Graduate Students

Hilary Aime, MA

Hilary is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program. She is supervised by Dr. Grace Iarocci and Dr. Tanya Broesch.

Research Interests: ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders, social learning in ASD, socialization of attention, and using cross-cultural methodologies to examine development.

Philippa Hood, MA

Philippa is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at SFU. Her Master's thesis (2020), under the supervision of Dr. Alexander Chapman, examined the roles of mindfulness and emotion regulation as mechanisms of change in dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). Her Ph.D. research, supervised by Dr. Chapman and Dr. Grace Iarocci, is a feasibility and acceptability trial of DBT for self-harming autistic adults. Philippa's research has been funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), the British Columbia Graduate Scholarship (BCGS), ISIT DBT, and SFU's Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERI).

Research Interests: Participatory research and the autistic voice, third-wave psychotherapies, and suicide and self-harm

Marisa Mylett, MA

Marisa is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program. She received her BA (Hons.) degree in Psychology at Simon Fraser University.

Research Interests: ADHD, autism, identity, social expectations, gender differences, social inclusion, and co-occurring internalizing mental health problems of depression and anxiety.

For more information please click here.

Troy Boucher, MA

Troy is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program. Troy completed his BA (Hons.) in 2018 and his MA in 2022 with Dr. Grace Iarocci at SFU. Troy is a Vanier Scholar funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 

Research Interests: Intense interests and social development, health and wellbeing, autistic experiences and inclusion, and social attention and perceptual learning.

For more information, please click here.

Madelaine Ressel, MA

Madelaine is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program.

Research Interests: Community-engaged research methods, equity of access to ASD services, and ASD and other co-occurring mental health issues.

Meryssa Waite, BSc (Hons) 

Meryssa is a Master's student in the Clinical Psychology program. She received her BSc (Hons.) in Psychology at the University of Victoria. Meryssa has worked with individuals with developmental disabilities as a respite care provider, community support worker, and educational assistant. Her research is partly funded by SFU's Community Engagement Initiative.

Research Interests: Developmental disabilities and mental health, community inclusion, and identifying gaps in services available for individuals with developmental disabilities.

For more information, please click here.

Morgan Reedy, MSc

Morgan is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program (Neuropsychology track) at SFU. She is co-supervised by Dr. Grace Iarocci and Dr. Molly Cairncross. She received her MSc and BSc from Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa, New Zealand. 

 

Research Interests: ASD, co-occurring neurodevelopmental disorders, reading in Dyslexia and Autism, perceptual/sensory differences in neurodevelopmental disorder, psychosocial determinants of neurodevelopmental disorders

Jade Stobbart, BA (Hons)

Jade is a Master's student in the Developmental Stream of the Experimental Psychology Program. She completed her B.A (Hons.) in 2021 at TWU. 

 

Research Interests: Neural correlates of social behaviour, social communication, peer relationships, neurodevelopment disorders.

Ishani Bharadwaj BA (Hons)

 

Ishani is a first year master’s student in the Developmental area in the Experimental Psychology program at SFU. She completed her bachelors (honours) in Applied Psychology in 2023 at the University of Delhi.

 

Research Interests: Cultural differences in the experience of Autism, Parenting and family influences on Autism, Role of early experiences in child development

 

Lab Manager

Alyssa Minniss

Alyssa is the Lab Coordinator of the ADDL. She is also an undergraduate student currently working towards a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with the intent to pursue grad school one day. Alyssa became interested in disability advocacy and research through her experience in supporting disabled and autistic individuals through a community support organization, and is excited to merge experience she has in the community with academic knowledge. Alyssa’s big goals are to increase community inclusion and access in society for autistic and disabled people and continue the work of the deinstitutionalization movement. Alyssa also greatly enjoys skiing, coffee, and buying way too much stationery.

Research Interests: Mental health resource access for autistic and disabled people, inclusion of disabled people in faith spaces, deinstitutionalization, experiences and impact of institutionalization, community inclusion, self advocacy of disabled individuals

Dara Penner

Dara is the Lab Manager of the ADDL. Dara has completed a B.A. in Psychology (Hons.) with a minor in Counselling and Human Development. Additionally, Dara is a research assistant in the Adolescent Health Lab, directed by Dr. Marlene Moretti. Dara plans to pursue a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology.

Research Interests: Anxiety disorders in adolescents and young adults, developmental psychopathology, developmental disabilities, and attachment and attachment-based treatment.

Research Assistants

Amanda Hodges 

Amanda is an undergraduate student working towards her B.A in psychology. Amanda is passionate about mental health, inclusion, and community-engaged research. Upon graduation, she hopes to pursue these passions in graduate school for clinical psychology.

Research Interests: 

 destigmatization of disability and mental health, community inclusion, family relationships, developmental disabilities and mental health, suicide prevention.

Siobhan Bostock

Siobhan is a fourth-year undergraduate student at SFU. She is completing her degree in Psychology with a minor in Learning and Developmental Disabilities. Siobhan has worked with autistic children as a Behaviour Interventionist for the last five years.  Following her degree, Siobhan is hoping to complete the Professional Development Program before pursuing a Master’s in Special Education. During her free time, Siobhan enjoys going on hikes with her dogs, playing music, and watching soccer.  

Research Interests: disability inclusive education, emotion regulation, and developmental psychopathology.

Current Research Assistants (alphabetical order)

 

Alana Pace

Ana Burik 

Anh-Thu (Bonnie) Vu

Maggie Wood 

Thomas Maloney

Vivian Ly

 

 

Lab Alumni

Shana Harrison

Hooman Salavati