Past Postdoctoral Fellows
Though the GGSC's fellowship program mainly supports the work of graduate and undergraduate researchers at UC Berkeley, it has awarded one postdoctoral fellowship: to Sarina Rodrigues, who conducted trailblazing research on compassion and empathy as a GGSC fellow.
2017-2018 Fellow
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Megan Cherewick
Adversity in AdolescenceDr. Megan Cherewick is a postdoctoral scholar at the Center on the Developing Adolescent at UC Berkeley. Megan completed her dissertation, “Trauma, Coping, and Resilience Among Conflict-Affected Youth in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,” and received her Ph.D. in International Health from Johns Hopkins University. Megan’s primary research interests focus on consequences of concentrated adversity and stress, adolescent cognitive and behavioral coping strategies, and effects on mental health and well-being. Megan’s current research seeks to integrate findings from developmental neuroscience to inform adolescent-focused psychosocial support and behavior change intervention strategies. Working with Drs. Ron Dahl and Ahna Suleiman, Megan’s GGSC fellowship seeks to identify key protective and promotive factors in adolescent lives that support positive mental health trajectories. Megan will work with conflict-affected refugees in Northern Uganda to conduct mixed-method research to inform the design of a mental health intervention for conflict-affected adolescents.
2007-2009 Fellow
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Sarina Rodrigues
NeuroscienceDr. Sarina Rodrigues is a neuroscientist whose expertise centers on emotional processing in the brain. In her undergraduate studies at the University of Oregon, she completed an honors thesis with Michael Posner, an eminent researcher in the field of attention. She received her Ph.D. from New York University under the mentorship of Joseph LeDoux, a pioneer in the field of emotion. Her dissertation focused on molecular, cellular, and behavioral studies of the amygdala, the key brain structure for emotional processing. She then studied as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University under the guidance of Robert Sapolsky.
Following her work at Stanford, Sarina served as the GGSC’s first postdoctoral fellow from 2007-2009, working with Dacher Keltner. Her research investigated the neurobiology of positive emotions, producing groundbreaking findings on the roots and development of social well-being.
You can read about the trailblazing work Sarina did on the genetics of empathy as a GGSC postdoctoral fellow in this New York Times article.
She is now an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Oregon State University.
The GGSC has also supported the research of two other postdoctoral scientists at UC Berkeley: Emily Impett, who studies relationships and health, and Emiliana Simon-Thomas, who studies nervous system activation and processing related to discrete positive emotions, with an emphasis on characterizing prosocial emotions like compassion, awe, and love.
