Our Team

Samantha Farris, Ph.D.

Dr. Farris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and is the Director of The Rutgers Emotion, Health and Behavior (REHAB) Laboratory. Dr. Farris received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at The University of Houston, and completed her psychology internship at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She completed fellowships in cancer prevention at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and in cardiovascular behavioral medicine at The Miriam Hospital/Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Dr. Farris has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has received continuous funding for her research from the National Institutes of Health for the past ten years. Dr. Farris’ research focuses on understanding how and why anxiety and fear affect physical health and risk behaviors. Psychological determinants of chronic disease and risk behaviors have been studied for decades, focused primarily on depression and personality, however comparatively less research has focused on anxiety which is distinguished uniquely by hyperarousal and fear-avoidance behavior. Dr. Farris and the REHAB lab utilize a translational research approach to: (a) identify biopsychological fear mechanisms that contribute to health behavior and physical disease, (b) isolate how these mechanistic factors influence health behaviors “in real time” through use of experimental methodologies, and in turn (c) develop tailored interventions that target these mechanisms to promote health behavior change and prevent the onset or progression of chronic disease.  The importance of this work stems from its ability to inform our knowledge of disease prevention and ultimately reduce the burden of illness in vulnerable members of our community. .

Dr. Farris is a licensed clinical psychologist and specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of anxiety and related disorders.

Assistant Research Professor

Brianna Altman, Ph.D.

Dr. Altman is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Psychology and works collaboratively with Drs. Samantha Farris and Teresa Leyro within the Addiction Health Behavior Center (AHBC). She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY), and completed her predoctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She then completed her postdoctoral training under the supervision of Drs. Farris and Leyro at Rutgers University.

Dr. Altman’s research focuses on co-occurring substance use and internalizing disorders, with emphasis on transdiagnostic mechanisms such as distress intolerance and emotion dysregulation. She also conducts psychometric evaluations of measures of substance use problems, as accurate assessment is critical to understanding and treating substance use disorders.

Dr. Altman was awarded a K23 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to employ a multi-method approach to studying how internal states and contextual factors influence individuals’ momentary distress intolerance and subsequent smoking behavior.

She is also a licensed clinical psychologist and uses cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat anxiety, mood, and eating disorders.

 

Isabelle Barb, B.A.

Isabelle is a Research Coordinator for the REHAB Laboratory. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers University, where she worked as a Research Assistant in the ABUSA Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Teresa Leyro. Isabelle currently serves as the primary coordinator for BE-FIT (Behavioral Exposure for Interoceptive Tolerance; PI: Dr. Samantha Farris), an NIH-funded R01 randomized controlled trial testing a novel intervention for patients in cardiac rehabilitation aimed at reducing exercise anxiety and increasing physical activity. She intends to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She is specifically interested in the transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying anxiety and eating disorders and their association with health behaviors.

 

 

 

 

Sayaka Carpenter, B.S.

Sayaka is one of the lab coordinators for the REHAB Lab, and primarily works with cardiac rehabilitation patients for the the Behavioral Exposure for Interoceptive Tolerance (BEFIT) study. She has a background in kinesiology and intends on furthering her studies on physiology and the intricacies of the mind-body connection. 

 

 

 

 

 

Naiya Roe, B.S.

Naiya Roe is one of the coordinators for the REHAB Lab, and primarily works on the Daily Experiences and Cigarette Use (DECU; PI: Dr. Brianna Altman) study. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Trinity College. As an undergraduate, she completed her senior honors thesis on sibling relationship quality and cultural orientation among second-generation Asian American emerging adults. She previously worked as an intern at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and Yale School of Medicine’s DIGITAL Insights Lab, where she contributed to research on the clinical implementation of universal suicide screening pathways, smoking cessation, and deep phenotyping of young adult alcohol use disorder (AUD) using smartphone sensing methods. Her research interests include understanding the intersection between psychopathology, community mental health, and health equity, with the aim of identifying barriers to care and developing culturally and socially informed interventions that improve outcomes for underrepresented populations. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.

 

 Jacqueline Smith-Caswell, M.S.

Jacqueline is a sixth-year graduate student in the Rutgers University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program, under the mentorship of Dr. Farris. She earned her master's degree in behavioral and social health sciences from Brown University and her bachelor's degree in psychology with a clinical concentration from Boston College. Her work thus far has primarily focused on biopsychosocial predictors of chronic pain in young women with endometriosis as well as emotion dysregulation in cigarette smoking and marijuana vaping. Her primary interests are women's health, emotion regulation, and health behaviors. Jacqueline plans to continue to research emotion dysregulation and maladaptive health behaviors to better inform future intervention approaches. 

 

 

 

 

 

Lilly Derby, M.S.

Lilly is a fifth-year graduate student in the Rutgers University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program, under the mentorship of Dr. Farris. Broadly, Lilly is actively involved in initiatives built upon rigorous and reproducible behavioral science that bring together disparate ideas, often from different disciplines and with key stakeholders, to answer important questions about behavioral and clinical science. Lilly is interested in novel approaches that enhance engagement in cognitive-behavioral interventions (eg., exposure and behavioral activation) by targeting transdiagnostic mechanisms of action (eg., anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance) to help increase positive healh behaviors (eg., physical activity) and chronic disease management in support of healthy aging. 

 

 

 

 

Melissa Hatch, M.S.

Melissa Hatch is a fifth-year graduate student in the Rutgers University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program, under the mentorship of Dr. Farris and Dr. DiBello. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of New Mexico. Her work thus far has primarily focused on examining mechanisms of behavior change in high-risk individuals with alcohol or substance use disorder and working with community organizations to improve the uptake of evidence-based practices.

 

 

 

 

Hannah Brinkman, M.S.

