Grad Student Research:
Sarrah Ali
she/her/hers
Sarrah is currently collecting cross-sectional data from men and women across the United States to examine ethnicity-specific mechanisms that are hypothesized to underlie elevated levels of eating pathology in Hispanic/Latino populations. Importantly, if we understand what leads to elevated eating pathology among specific ethnoracial groups, we can better tailor our eating disorder prevention and treatment programs to help all individuals who are affected by eating disorders.
Alejandra Medina Fernandez
she/her/hers
Alejandra is currently working on projects testing sex and age cohort differences in social media use and eating pathology, as well as examining mechanisms linking weight suppression to bulimic symptoms and how these mechanisms differ between non-Hispanic and Hispanic/Latino groups. Alejandra has initiated a grant proposal aimed at investigating the impact of intentionality of weight loss on the association between weight suppression and disordered eating.
Holly Spinner
she/her/hers
Holly is currently working on projects examining the predictive validity of alternative criteria sets for purging disorder, how traits like perfectionism affect disordered eating longitudinally, and how eating disorder symptoms relate to suicidal ideation. Additionally, she is writing a grant proposal focusing on the development of a brief intervention for eating problems in adolescents.
Ziyu (Ivan) Zhao
he/him
Currently, Ivan is examining the associations between maladaptive exercise and eating pathology using advanced longitudinal approaches, such as multilevel modeling and structural equation modeling. In addition, through his Dean’s Scholar Award for the Integrated Clinical Neuroscience Training Program, Ivan is acquiring hands-on skills in cortisol immunoassay techniques. He aims to examine cortisol changes across nutritional states and how these changes impact the value of food and non-food rewards.