Click HERE for a detailed website that is all about our lab – and how YOU can maybe join!
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Current Graduate Students
Current Undergraduate Students
Current Post-Bac Students
Visiting Scholars and Researchers
Affiliated Faculty
Past Students/Alumni
Click HERE for a detailed website that is all about our lab – and how YOU can maybe join!
Lab Director
Glenn Geher
Email Glenn Geher has been the Director of the New Paltz Evolutionary Psychology Lab since 2000. Glenn received a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of New Hampshire in 1997. Glenn is Professor of Psychology as well as Founding Director of Evolutionary Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Glenn has taught several courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels–including Statistics, Social Psychology, and Evolutionary Psychology–and has won the New Paltz Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award, along with Chancellor’s Awards for both Teaching and Research Excellence from the State University of New York. Glenn also won an award for Outstanding Academic Advising from NACADA, the global organization for outstanding advising. In overseeing the lab, along with dozens of lab members over the years, Glenn has co-published over 100 scholarly works, including eight books (several of which include students as co-authors and/or contributors). Glenn is thrilled to see members of the lab achieve all kinds of success, including giving presentations at conferences, publishing academic book chapters and articles, receiving various awards (such as the Psychology Student of Excellence and President’s Outstanding Student awards), and getting into various graduate programs (including programs at such places as Columbia University, Auburn University, UC Davis, University of Florida, Depaul University, Oakland University, Brunel University–and way more!).
In directing the lab, Glenn works to cultivate a positive and supportive, team-based culture that integrates fun and hard work in equal measures. Directing the lab and working with students on research is perhaps the greatest thrill of Glenn’s professional career.
He also is the lead guitarist for the Hudson Valley’s only all-professional rock band, Questionable Authorities.
Visiting Researchers
Jacqueline M. Di Santo
Email Jacqueline joined the lab in Spring of 2017 while completing her MA in Psychology at SUNY New Paltz. Before joining the lab, she conducted mental health research and led group therapy at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center in Wards Island, New York and was involved with the Elasmobranch Research Lab at Florida Atlantic University studying sexual dimorphism. During her time as a graduate student, Jacqueline served as the assistant for the renowned Evolutionary Studies Program at New Paltz and co-supervisor for the EP lab for 3.5 years. Jacqueline currently teaches for the biology department both at SUNY New Paltz and Marist College. She also teaches part-time at New Paltz for the evolutionary studies program and the psychology department. In addition to her teaching positions, Jacqueline works as a project manager and information systems specialist at a non-profit organization. Jacqueline’s primary research interest is in mating psychology, specifically involving romantic and sexual relationships. Her research interests also include social relationships, marine science, and comparative psychology.
Emma Jerabek
Email Emma joined the lab Fall of 2021 as a SUNY New Paltz undergraduate. They will graduate with a major in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. Their interests include evolutionary studies and clinical psychology, and Questionable Authorities!”
Sethu Karthikeyan
Email Website Sethu Karthikeyan is Associate Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders program at Pace University. She is interested in exploring the development and use of spoken language from an evolutionary perspective. She has also developed an interest in examining ethnographic reports through an evolutionary lens.
Lauren Kennedy
Email Lauren is a senior at SUNY New Paltz, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. She joined the lab in the fall of 2022, after taking Dr. Geher’s Evolutionary Psychology course and becoming immediately interested in the field. She is graduating in the spring of 2023, and plans to pursue a PhD in either clinical or counseling psychology. Lauren’s interests include behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, perceptual psychology, social psychology, and sociological theory. She is currently an intern for the Family Inn homeless shelter, where she is shadowing a case manager and crisis counselor.
Graham Thomson
Email Graham joined the lab in 2018 as a Visiting Scholar. He graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a Major in Psychology and a Minor in Black Studies. Graham received an MSW from Adelphi University and has since then obtained his licensure through New York State. He is currently practicing as a psychotherapist at the Arc Greater Hudson Valley where he is gaining experience in the field of Clinical Social Work and planning on continuing his education within the field of psychology. Graham has participated in statistical analyses within the lab and has focused on studying the concept of Resiliency within Evolutionary Psychology. Currently he is concentrating upon the concept of Artificial Intelligence within the paradigm.
