This thesis examined how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect mental health and brain development. Using data from the ABCD Study, the researcher found that ACEs were linked to both mental health symptoms and a thicker prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest the brain may adapt to adversity, highlighting new questions about resilience.

This PhD defense presents research at the intersection of machine learning, reinforcement learning, social learning, affective computing, and human-AI interaction. The thesis is that social learning is a powerful mechanism for intelligence and explores how AI agents can learn from one another and from humans. Projects include intrinsic social influence rewards for multi-agent coordination, communication protocols emerging through influence, conversational agents trained from implicit human feedback such as sentiment, generative models improved through facial-expression feedback, and personalized well-being prediction from behavioral and physiological data. The thesis concludes that socially informed learning can improve coordination, adaptability, and human alignment.

This research examines whether integrating yoga into university curricula can improve student well-being and academic success. Through a credit-bearing freshman seminar combining yoga practice, meditation, and coursework, the study evaluates changes in holistic well-being and academic performance, aiming to address the growing mental and physical health challenges facing students.

This research investigates how communication between the heart and brain influences cognition and mental health. By studying heart rate variability, vagus nerve activity, and neural oscillations, it reveals a direct effect of heart rhythms on brain function, offering new insights into schizophrenia, mental illness, and body-based therapeutic interventions.

This research examines how alcohol affects the severity and outcomes of suicide attempts among military service members and veterans. By analyzing documented attempts and personal narratives, the study reveals that alcohol often increases impulsivity and lethality, while occasionally interrupting attempts unintentionally, highlighting the need for alcohol-aware suicide prevention strategies.

This study examines prejudice toward asexual individuals by analyzing links with social dominance orientation, traditional gender roles, and moral disengagement. Surveying 300 participants, it finds all three traits predict higher prejudice. The research advances understanding of bias mechanisms and informs future interventions to reduce discrimination against asexual individuals.

Infertility affects one in six adults and carries profound emotional, psychological, and social burdens often overlooked in medical care. This research evaluates a four-week yoga intervention for individuals undergoing IVF, aiming to reduce anxiety and depression while improving quality of life, addressing the unmet psychosocial needs of those experiencing infertility.

This research examines shame among social work students and its role in burnout. Interviews reveal key triggers: emotional coping struggles, perceived privilege, and societal stigma toward the profession. The findings highlight the need for training programs to address shame, improving well-being and enabling future social workers to better support their clients.

This research explores brain stimulation as a safe, low-cost alternative to medication for children with neurological and mental health conditions. Despite promising results across disorders, only a small fraction of studies involve children. The work aims to expand evidence and access, improving global treatment options, especially for low-income populations.

This project proposes “Tinderbox,” a modular, portable housing system for wildfire evacuees. Inspired by the Fort McMurray disaster, it addresses shortcomings of emergency shelters by providing privacy, sanitation, and essential amenities. Easily assembled and reusable, it supports both immediate relief and long-term recovery, improving well-being during disaster displacement.