Speaker Biographies
Johnna R. Swartz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Human Ecology
University of California, Davis
Presentation: Risk and Protective Factors for the Development of Depression in Mexican-Origin Young Adults
Dr. Swartz is an associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Swartz has expertise in the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the developing brain. Her interdisciplinary research examines how factors such as stress, inflammation, and adversity influence brain function during adolescence and young adulthood, and how this in turn influences risk for developing mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. She also examines how different protective factors may promote resilience by mitigating the influence of risk factors on development.
Kailey Lawson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Rhodes College
Presentation: Trajectories of Temperament from Late Childhood through Adolescence and Associations with Anxiety and Depression in Young Adulthood
Dr. Lawson is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Rhodes College, where she teaches courses on personality, development, and statistics. Prior to coming to Rhodes, Dr. Lawson received her Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology from the University of California, Davis. Her research program focuses on the nature, development, and assessment of personality traits such as self-control and negative emotionality, and the influence of these traits on mental health and academic achievement. Dr. Lawson takes a lifespan developmental approach to understanding individual differences between people, with an emphasis on the period of adolescence.
Rick Cruz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Arizona State University
Presentation: Acculturation Processes Confer Risk and Resilience for Mexican-Origin Youth and Caregiver Mental Health
Dr. Cruz is an assistant professor and core faculty member in the clinical Ph.D. program in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology (child clinical track) from the University of Washington. Dr. Cruz’s research focuses on the development, prevention, and treatment of mental illnesses and substance use disorders among diverse youths and families. His work has a special focus on the intersections of sociocultural, familial, and individual factors that contribute to variability in mental health and substance use among Latinx children, adolescents, and young adults. His research has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology.
Amanda Guyer, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Human Ecology
Center for Mind and Brain
University of California, Davis
Presentation: Contextual Influences on the Brain and Mental Health Outcomes Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents
Dr. Guyer is a developmental psychologist and professor in the Human Development and Family Studies unit of the Department of Human Ecology at the University of California, Davis. She is also the associate director of the Center for Mind and Brain and is affiliated with the Center for Poverty and Inequality Research. She is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and an associate editor for Developmental Psychology and Emotion. Dr. Guyer has expertise in the biological, cognitive, and social-emotional aspects of human development during adolescence—notably, the behavioral and neural mechanisms that may underlie the way that adolescents think and feel.
She investigates neural and behavioral underpinnings of adolescent mental health illnesses (such as depression and anxiety) via social, emotional, and cognitive processes. She has identified behavioral responses, neural activity, and brain networks involved when children and adolescents attend to, evaluate, and remember facial emotions, social threats, peer evaluation, and rewards. She considers age, temperament, and sex differences in these processes, and variability related to adverse and stressful life events, and peer and family factors. She has articulated new conceptual models of neurobiological sensitivity to social context and environmental stressors to enhance understanding of child and adolescent mental health. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program.
About the moderator
Tatiana Meza-Cervera, Ph.D.
Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity
NIMH
Dr. Meza-Cervera is the program director of Diversity Supplement and Youth Mental Health Disparities Research in the Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity at NIMH.
Dr. Meza-Cervera received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology and Master of Science from Virginia Tech where her work focused on the intersection between cognition and emotion development from infancy through adolescence and their impact on adolescent mental health. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at NIMH. She is interested in assisting scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in pursuing and achieving their goals in higher education, specifically ensuring the progress and success of diversity supplement awardees in their academic careers.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Riverside, where she experienced training as a Hispanic woman in a Hispanic Serving Institution. She would like to continue to expand the work in mental health disparities research among Hispanic and Latino/e youth to encourage their continued contribution to brain sciences research and academia.