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Meet the Team
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Jodi A. Quas, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology, Social Behavior, and Nursing Science

Research Interests: Memory development, effects of stress on memory; consequences of legal involvement on youth victims and witnesses; development and testing of methods to improve identification of and interventions for high-risk children and adolescents.
Fun Fact: I am late to the airport almost every time I travel, and I miss at least one flight per year.

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Rachel Dianiska, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: contribution of cognitive and developmental processes to interviewing and disclosure, credibility assessment, and the development of false memories; improving identification, interviewing, and responses to adolescent victims and witnesses.

Fun fact: I will travel internationally for concerts, and I don’t have a single artistic talent myself but I collect ceramics and stained glass.

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Nan Xiao, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interest: I study how social exclusion and adversity affect development longitudinally, and create community-based, tech-assisted interventions to support children’s relationships. My work spans peer victimization, media use, residential childcare, and home–school connections (My Website).

Fun fact: I’m a huge cat lover… but sadly, I’m allergic to cats.

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Emma Simpson 

Doctoral Student

Research Interests: How children and adolescents (particularly those with histories of maltreatment or exploitation) remember, disclose, and respond in legal contexts; improving community and policy responses to vulnerable youth

Fun fact: I love word games -- crosswords, scrabble, bananagrams, etc. 

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Sarah Kim

Doctoral Student

​Research Interests: How children and adolescents disclose adversity/victimization; technology and media influence on adolescent victimization; improving community and policy responses to vulnerable youth
Fun fact: I’ve been dancing since I was 3 years old.

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Ashley Zieper

Project Manager

Research Interests: How children and adolescents encode, store, and retrieve memories under situational and contextual stress, and how this understanding can inform decision-making and services provided to youth in various educational, legal, and community-based mental health settings.

Fun fact: I love traveling and have been to 14 different countries. 

FALL 2025 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Cas Sherrill

Cassandra Pignataro

Cathy Chang

Elliot Kim

Grace Kenyon

Hugo Herrera

Jack Rockwell

Jessica Kwan

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Jocelyn Gomez

Kiara Kuriakose

Lauren Finkel

Lindsay Tran

Rajas Aathavan

Sammy Hwang

Vlad Kondakov

Zoya Sheikh​

 

View Adolescent and Childhood Experience Lab alumni here.

University of California, Irvine

Adolescent and Childhood Experience Lab

Dr. Jodi Quas

Last Edited: August 2025

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