Collaborating Faculty:
Dr. Andrea Pelletier-Baldelli, UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Psychiatry
andrea_baldelli@med.unc.edu
Andrea Pelletier-Baldelli received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder with an additional focus in neuroscience. Andrea is dedicated to understanding social and neurobiological risk factors for severe mental illness in adolescents and has over a decade of experience working with youth in this area.
Andrea’s program of research investigates social motivation during adolescence and how different social behaviors can increase risk for challenges to mental health. In her work, she uses functional MRI to study how the brain influences (and is influenced by) these various social processes to identify how mental illness onsets and develops over time. Andrea’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health with her most recent award focused on identifying how childhood adversity and disruptions to social motivation may form a pathway to risk for suicide. With this work, Andrea hopes that knowledge around risk and illness onset will be enhanced and promote early intervention for children and adolescents.
Andrea completed her clinical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and two postdoctoral fellowships through UNC Psychiatry and UNC Psychology and Neuroscience. Outside of her clinical research career, Andrea enjoys being outdoors (ideally hiking) with her family and fluffy golden retriever. (Pronouns: she/her/hers)
Dr. Pelletier-Baldelli’s Google Scholar Page
Dr. Pelletier-Baldelli’s Research Gate Page
Dr. Megan Davis, University of Kentucky Department of Psychology
davismeg@unc.edu
Megan Davis, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Kentucky and a former post-doc in the CIRCLE Lab. She received her doctorate in clinical and community psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021 and completed her predoctoral clinical psychology internship at the Charleston Consortium. Dr. Davis’ research has two primary aims: (1) to explore why certain youth are at greater risk for psychopathology based on their early experiences and neural and psychological reactivity to the environment and (2) to identify how factors such as cognitive control and family and peer support might amplify or attenuate risk for psychopathology in youth. The ultimate goal of this research is to better identify targets for interventions that promote healthy youth development. (Pronouns: she/her/hers)