Current Graduate Students
Ethan Eisenberg
Email Ethan is in his last year of undergrad and has been a part of the New Paltz Evolutionary Psychology lab since his Sophomore year. Since being on the lab, Ethan proposed the now in-progress Catfishing study, revived the Evolutionary Studies Club (holding the position of President), and chaired the Hudson Valley Humanists Darwin Day Symposium. With the help of Dr. Geher and the rest of the lab, he is currently starting a study on eating disorders (through an Evolutionary lens) a main area of interest, which will also serve as his Honors Program thesis. In his free time, Ethan enjoys consuming horror movies and baked goods, soaking up the beauty of the Hudson Valley, singing in the shower, and serving as a peer mentor/ sponsor for people with eating disorders.
Mariah Griffin 
Email Mariah joined the lab in the Spring of 2018 and is a graduate student in the Mental Health Counseling Program here at SUNY New Paltz. She received her B.A. in Psychology this Spring and is now a Teaching Assistant for Psychological Statistics. Her research interests include sexual development and general evolutionary psychology.
Kaitlyn Longo
Email Kaitlyn joined the lab in Spring of 2022 as a last semester undergrad student. She received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in
Disaster Studies. She returned to New Paltz to complete her M.S. in Psychological Science. She is lab co-supervisor, assistant of the Evolutionary Studies Program, and is also the Graduate Coordinator for the Student Psychological Resilience Project. Her research interests include clinical psychology, abnormal psychology, criminal psychology, developmental psychology, and evolutionary psychology.
Sergio A. Lopez
Email Sergio received a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Evolutionary Studies. During his undergraduate studies he conducted research in the fields of motivational psychology and goal achievement. He started his graduate studies in Psychological Science in 2021 and joined the evolutionary lab in 2022. He serves as an alumni member on the Honors Advisory Board at SUNY Orange. Sergio’s current research interests include evolutionary psychology, relationship behavior, and religious studies.
Kelly Nolan
Email Kelly Nolan joined the lab as an undergraduate student from SUNY New Paltz in the Spring of 2020. After receiving her B.A. in Psychology, with a concentration in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and a minor in Evolutionary Studies, she rejoined SUNY New Paltz, and the lab in order to complete her M.S. in Psychological Sciences. She is currently the webmaster of the lab website, as well as the co-lab supervisor. Her research interests include, social cognition from an evolutionary perspective, industrial/organizational psychology, and human/animal interspecies relationships.
Kyle Powell
Email Kyle took part in Glenn Geher’s advanced research class in Fall of 2021. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology with a concentration in Psychobiology in December 2021. He spent the next six months teaching high school science, then rejoined the New Paltz community as a student and a teaching assistant in the Psychological Science Masters Program in Fall 2022. He became an official lab member at this time. His research interests include olfaction and its influences on behavior, school psychology and policy, and evolutionary psychology in general.
Current Undergraduate Students
Ashlee Dykeman
Email Ashlee Dykeman joined the lab in the spring of 2023. She is an undergraduate student at SUNY New Paltz with a major in astronomy and a double minor in evolutionary studies and geology. She is interested in sexual psychology and looks forward to future research. As well as assisting in the lab, she is also a public presenter at the John R. Kirk planetarium. After graduation, she plans to pursue a PhD in astrobiology, using her knowledge on evolution to bring a new perspective.
Julia Lombard
Email Julia joined the lab in the Spring of 2022 as an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Evolutionary studies. Her interests include topics in Evolutionary Psychology, Social Psychology, and the Psychology of Morality. As of the Fall 2022 semester, she is one of the co-lab supervisors. Outside of the lab, Julia enjoys singing and holds many roles at the Center For Student Success at SUNY New Paltz.
Julia Perfetti
Past Students/Alumni
Gökçe Sancak Aydın
Email Gökçe joined the lab in the Spring of 2014 as a visiting scholar and researcher. She graduated from Ege University in 2006, majoring in psychological counseling and guidance. She worked as a psychological counselor for 3 years, and completed a doctoral degree in the Psychological Counseling and Guidance Department at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey. Her research interests include mate selection, cognition, and culture. She is now a professor of counseling at Bozok University in Turkey.
