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Clinical Psychiatry

Email:: kldonahu@iu.edu

I am an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a licensed clinical psychologist. I currently serve as the Director of Riley Hospital for Children's Gender Health Program, which is a clinical care program that includes providers in the fields of adolescent medicine, endocrinology, nursing, psychology, social work, and nutrition. I also provide direct patient care in the form of psychological evaluation and support services to gender-diverse children, adolescents, young adults, and their families. Although my position is primarily clinical, I am also actively involved in multidisciplinary research efforts (primarily focused on the well-being and healthcare experiences of gender-diverse youth and families) and in education and training activities, such as clinical supervision of psychology trainees, clinical precepting of medical fellows, and teaching learners across healthcare professions about LGBTQ+ inclusive healthcare practices and gender-affirming care for young people.

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