Graduate Program News and Announcements

We are excited to welcome our newest graduate faculty members - Drs. Michelle Chin and Qinxin Shi - who are starting in Spring 2025, 

Michelle Chen’s research is focused on understanding how stress and trauma in childhood is associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes across the lifespan, as well as identifying protective factors that can mitigate this relationship. You can learn more about her research here. For those interested in working with Michelle Chen and obtaining a PhD in Experimental Psychology focused on the intersection of development, health, and psychoneuroimmunology, please reach out to her at Michelle.A.Chen@northwestern.edu.

Dr. Qinxin Shi is seeking motivated graduate students to join her research lab in the Department of Psychology at Texas Christian University (TCU). Dr. Qinxin Shi is an NIH-funded T32 postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Translational Research, Psychology & Behavioral Health, and Medicine Center for Neuroscience Research at Children’s National Hospital–George Washington University. Prior to this, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Psychology Department at the University of Utah. Dr. Shi earned her PhD in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Developmental Science from Texas A&M University in December 2020. As a developmental researcher with expertise in quantitative methods, Dr. Shi focuses on generating knowledge and solutions to understand children’s and adolescents’ mental health development and reduce its inequity and disparities from a developmental and dynamic system perspective. The lab employs cutting-edge tools (e.g., EEG, biometrics, e-health technologies), innovative research designs (e.g., intensive longitudinal, daily diary), and advanced statistical methods (e.g., mixture modeling, dynamic systems modeling) to address critical questions such as: Why are some people more likely to be anxious, depressed, or engaged in aggressive behavior than others? What risk and resilience factors either undermine or promote children’s and adolescents’ mental health? How does an individual’s mental health change over time, and how can we predict the future based on what we know from their present? Dr. Shi has recently developed projects exploring how technology impacts or empowers individuals to access real-time mental health support outside the traditional healthcare settings when they need the most help. If you want to join Dr. Shi’s lab and pursue a PhD in Experimental Psychology at TCU, please get in touch with her at qshi@childrensnational.org. (Her TCU email address will be available upon joining the department in January 2025)