Amanda Baroni
Email Amanda joined the lab in Fall 2016 as a first-year MA Psychology student. She graduated from SUNY Albany with a BA in Psychology and Anthropology in 2014. Her research interests focus on mate selection, sexual orientation, and gender identity from an evolutionary perspective and intersections of Organizational Psychology and evolution. Her outside interests include archery, hiking, and reading, particularly on general topics in human sexuality.
Paige Blayne
Email Paige joined the lab in the spring of 2019. She is double majoring in psychology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Her research interests include general abnormal psychology, dissociative disorders, and general evolutionary psychology.
Ana M. Cañas
Email Ana joined the lab in Fall 2013 as an undergraduate assistant. She majored in Psychology with a minor in Evolutionary Studies. Her research interests include evolutionary psychology, culture and cognition, neuropsychology, and environmental and developmental psychology. She completed a Master’s Degree at Columbia University.
Rachael Carmen
Website Email Rachael joined the lab in Fall 2009, after graduating from SUNY New Paltz in the Spring of 2009 with her BA in Psychology (minoring in Evolutionary Studies and History). Her research interests lie in human sexuality in general, and the female sexual response in particular. By combining ideas from various disciplines in psychology (including Evolutionary Psychology), she hopes to get at age-old questions regarding the female orgasm. Rachael was the first-ever student signed up in the SUNY New Paltz EvoS program.
Allisen Casey
Email Allisen graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology with a minor in Business Administration. In her final year as an undergraduate, Allisen worked with Glenn to complete her senior honors thesis which sought to better understand one’s experience with flow and its effect on their productivity. Joining the lab in Spring 2020 as a visiting scholar, she now works as a DEI Engagement Strategy Intern at NASA while pursuing her Master’s Degree in I/O Psychology at Baruch College.
Corinna Chaize
Email Corinna was one of Dr. Geher’s research assistants in 2007 and 2008 and was also hired around that time to help set up and support the Evolutionary Studies Minor program. She is currently a Mental Health Therapist for Morrison Child and Family Services in Portland, OR.
David Chapleau
Email David Joined the lab in the fall of 2013. During his undergraduate career at SUNY Plattsburgh, he was a teaching assistant for Evolutionary Psychology and Biopsychology. David also worked as an intern at the Regional TBI center and was a Research Assistant who primarily studied deceptive mating strategies. He graduated cum laude from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2013 with a BS in Psychology. His thesis focused on the evolutionary mismatch between human mate selection and the use of online dating services.
William Costello
Email Website Twitter William joined the lab in Fall 2021 as a visiting researcher patching in virtually from the UK. In 2021 he graduated summa cum laude from the MSc in Psychology, Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London, where he was part of Prof. David Schmitt’s Personality and Culture lab. Under Prof. Schmitt’s supervision his thesis investigated the underlying psychology of incels (involuntary celibates). This research was presented as a data-blitz at the Sexuality Pre-conference of SPSP (Society for Personality and Social Psychology) Conference 2022, and was used to inform the UK government Commission for Counter Extremism.
William is currently a PhD student with Dr. Andrew Thomas at Swansea University, where he continues to research incel psychology, as well as other collaborative research projects on the emotional cost of involuntary singlehood, how people try to make themselves more attractive, and a cross cultural study investigating sex differences in the link between sexual history and attractiveness.
Throughout his Masters William presented theoretical research at the British Psychological Society Male Psychology Conference 2021, NEEPS (Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society) Conference 2021. His academic poster on “effective polygyny in the modern mating market” was voted “best poster” at the University of Stirling Evolutionary Perspectives on Culture Conference 2021 and he was also awarded the FEPS (Feminist Evolutionary Perspectives Society) Award in 2021.
William has published pop-science articles in outlets such as Quillette and Areo, including a review of Dr. David Buss’s new book When Men Behave Badly: the Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harrassment and Assault.
William is interested in all aspects of mating psychology, in particular evolutionary mismatch in mating, attraction inequality, sexual conflict, and consensual non monogamy.
In his spare time William loves playing his native Irish game of Gaelic Football, doing hot yoga, going to the cinema, travelling, going to new restaurants and spending far too much time on twitter.
FUN FACT: William is UNDEFEATED in limbo contests.
