Post Docs
Vanessa Cao, PhD
Dr. Vanessa Cao is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Noll Lab at Mt. Hope Family Center. She received her B.S. in Biology (Neuroscience concentration) with a minor in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology with a concentration in Quantitative Methods from the University of Rochester.
Vanessa’s research broadly focuses on understanding how childhood adversity, family relationships, and social environments shape children’s socioemotional development. She is particularly interested in the developmental origins and functions of callous–unemotional (CU) traits, identifying factors that promote resilience following adversity, and understanding why children differ in their responses to supportive and adverse experiences. Her work integrates longitudinal, multi-method, and psychophysiological approaches with advanced quantitative modeling to identify developmental mechanisms that can inform prevention and early intervention efforts.
These interests have led Vanessa to examine how family processes, emotional development, and physiological functioning contribute to children’s adjustment following adversity while developing novel approaches to measuring family environments and developmental risk. As a member of the Noll Lab, she is expanding this work through community-engaged research focused on the evaluation and implementation of preventive interventions for children and families, strengthening partnerships between researchers and community organizations, and translating developmental science into programs, practice, and policy. In parallel with her work at Mt. Hope Family Center, Dr. Cao collaborates with Children’s Institute and The Children’s Agenda on the evaluation of community-based prevention initiatives and efforts to improve outcomes for children and families across Rochester.
Learn more about Vanessa’s work here and publications here.
Kate Senich, PhD
Dr. Kate Senich PhD is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Mt. Hope Family Center working on Dr. Chad Shenk’s MOST for PTSD trial. Kate obtained her B.S. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. Kate completed her predoctoral clinical internship at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the Child and Adolescent training track.
Kate has specialized experience providing intervention and assessment to children, adolescents, and their families. She has worked in community mental health settings, medical centers, and inpatient and outpatient clinics. Kate is currently applying her clinical experience to the MOST for PTSD trial by providing intervention to youth and families to optimize trauma-focused treatments.
Kate’s research explores interactions among childhood maltreatment, physiology, and interpersonal functioning. Specifically, Kate has expertise in collecting, analyzing, and conceptualizing markers of autonomic functioning that may attenuate or exacerbate the effects of maltreatment. She completed her dissertation investigating the influence of childhood maltreatment subtypes on parasympathetic synchrony between adult romantic couples in hopes to identify intervention points for individuals and couples exposed to maltreatment. During fellowship, Kate is expanding her expertise of biological collection methods, exploring changes in biology in response to trauma-focused intervention, and broadening knowledge of different hormonal sequelae of maltreatment.
Click here to view Kate’s publications.
Julianne Myers, PhD
Dr. Julianne Myers is a postdoctoral associate in THRIVE FASD Research and Clinical Services. Julianne received her PhD in clinical psychology from Seattle Pacific University and completed her predoctoral clinical internship at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, IN with a focus on pediatric mental health and autism spectrum disorder.
Julianne’s research focuses broadly on diagnostic systems and clinical services for individuals and families with FASD. She uses systems-based theory and implementation science research methodology to create and understand the effectiveness of app-based supports for caregivers. Additionally, she is researching models for tiered-support systems for communities with FASD including training providers in FASD-informed care using the ECHO framework. Julianne is passionate about addressing barriers experienced by families with FASD and increasing access to services for individuals with FASD throughout the lifespan.
These passions have led her to work towards expanding the clinical services offered within the FASD clinic to include specialty consultation and diagnostic services for children and adults with complex neurodevelopmental profiles and exposure to substances and alcohol, differentiation between concerns of autism and prenatal alcohol exposure, person-centered planning intervention approaches to thrive as a young adult with FASD, and caregiver-focused supports for child anxiety within prenatally-exposed populations using the SPACE protocol. Julianne also provides caregiver-focused intervention for families with children with FASD to increase parent knowledge, skills-use, advocacy, and self-care through the Families Moving Forward Program.
View Dr. Myers’ publications Google Scholar.