Meet Our Research Team!

Graduate Students

Julia Brasileiro
5th year doctoral student
jcbrasil@ncsu.edu

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Julia Brasileiro is a fifth year PhD student in the Applied Social Psychology program at North Carolina State University. She holds a bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After working for a couple of years for a health nonprofit, she realized that she had a passion for research and decided to pursue a PhD focused on improving adolescent sexual health and wellbeing. Julia’s dissertation research is funded by an F31 fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. It involves using implementation science methods to adapt and implement a sexual and relationship health program (HEART) for youth in the foster care system.

In her spare time, Julia enjoys yoga, sipping hot tea, and adventuring outdoors with her partner, and 2 kids

Jordyn McCrimmon
3rd 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
1st 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.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Sarah Helderman, Senior

Sarah is from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and is in her senior year at North Carolina State University. She is majoring in Psychology with minors in criminology and creative writing. She plans to pursue a PsyD after graduation and work towards a career in either psychology of sexuality or forensic psychology.

Outside of academia, she enjoys reading, video games, and spending time with her family and her cat, Azrael.

Xue Mullane, Senior

Xue Mullane is from Chapel Hill, NC. She's a senior majoring in psychology, sociology, and women, gender, and sexuality studies. Xue plans on attending graduate school to pursue a research career focusing on improving the health and community care of at-risk groups.

In her free time, Xue likes to cook, dance, and spend time with friends!

Satya Munugoti, Senior

Satya Munugoti is a senior studying Psychology and Sociology at NCSU and is from Fayetteville, NC. Her academic interests broadly focus around environmental health and reproductive justice. In the future, she hopes to attend graduate school with a focus on public health and addressing health disparities through community research.

In her free time, she enjoys thrifting, trying new restaurants, and baking.

Lauren Richards, Junior

Lauren is from Charlotte, NC. She is currently a junior at NC State, majoring in psychology and minoring in creative writing. Lauren hopes to attend a graduate program in clinical psychology and pursue a career as a therapist for adolescents and teenagers.

In her spare time, Lauren enjoys writing, spending time with friends, and thrifting.

Sabrina Ryan, Junior

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 , Junior

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, Sophomore

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.

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.