Shelly Cristo
Email Shelly joined the lab spring of 2019. She graduated with her BA from New Paltz in December of 2019, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Evolutionary Studies. Shelly now serves as a visiting researcher in the lab. Her interest includes developmental psychology, genetics, and learning more about evolution.
Ben Crosier
M.A. 2010
Website Email Dr. Crosier served as a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College’s Center for Technology and Behavioral Health. His primary research centers on building predictive models of health behavior with social media data, machine learning, and social network analysis. He also works on developing new ways to collect social media data, focusing on web-based marketing. He currently lives in California and he rides a snowboard.
Gianna Damato
Email Gianna joined the lab in the spring of 2019. She is majoring in psychology with a minor in art studio. Her research interests include general abnormal psychology, human development, and general evolutionary psychology.
Blair Dawson
Email Blair is a recent graduate from SUNY New Paltz with a B.A. in Psychology. She is currently working on several projects in the lab with a specific interest in mating and sexual behavior.
Nick DeFazio
Email Nick joined
the lab in the fall semester of 2022 during his junior year at SUNY New Paltz. He is currently working to finish his bachelors degree in Psychology with minors in sociology and evolutionary studies. He became interested in the Evos. program after taking Glenn’s evolutionary psychology course during his sophomore year. He is very interested in research regarding evolutionary explanations to peace and war and the psychology of addiction. He is also involved in Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, a peace organization based in upstate NY.
Email Gina joined the lab in Fall of 2021 and is an undergraduate student at SUNY New Paltz. She is graduating in the Spring Semester of 2022 with a major in Psychology. Her area of interest is in Psychological Statistics and wants to go into the field of Data Analytics.
Jason Diffenderfer
Email Jason served as Dr. Geher’s Graduate Teaching Assistant for his Experimental Psychology course during the Fall 2004 semester. Glenn was Jason’s advisor for his master’s thesis, titled Mating Intelligence, Machiavellianism, and Self-Monitoring as Predictors of the Recognition of and Participation in Behaviors Associated with Mental Fitness Indicators, which used one of the early measures of mating intelligence that Dr. Geher developed. Jason completed his thesis in 2007. Dr. Geher greatly reinforced and built upon Jason’s research and analysis skills. Jason directly uses the skills that those experiences helped him develop each day in his current career as the Director of Institutional Research at Pace University.
Amelia De Jesus
Email Amelia joined the lab in Spring of 2020 for her last semester as a SUNY New Paltz undergraduate. She will be graduating with a B.A., majoring in Psychology and minoring in Evolutionary Studies. Her interests include altruism, evolutionary psychology of estrangements and social transgressions, and general evolutionary psychology.
Genevieve Durso
Email Gen graduated with a BA in December 2017, majored in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience from the University at Albany. Gen was extensively involved in a research lab through the University at Albany which focused on the effects of mindfulness on the reduction of one’s psychophysiology in regards to childhood/adolescent abuse within the household and other early-onset traumatic experiences. Gen also worked as a Behavioral Therapist for Autistic youth for early intervention programs, where she taught patients skills to help them achieve developmental milestones. Gen currently does free-lance writing for a psycho-neuroscience-based website and will be started a MA program at CUNY Hunter in the Fall of 2019.
Jackie Eisenberg
Email Jackie joined the lab in the fall of 2015. She was a dual major in Psychology and Communication Disorders, as well as a minor in Deaf Studies. Her interests are in general evolutionary psychology.
Jessica Fell
M.A. 2014
Website Email Jessica joined the lab in the fall of 2012. She completed her undergrad at Marist College, majoring in business. After working as a human resource professional for several years, Jessica enrolled in the MA program at New Paltz. Her research interests (and thesis work) investigated topics in health psychology through an evolutionary perspective.
Mary Finn
Email Mary joined the lab in 2010 after graduating from SUNY Albany where she worked with Gordon Gallup in his Evolution and Human Behavior Laboratory. Her interests span the field of psychology, but she is currently focusing on the intersection of Clinical, Forensic and Evolutionary Psychology. Her current research investigates female counter adaptations to male sexual coercion, hopefully with positive implications for the field of rape prevention.