Hannah is a seventh-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Rutgers University under the mentorship of Dr. Teresa Leyro. Hannah's research interests involve identifying biological mechanisms that underlie substance use risk and contribute to anxiety and stress-related comorbidities. She is particularly interested in leveraging psychophysiological methods to study the acute and chronic effects of substance use on centeral and peripheral stress repsonse systems. Hannah was recently awared a two-year Ruth L. Kirschtein Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The project aims to characterize the effects of cigarette use on physiological processes that support body-brain communication and how smoking-related impairments in these processes increase anxiety risk. The project includes a mentoring team comprised of Drs. Teresa Leyro, Samantha Farris, Jennifer Buckman (SAS/CAS), and Anthony Pawlak (SAS/CAS) along with additional faculty from Boston University and the University of Vermont. With this all-star mentoring team, Hannah will receive training in mechanism-focused experimental design, translational models of addiction and anxiety, and psychophysiological data analysis.

 

  

Danielle Hoyt, M.A.

Danielle is a sixth-year student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Rutgers University under the mentorshi of Dr. Teresa Leyro in the ABUSA lab. Prior to joining the lab, she received her B.A. in Applied Psychology from Bryant University and M.A. in Psychology from Boston University. Her research interests center on the etiology, prevention, and treatment of mood, anxiety and substance use disorders from a translational science perspective, with a specialized focus on their shared transdiagnostic cogntitive-affective mechanisms (eg. anxiety sensitivity). She is additionally interested in advancing the dissemination and implementation of evidence based interventions for these disorders, with particular focus on addressing inequities in treatment access and use. In 2023, Danielle was awared a two-year Ruth L. Kirchstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31-Diversity) from NIMH. One phase of her project investigates the relations among anxiety sensitivity, mental health, and the workplace functioning of direwct-care nurses. The second phase gathers perspectives and feedback from nursing managers as well as direct-care nurses regarding factors that may affect the svaled dissemination of a brief health anxiety sensitivity reduction intervention (the CAST intervention) in direct-care nurses. 

 

 

Kathleen Cummings, M.S.

Kathleen is a fourth-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Rutgers University under the mentorship of Dr. Teresa Leyro. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers University while working at the ABUSA lab. Kathleen is interested in understanding the etiology and treatment of addictive and anxiety disorders, particularly within the military/veteran population, inspired by her past service in the U.S. Army. Specifically, Kathleen hopes to further research nicotine and alcohol use and dependence in this population. 

 

 

 

Brittany Keller, B.S. 

Brittany is a second-year graduate student in the Rutgers University Clinical Psychology PhD program, under the mentorship of Dr. Farris. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in health science from Northeastern University. Her work thus far has primarily focused on understanding how transdiagnostic mechanisms of anxiety (e.g., interoceptive dysfunction) influence engagement in health behaviors (e.g., physical activity), especially among individuals with acute and chronic medical conditions.

 

 

 

Goldy Zazon

Goldy is a senior majoring in psychology and cognitive science with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience and has been at the ABUSA and REHAB Laboratory since her freshman year. Goldy contributes to projects examining the psychological and physiological correlates of anxiety and is currently completing a Senior Honors Thesis under the supervision of Dr. Samantha Farris. Upon graduation, Goldy hopes to pursue a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology and to continue exploring evidence-based approaches to treatment.

 

 

 

 

Pragya Shrestha, B.A.

Pragya graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in Biological Sciences and a minor in Public Health Policy. She began working as an undergraduate research assistant in the ABUSA Lab, contributing to the Smoking and Fear Learning (SFL; PI: Hannah Brinkman, M.S.) study. For her, this experience sparked an interest in the crucial role psychology plays in humans. With exposures to different clinical procedures, it expanded her interest in correlating how the exterior/physical characteristics can influence the inner human system. With this interest, she later joined as a research assistant for BE-FIT (Behavioral Exposure for Interoceptive Tolerance; PI: Dr. Samantha Farris). She hopes to further this interest to help fill gaps in the world.

 

 

Manha Talib

Manha is an undergraduate student in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University majoring in Biological Sciences with a minor in Nutrition. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in medicine with an interest in cardiology and preventative care. Her experiences in clinical and emergency settings have strengthened her passion for understanding the connection between physical and psychological health. In her free time, she enjoys journaling, spending time with friends, and exploring new coffee spots.

Research Laboratory Coordinators 

Dana Steinberg, B.A.

Gabriela Rivera, B.A.

Anagha Babu, B.A.

Isabel Cunha, B.A.

Sonali Singal, B.A.

Stephanie Fan, B.A. 

Graduate Research Assistants

Rachel Rosen, B.S.

Kathryn Coniglio, M.S.

Erick Fedorenko, B.S.

Graduate Students

Mindy Kibbey, Ph.D.

Undergraduate Research Assistants 

Dipabali Jana, Jason Marum, Samantha Stucchi, Helena Beshay, Nidhi Gourabathuni, Shriya Mandava, Divya Penta, Anirudh Sateesh, Luke Stanton, Komal Vakadkhar, Monique Bourgeois, Gabriel Brevet, Aabriah Chapman, Dakshita Chebolu, Sebastian Chung, Patricia Difalco, Kayla Doodnath, Annmarie Elgendy, Sarah Farhan, Reilly Fitzpatrick, Joshua Garcia, Asher Hong, Hun Woo Jeong, Melissa Kao, Sravya Kari, Lori Khadse, Jordan Kim, Valerie (Huong) Le, Srujana Mallem, Kunj Patel, Rutu Patel, Aastha Parikh, Elizabeth Policano, Yuthikaa Raj, Neha Rao, Muhammad Razi Hussain, Olivia San-Emeterio, Anam Shamsi, Marcus Shipp, Eric Quartey