Learning & Brain Development Lab

For our first Lab Member Monday of the summer semester, meet one of our new research assistants, Katie Tran! Welcome to the lab, Katie! 🌊🌟

Congratulations to another senior in the lab, Catherine MacConnell! Catherine joined the lab in 2024 and is graduating with a B.S. in Public Health and minor in Strategy, Leadership & Analytics. After graduation, Catherine is returning to Texas to work as a medical assistant and continuing to grow her startup company, GiVV. We are so proud of you, Catherine, and excited for what's next! 🧠💚

Happy graduation to another LBD Lab senior, Alison Sun! Alison has worked with the lab since 2024 and is graduating with a B.S. in Psychology and Neuroscience. After graduation, Alison will begin her Master’s degree and hopes to eventually pursue a Ph.D. Alison, we are so proud of you and your hard work! 🌟💙

Congratulations to all of our graduating lab members! We are so proud of everyone and had such a great time celebrating together last weekend. We will miss you all in the lab next year, but we are so excited to cheer you on in your next steps! 🎓🎉💙

We are so proud of Svetha Mohan, our School Psychology Ph.D. candidate, for successfully defending her dissertation! Svetha will spend the next year completing an internship in integrated primary care before graduating with her Ph.D. Congratulations on this huge accomplishment, Svetha!! 🎉🧠💙

Happy graduation to another one of our seniors, Sydney Meilstrup! Sydney joined the lab in 2023 and is graduating with a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology. After graduation, Sydney will continue to work as an EMT while applying to medical school. Sydney, we are so proud of you and wish you luck with your next steps! ✨🧠

This week, we celebrated spring semester in the lab at Pie with PI! We had so much fun eating pie, sharing good things from the semester, and making crafts. Thank you to everyone on the LBD Lab team for another great semester together! 💚💙

Congratulations to another one of our outstanding graduates, Shanae Venter! Shanae joined the lab in 2023 and graduated in December 2025 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and minors in Public Health and Gender and Sexuality Studies. In July, Shanae will begin medical school at New York Medical College. We are so proud of you, Shanae! 💚🧠

We are so proud of RAs Catherine MacConnell, Emma Crawford, and Shanae Venter for winning awards at recent Tulane poster sessions! Catherine won a Best Poster award for the School of Science and Engineering for her presentation at TRICS. At the NTC Spring Undergraduate Poster Session, Shanae won Best Use of Data, and Emma won Most Visually Appealing. Congratulations!! ✨🧠🎉

Congratulations to our research assistants who presented at Tulane's 2nd annual Tulane Research, Innovation, and Creativity Summit (TRICS) this past week! Catherine MacConnell and Emma Crawford presented posters on maternal adversity and multimedia learning, while Shanae Venter presented a lightning talk on infants' social network. Thank you to everyone who stopped by! ⚜️💚