Brianna Fitapelli
Email Brianna joined the lab Winter of 2020 in her Senior year as a SUNY New Paltz undergraduate. She graduated in May 2021 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. She then completed Teachers College, Columbia University’s clinical psychology MA program and was subsequently accepted to Adelphi University’s clinical psychology Ph.D. program. Brianna is currently a first-year doctoral student and her research interests include community reintegration, social functioning and cognition, and mindfulness in the SMI population, particularly psychosis. She plans to develop and refine interventions to improve well-being and ameliorate symptoms of psychopathology, keeping in mind the evolutionary mismatch of technological advances in modern day society.
Victoria Freeborn
Email Victoria joined the lab in the fall of 2015. She was a psychobiology major and evolutionary studies minor at SUNY New Paltz. Her interests include the evolutionary psychology of aggression and comparative animal psychology.
Ari J. Freuman
Email Ari studied History and Psychology here at SUNY – New Paltz, graduating with his B.A.’s in 2008. He joined the psychology graduate program in Fall 2009. His research interests include mate choice, evolved mating strategies and courtship within the context of long-term mating. Having finished his coursework, Ari is currently working on his thesis, in which he plans to develop a theoretical framework behind evolved courtship behaviors. As a side study, Ari is employing morphometric analyses in order to examine which types of attributes (both physical and non-physical) confer either suspected short-term or long-term male mating strategies.
Megan Fritche
Email Megan Fritche joined the lab as an undergraduate student at SUNY New Paltz. In the Spring of 2021, she will be graduating with her B.A. in psychology and a minor in communications. She gained interest in evolutionary psychology after taking an advanced course with Glenn Geher, where she began doing research in social and evolutionary psychology. Her interests include abnormal psychology, archival studies, reading, writing, and hiking.
Daniel Gambacorta
Class of 2009
Email Daniel graduated in 2009 from SUNY New Paltz, with a major in psychology and minors in sociology and evolutionary studies. He then completed a PhD at New Mexico State University in the social psychology program. He is interested in social status, morality, positive psychology, and mating. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Psychological Science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Sarai Garcia
Email Sarai was a junior at SUNY New Paltz. She pursued a dual degree program for a B.S. in Psychobiology and a B.A. in Sociology-Criminology with a minor in Disaster Studies. She is planning on applying to graduate school for a PhD in Clinical Psychology with an application towards criminal and juvenile rehabilitation. She joined the lab during the Spring 2022 semester, and is also part of the Evolutionary Psychology Research Team’s study on the psychology of honesty and its relation to social perception. Sarai is interested in neuropsychology, psychopathology, criminal psychology, and the development of evidence-based clinical intervention research in crisis populations.
Daniel Glass
Morgan Gleason
Email Website Morgan graduated from Johnson & Wales University in 2008, with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting! After spending 5 years as a business professional, she enrolled in the Master’s program at SUNY New Paltz to pursue her true passion: Psychology. Morgan was immediately drawn to the enthusiasm of the EvoS lab on campus and joined the lab in the Fall of 2012. Her Master’s thesis involved examining how various measures of emotional intelligence correlated with musical ability. She obtained her MA in Psychology in December of 2014 and taught a variety of courses at SUNY New Paltz as an adjunct. Morgan is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at DePaul University in Chicago.
Alec Goldstein
Email Alec joined the lab in the Fall of 2017. He is a Psychology major with minors in Evolutionary Studies and Music performance. He is also currently conducting research in the Development in Language Lab on campus. His research interests include evolved mating psychology and the evolution of the brain. Alec is currently attending a Ph.D. program at Syracuse University!
Avrey Goodwine
Email Avrey Goodwine is a senior at SUNY New Paltz majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Biology. She joined the lab in 2021 and is interested in neuropsychology and the surrounding studies of the brain. In the lab, she is currently working on two studies that are in progress which will hopefully be published.
Lukas Grandis
Email Lukas joined the lab in Fall 2011 as a Senior. He was an Industrial-Organizational Psychology major and a member of Psi Chi. His research interests include U.S. body hair culture, the female orgasm, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, the overmedicalization of sex, addictive personalities, and cardiac psychology. He co-authored an article through the lab that was on sex differences in sports participation through an evolutionary lens.
