Meet Our Research Team!

Graduate Students

Jordyn McCrimmon
4th year doctoral student
jnmccrim@ncsu.edu

Jordyn entered the program in Fall 2021. She has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Psychological Science from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Broadly, she is interested in improving aspects of adolescent sexual well-being, with a particular interest in the influence of culture on adolescent sexual development. Additionally, she hopes to design sexual health interventions focused on minority youth.

In her spare time, Jordyn enjoys spending time with friends, watching tv, and cooking.

Aaron Lankster
2nd year doctoral student
alankst@ncsu.edu

Aaron entered the program in Fall 2023. She has a B.A. in Psychology from Murray State University and an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Eastern Kentucky University. In her research, she aims to promote sex positive, comprehensive sex education as a way to address adolescent sexual health disparities. She’s particularly interested in identifying positive outcomes associated with with inclusive and wholistic sex education.

In her spare time, Aaron enjoys trying new restaurants, reading, and traveling.

Emma Sell-Goodhand
1st year doctoral student
easellgo@ncsu.edu

Emma entered the program in Fall 2024. She holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the University of North Carolina Asheville and an M.P.H. from the University of Michigan. Before joining the program, Emma worked as an epidemiologist at the World Health Organization. This role inspired her to pursue a PhD that focused on sexual health disparities. In particular, Emma is interested in examining how cultural factors influence adolescent sexual development.

In her spare time, Emma enjoys traveling, playing soccer and trying out new activities.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Sabrina Ryan, Senior

Sabrina is currently a junior at North Carolina State University. She is originally from a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She is a psychology major with minors in both Spanish and biological sciences. She is hoping to pursue a career as a physician's assistant, where she could specialize in child psychiatry.

Sabrina loves to play basketball, listen to music, and catch up with her family when she can.

Caroline Hilliard , Senior

Caroline is from Pinehurst, North Carolina. She is currently a junior at NCSU, majoring in psychology and minoring in cognitive science and criminology. Caroline wants to pursue a career in forensic psychology and hopes to continue her education in graduate school, for clinical psychology with a concentration in forensics.

Outside of academics, Caroline enjoys traveling, trying out new coffee shops, and hanging out with friends and family.

Asha Shah Coltrane, Junior

Asha is from Durham, NC and is currently a sophomore at NC State University. She is studying Biological Sciences with a neurobiology concentration, and is minoring in Psychology and Global Public Health. Asha hopes to pursue a career in public health focusing on increasing healthcare access and decreasing health disparities in marginalized populations.

In her spare time, Asha enjoys reading, spending time outdoors, finding new coffee shops, and dancing on her Bollywood Fusion dance team.

Malaya Painter, Juinor

Malaya is from Charlotte, NC. She is a junior at NC State, majoring in psychology and minoring in Spanish. Malaya plans to attend graduate school and earn her doctorate in occupational therapy. More specifically, she hopes to do pediatric occupational therapy.

In her free time, Malaya enjoys hanging out with friends, backpacking in the mountains, and reading books.

Luisa Cedeno Perez, Junior

Luisa Cedeno Perez is a Junior studying Psychology and Social Work with a minor in Nonprofit Studies. She was born in Ecuador but is from Charlotte, NC. She cares deeply about making education more inclusive and accessible, and hopes to build a career in this field.

In her free time, she loves hanging out with her two cats, going for runs, and spending time with loved ones.

Teen Health Lab Alumni

Past Graduate Students

Kristyn Kamke, PhD - kristynk@rainn.org

Kristyn graduated in July 2018 with her PhD from the Applied Social and Community Psychology Program at NC State. Broadly, Kristyn's work aims to understand the etiology of adolescent health outcomes to inform health promotion interventions, particularly among marginalized and health disparity populations. While her primary interest is in adolescent sexual and relationship health, Kristyn has also conducted work focused on understanding racial/ethnic disparities in tobacco use and cessation as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities from 2018-2020. She is now working as a research scientist at the Rape Incest and Abuse National Network (RAINN), where she focuses on 1) evaluating the use of a new mobile app designed to aid sexual assault survivors in seeking support and managing their mental health, and 2) understanding concerns of youth sexual assault survivors contacting the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

J. L. Stewart, PhD

J graduated in May 2020 with her PhD from the Applied Social and Community Psychology program. J's research broadly focuses on sexuality and sexual health among adolescents and emerging adults. All of her work is guided by a rights-based approach to positive sexuality development. This approach posits that all people are entitled to fully experience, express, and enjoy their sexuality safely and consensually. Specifically, she explores topics such as parent-child sexual communication, sexual fluidity, consensual non-monogamy, HIV/AIDS, and technology-based sexual health interventions.

Abby Nance, PhD

Abby joined the Applied Social and Community Psychology program in 2015. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and taught college composition and journalism courses. As a writing instructor, she developed research interests in the health outcomes of writing interventions, and the connection between diction and resilience. Abby became an active member of the Teen Health Lab during her last two years of graduate school. After completing her PhD in 2020, she started a position as a teaching faculty member at UNC Pembroke, where she is now an assistant professor.

Reina Evans, PhD

Reina Evans completed her doctoral program in the Applied Social and Community Psychology Program at North Carolina State University in the Spring of 2021. She received her bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Neuroscience from St. Edward’s University, where she began research on the long-term effects of early sex education on the sexual health of emerging adults. Her research broadly examines adolescent sexual health with a focus on implementation and evaluation of sexual health interventions, parent and family influences on adolescent sexuality, and sexual communication. After finishing her PhD, Reina started as a research project manager with Innovation Research and Training in Durham, NC.

Hannah Javidi, PhD

Hannah (she/her) entered the Applied Social and Community Psychology Ph.D. program in Fall 2018 after graduating with a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Hannah's work in the Teen Health Lab broadly focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating digital interventions to promote adolescent sexual health. Specifically, she aimed to improve sexual consent knowledge, attitudes, and skills among youth through these online interventions. After graduating with her PhD in 2022, Hannah started a postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University at Bloomington.

Jeff Hurst, MA

Jeff graduated with a master's in Applied Social Psychology in 2023. He did his bachelor's at Brigham Young University majoring in psychology and minoring in statistics and family studies. Broadly he is interested in improving adolescents' sexual health with a particular emphasis on online sexual health such as pornography use and sexting. He is also interested in the role that parents have in their children's sexual development and hopes to develop an intervention that increases parent's efficacy in talking to their children about sexual health. After completing his master's, Jeff started a position with SAS in Cary, NC.

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Julia Brasileiro, PhD

Julia graduated in May 2024 with her PhD from the Applied Social and Community Psychology Program. Previously she received her MPH and BSPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a community-engaged researcher focused on promoting adolescent health through a holistic lens, encompassing sexual, relational, and mental well-being. Her NIH-funded dissertation research involved leading a mixed methods implementation science study to adapt Dr. Widman’s digital HIV/STI prevention intervention, HEART, and identify barriers and facilitators to implementing the intervention within the child welfare system. She is currently a
Postdoctoral Scholar at the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation at Florida State University. In this position, she integrates behavioral and implementation science methods to develop and implement strengths-based, tailored digital health interventions to promote adolescent health.