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OUR TEAM
CINDY LIU, PHD
Principal Investigator
Cindy H. Liu, Ph.D. is currently an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her areas of investigation include the measurement and mechanisms of psychosocial stress, cultural differences in socio-emotional development, and developmental and culturally based interventions that reduce mental health disparities. She received her degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Oregon. She served as the Director of Multicultural Research at the Commonwealth Research Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for six years prior to her current position as the Director of the Developmental Risk and Cultural Resilience (DRCR) Program within Pediatric Newborn Medicine and Psychiatry at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Click here to view the DRCR Lab website.
LEENA MITTAL, MD
Co-Investigator
Leena Mittal is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Division of Women's Mental Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where she works closely with obstetric colleagues and teaches Harvard medical students, residents and fellows about perinatal and medical psychiatry. She is a graduate of the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program and has completed a fellowship in Psychosomatic Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. As a member of the Medical Psychiatry Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital, she works closely with medical students, residents, and psychosomatic medicine and addictions fellows, and she facilitates psychiatric liaison work with the obstetric service at the largest obstetric center in Massachusetts. Her clinical and academic interests include the development of embedded and collaborative care models to provide care for complex perinatal patients with mental health needs including a buprenorphine treatment program for opioid-dependent pregnant and postpartum women embedded within a prenatal care setting as well as a perinatal mental health program within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
CARMINA ERDEI, MD
Co-Investigator
Dr. Erdei completed her residency and dual fellowship training at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA, and holds triple board certification in Pediatrics, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. After completing her training, Dr. Erdei joined the faculty of the Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston, MA in 2015. Dr. Erdei is currently the medical director of the Growth and Development Unit, a subunit of the BWH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where she leads a highly skilled multidisciplinary team of physicians, nursing, dietitians, physical, occupational and feeding therapists, respiratory therapists, social workers, and care coordinators to provide the highest quality of care for all infants and their families in a way that is family-centered, multidisciplinary, and attentive to all aspects of each baby’s development. Her research interests are focused on optimizing the short- and long-term outcomes of high-risk newborns. In particular, Dr. Erdei is interested in better understanding which neonatal interventions may be most beneficial in improving infant growth and neurodevelopment while also fostering family wellbeing and resilience. Dr. Erdei is an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
HUNG-CHU LIN, PHD
Study Collaborator
Hung-Chu earned her D.D.S. from National Taiwan University and practiced pediatric dentistry at the National Taiwan University Hospital before transitioning to Psychology. She holds a PhD in Developmental Science from the University of Connecticut and currently serves as a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her research focuses on examining developmental processes in the areas of the communication, social cognition, and emotional competence. Additionally, she is interested in the affect organization of parenting, the long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences, and the temporal dynamics of interpersonal interaction. Click to view Hung-Chu’s research lab, the Developmental Science Lab.
QINGYU JIANG, PHD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Qingyu Jiang received her PhD in human sciences with a focus on child, youth, and family studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her BA in psychology from Michigan State University. Her research focuses on investigating the long-term impacts of early contexts (e.g., family, culture) and experiences (e.g., early adversity, resilience, immigration, poverty) on children’s and adolescents’ socio-emotional development and mental health. She is also interested in understanding the role of contemplative practices (e.g., compassion, mindfulness, reflection) in enhancing caregivers’ wellbeing and children’s healthy development. She is passionate about translating research into practice (e.g., interventions, program evaluation) that supports early childhood development, education, and mental health.
SUNAH HYUN, EDM, PHD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sunah received her B.A. in Social and Cultural Communication from the University of Washington, Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Ph.D. in Child Study and Human Development from Tufts University. She is a community-based researcher whose chief aim is to develop culturally responsive interventions and conduct research to foster healthy development and school success for children and families. Her current research focuses on understanding low-income immigrant families, children’s cultural adjustments in the US context, and identifying specific areas of resilience to address the risks that arise for these vulnerable groups.
CANDICE MA, BA
Study Coordinator
Candice received her B.A. in Psychology and minor in Chinese from the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her undergraduate honors thesis on children's endorsement of myths. Before joining the DRCR lab, she worked as a project manager in a cognitive development lab and a research assistant in a sexual psychophysiology lab. She is currently interested in developing a culturally sensitive understanding of early childhood experiences, wellbeing, and resilience. In the future, she hopes to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology with a focus on working with Asian immigrant families and children.
EMILY ZHANG, MA
Graduate Research Assistant
Emily received her bachelor’s degree in Community Health and Child Development and her Master's degree in Clinical Developmental Health and Psychology from Tufts University. She is interested in culturally-sensitive and community-based research with families and youth regarding mental health prevention, education, and interventions.
FINNEAS WONG, BA
Graduate Research Assistant
Finneas is a first-year Counseling Psychology doctoral student at Arizona State University. He graduated from Tufts University with a BA in Clinical Psychology in 2019. He is interested in examining the intersection between racial-ethnic and gender identities, associated risk and protective factors, and related mental health and psychosocial outcomes. Additionally, he hopes to develop/evaluate identity and culturally sensitive psychological measures and interventions. In the future, Finneas is looking forward to giving back to the Asian and LGBTQ+ communities through research and clinical work.
INTERVIEWERS
GABRIELA TASLITSKY, BA
EMA NOONAN
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