Amanda Guitar
Website Email Mandy joined the lab in Fall 2010 after graduating from New Mexico State University ’10 with a BA in Psychology and a Minor in Theatre Arts. Her research interests lie in a combination of Evolutionary and Health Psychology, with a particular focus on anxiety in mating. She is completing a PhD in Biological Anthropology at the University of Alabama.
Raina Hafftka
Email Raina joined the lab in spring 2013 as an undergraduate assistant. She majored in Psychology with a minor in Disaster Studies. Her research interests include evolutionary psychology, clinical psychology, and the psychology of women. She is currently in a PhD program in Counseling Psychology at Auburn University.
Richard Holler
Email As an undergraduate, Richard majored in Psychology (BA), minored in Biology, and encountered the utilitarian perspectives of Evolutionary Anthropology and Psychology under Dr. David Puts at The Pennsylvania State University. Richard was also fortunate to assist Dr. Daniel Conroy-Beam and Dr. Laith Al-Shawaf from the Buss Lab at The University of Texas at Austin as a post-bac. His research interests consist of the development of sexual and romantic desire and orientation from an evolutionary perspective as well as their interplay with sex hormones. Outside of his Research Assistantship with Dr. Carol Vazquez’s Social-Cognition Lab, Richard served as one of the lab’s Co-Supervisers, a Teaching Assistant for Evolutionary Psychology, and he served as the Assistant of the Evolutionary Studies Program. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Evolutionary Psychology at Oakland University.
Olivia Jewell
Email Olivia joined the lab in the fall of 2016 after graduating from James Madison University with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in music. This will be her second year as a graduate student at SUNY New Paltz. Her interests include mate selection, music’s role in evolution, and the evolutionary importance of social intelligence. Additionally, Olivia works as a Teaching Assistant at SUNY New Paltz for undergraduate Research Methods. Looking forward, Olivia is planning to pursue a PhD in Experimental Psychology at Brunel University London.
Laura Johnsen
Website Email Laura joined the lab in 2007 as a junior in high school. She majored in both Psychology and Theatre Arts with a concentration in Costume Design and she was an Evolutionary Studies Minor (and the President of the Evolutionary Studies Club). Her current research projects are studying divorce patterns and their correlations with the male: female mortality ratio, applying theories from evolutionary psychology to current sex and health education curriculum in high school settings, analyzing how childhood injuries may relate to life history strategy, and analyzing Harlequin Blaze novels from an Evolutionary Perspective. Laura is currently a PhD student in Biological Anthropology at Binghamton University.
Abbey Kurtz
Email Abbey started Lab during the Fall 2009 semester as a Junior. She majored in psychology with a minor in Evolutionary Studies and she served as the assistant to the Evolutionary Studies program. Abbey conducted research in applying evolutionary theories to the current sex and health education curriculum in high school settings.
Elizabeth Levy
Email Elizabeth joined the lab in the fall of 2014 as an undergraduate assistant. She majored in Psychology with a minor in Evolutionary Studies at SUNY New Paltz.
Jennifer Link
Email Jen joined the lab in the Fall of 2019 and is a graduate student in the Psychological Science Program here at SUNY New Paltz. She is currently a TA for Research methods in Psychology. She received her BA in Psychology from Arcadia University, and during her time there, published a paper on social perceptions of others with her professor. Her research interests include general evolutionary psychology, canine cognition, and the Human-Animal Interaction.
Katrina Lippolt
Email Katrina joined the lab in the fall of 2015. As a senior in her undergraduate studies, she has double majored in psychology and evolutionary studies. Her research interests fall within the evolutionary theory behind human relationships.
Brittany Mabie
Email Brittany joined the lab in the Fall of 2015 as a first-year graduate student. She obtained her BA in Psychology in 2014 from SUNY Oneonta. She spent the majority of her undergraduate degree as a research assistant, teacher assistant, and conducted numerous studies with faculty. Her interest includes social and evolutionary perspectives in psychology, with a concentration in personalities and deviance in society.
