Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Dr. Margaret (Megan) Fields-Olivieri | Pronouns: She/Her
Megan is an Assistant Professor who joined the UNCG Clinical Psychology faculty in 2021. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Duke University and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in child clinical psychology from Penn State University. She completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, where she received specialized training in infant and early childhood mental health. Megan’s research focuses on the intersection of emotional and verbal development in early childhood, particularly the role that toddlers’ emotions play in parent-child communication. She is especially interested in leveraging novel technologies to sample everyday parent-child communication and emotion socialization processes in ecologically valid ways. In her spare time, Megan loves spending time with her family, eating good food, listening to podcasts and spending time outside.
Graduate Students
Caitlin Stone | Pronouns: She/Her
Caitlin Stone is a first-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at UNC Greensboro (Fall 2024 Cohort). She received her B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University, then worked as a case worker for the Department of Children and Families in Florida and volunteered as a Victim Advocate for a women’s shelter. She completed her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Western Carolina University. Most recently, Caitlin worked as a research coordinator and psychometrist at Duke Health, primarily working with the NICU follow-up team and the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development. Broadly, Caitlin’s research interests are surrounding language development, the role that early environment and caregiver interaction play in language acquisition. Outside of the lab, she can be found chasing her two kids with her partner or reading a book.
Brianna Halter | Pronouns: She/Her
Brianna is a second-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at UNC Greensboro (Fall 2022 Cohort). She received her B.S. in Psychology at Washington State University in 2020, where she continued to work as a post baccalaureate in an Infant Temperament Lab and Adolescent Personality and Social Media Lab until Fall 2022. She is interested in exploring parent-toddler interactions and their impact on emotion regulation and language development, with a particular interest in understanding the risk and protective factors that may interplay within said interactions. In her free time, Brianna enjoys venturing outdoors, practicing yoga, and taking aimless night drives while listening to good tunes.
Kristin Jennings | Pronouns: She/Her
Kristin is a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Program at UNC Greensboro (Fall 2022 Cohort). She earned her B.S. in Psychology from the University of North Florida and her M.S. in Psychology from Villanova University. As a Master’s student, she worked with Dr. Janette Herbers studying developmental processes of risk and resilience in children experiencing family homelessness. Prior to entering doctoral training, Kristin worked as a home visitor through the Healthy Families Arizona program in Tucson. Currently, she is interested in studying parent-toddler communication to capture the dynamic, dyadic processes involved in language and emotion regulation development. She is also interested in how individual factors, such as parent emotion socialization goals and child temperament, may influence these processes. In her free time, Kristin enjoys being in nature, doing yoga, or watching a good limited series.
Crystal Ei Thinzar | Pronouns: She/Her
Crystal is an international student from Myanmar and a fourth-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Program at UNC Greensboro (Fall 2021 Cohort). She received her B.S. in Psychology with Disciplinary Honors from UNC Greensboro in May 2020. Upon graduation and before entering the clinical doctoral program, she worked closely with Dr. Margaret Sheridan as a full-time lab manager in the CIRCLE Lab at UNC Chapel Hill. Broadly, she is interested in identifying developmental pathways to psychopathology within family, psychosocial and sociocultural contexts with a focus on moment-to-moment parenting and the role of language in emotion regulation. Professionally, she is passionate about mentoring and raising mental health awareness in the Asian community. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, watching TV shows and exploring different kinds of spicy food.
Crystal's Master's Thesis Project
The primary goal is to develop a psychometrically-sound, pragmatic-based coding system that captures the content of parent speech within daylong samples of parent-child conversations as recorded and quantified by Language Environment Analysis (LENA). Specifically, the study characterizes naturally-occuring parental emotion socialization and functional communication strategies in response to toddler cues.
Post-Bacc Research Assistants
Dianna Mock
Pronouns: She/Her
Dianna recently graduated from UNC Greensboro with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. She plans on working towards her goal of becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, working with children and adolescents. Outside of school, she enjoys hiking and spending time with friends and family. She is very excited to be a part of the TALK lab!
Krystajah Davis
Pronouns: She/Her
Krystajah is a post-baccalaureate student for pre-medical sciences at UNCG. She received her B.A in Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2022. Her goal is to work within the medical community as a psychiatrist working closely with adolescents and young adults. Outside of school, she is an ABA therapist providing for children on the autism spectrum and other developmental challenges providing guidance with the intention of helping patients alter behaviors. She enjoys travelling as well as eating food, and she is very excited to join the lab!
Paige Perry
Pronouns: She/Her
Paige received a B.A. in Psychology at the University of Michigan in 2018 with minors in Social Work and Women's Studies. Her goal is to work with children and families in clinical settings as a practicing child clinical psychologist. Upon graduating, Paige has worked with children with developmental disorders and with teens and adults with mental health diagnoses. She is interested in exploring the relationship between emotion regulation and language development in children, with a special interest in early interventions for at-risk and low-income families. In her free time, Paige enjoys spending time outside, practicing photography, and playing with her two dogs!
Beverly Tabe
Pronouns: She/Her
Beverly is currently a post-baccalaureate pre-med/pre-health student. She completed a B.S. in Psychology with minors in Chemistry and Spanish for the Medical Professions. She is excited to be part of the TALK Lab to learn more about communication between toddlers and their families, and how this impacts their development. She is looking forward to gaining experience working in a research lab and how our findings will help our community. Her goal is to attend medical school to become a dermatologist with a specialization in cosmetic and pediatric dermatology to treat skin conditions such as eczema and acne to enhance adults and adolescents' confidence in their skin.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Monae McCray
Pronouns: She/Her
Monae is an undergraduate student at UNCG. She is excited to be part of TALK Lab to gain more insight into child development from a research point of view. One interesting fact about her is that she is in the military and has been since she was seventeen.
Tabitha Reid
Pronouns: She/Her
Tabitha is a senior undergraduate student at UNCG. She is excited to be part of the TALK Lab because she is fascinated by child development and all the factors that affect it. She believes that understanding child development is important for the future child outcomes and for breaking generational cycles. Her hobbies include shopping and spending time with her Pomeranian Luna.
Mason Page
Pronouns: He/Him
Mason is an undergraduate junior double majoring in psychology and chemistry with a music minor. He joined the TALK Lab in order to tie his interest in education to his current major by still being involved with children and their psychopathological development. He intends to continue to pursue research in the field of psychology after he finishes his undergraduate degree. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, playing video games, and just vibing with his friends!
TALK Lab Alumni
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Joeliz (Liz) Rodriguez [Fall 2023 - Spring 2024]
Iyah Dixon, Lily Kamiab [Spring 2023 - Spring 2024]
J'Leah Morman [Fall 2022 - Spring 2024]
Mackenzie Rippey, McKenna Moore [Fall 2022 - Spring 2023]
Natalya (Rae) Little [Fall 2021 - Summer 2022]
Kaira Farrar, Gabrielle (Gabby) Louque, Natasha Njoroge [Fall 2021 - Spring 2022]
Eric Cata, Tamitayo Sasore [Fall 2021]