Alex Mackiel
Email Website Alex Mackiel joined the lab in the Fall of 2019 after graduating from Carleton College with a B.A. in Psychology and English and is currently a co-supervisor of the lab. He is a graduate student in the Psychological Sciences program at SUNY New Paltz. He has been a TA for Psychology Research Methods and Psychological Statistics. He is also a member of Dr. Wice’s Social Developmental Lab at SUNY New Paltz. In addition to research at SUNY New Paltz he is a research assistant for the Culture, Cognition, and Coevolution Lab at Harvard University in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. Aside from research, he is also interested in science writing and has published his writings in online blogs and magazines including Psychology Today and Quillette on the human mind and behavior. His research interests include the application of evolutionary theory to human social behavior especially morality, punishment, cooperation, coordination, and tribalism.
Heather Mangione
Class of 2007, M.A. 2010
Email Heather completed both her undergrad and Master’s degree at New Paltz. While in the lab, she worked with Glenn to start NEEPS, and wrote her BA Honors Thesis on controversies surrounding EP and the formation of NEEPS. Her interests are culture, learning, parenting, immigration, and human development. Heather’s MA thesis was on immigrant mothers’ parenting beliefs.
Kaelyn Marks
Email Kaelyn joined the lab in the Fall of 2019. She graduated with her MS in Psychological Science from SUNY New Paltz in December of 2021 and holds a BA in Applied Psychology from UMass Amherst. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Hofstra University and training within the ACT and DBT clinics. She also works as an Instructor of Applied Behavior Analysis providing home based services. During her time at SUNY New Paltz, she was a course assistant for Psychology of Personality, taught yoga at the Athletic and Wellness Center, and worked as a Youth Advocate, Community Habilitation Specialist, and Volunteer Crisis Counselor for local organizations. She was also a member of Dr. Wice’s Social Perceptions Lab and Dr. Holmes’ Narrative Psychology Lab. Her interests include religion, spirituality, sexuality, and trauma.
Maureen McCarthy
Email Maureen was an undergraduate student at SUNY New Paltz. She was a Psychology major with minors in English and German studies, and she recently added Evolutionary Studies as a third minor. During her senior year, she discovered a deep interest in EvoS when she decided to attend some of the seminars out of curiosity in spring 2014. She wanted to get a feel for what it would be like to conduct research in a relatively new field such as this, so…and the rest is history! She is particularly interested in the evolutionary bases of dating and monogamy, as well as the bonds in a close friendship.
Kieran McDonald
Email Kieran is a junior at SUNY New Paltz, pursuing a bachelors in Psychology with a minor in music. He joined in the spring of 2023 after taking Evolutionary psych in the fall. Kieran is on track to graduate in the spring of 2024 and the plan after graduating is to get a masters in music therapy. Kieran’s interests are in addiction recovery, music therapy and the opioid crisis.
Brianna McQuade
Email Website Brianna joined the lab Fall of 2020 in her Junior year as a SUNY New Paltz undergraduate. She will be graduating with a major in Psychology and minors in both Evolutionary Studies and Studio Art. Her interests include the evolutionary psychology behind children’s educational systems and evolutionary mismatch.
Jake Meyers
Email Jake joined the lab Spring of 2021as a SUNY New Paltz undergraduate. He will be graduating with a major in Psychology and a minor in Evolutionary Studies and Law and Politics. His interests are in sport psychology, evolutionary psychology and evolutionary mismatch in social media and the effects on youth.
Darcy Montana
Email Darcy joined the lab in the Fall of 2020, in her Junior year as a SUNY New Paltz undergraduate. She will be graduating with a major in Psychology and minors in Disaster Studies and Evolutionary Studies. Darcy is a co-lab supervisor and the assistant of the Evolutionary Studies Program. She was the principal investigator on a social psychological study on the effects of “ghosting”. Her main interest is in major mental health disorders, and she currently works with an adult population living with severe, persistent mental illnesses (e.g., schizophrenia).
Haley Moss Dillon, Ph.D.
Website Email Haley Dillon earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Kansas State University. She is also alumni of the lab, graduating with her M.A. in Psychology at SUNY New Paltz after completing a B.A. in Psychology at SUNY Plattsburgh. Haley currently teaches at Marist College, SUNY Plattsburgh, and SUNY New Paltz.
Andrew Murphy
Email Andrew will receive a B.A. in Psychology at SUNY New Paltz in spring 2022. He has been part of the lab since spring 2022. Regarding evolutionary psychology, he is interested in how modern technology (e.g. social media, cell phones) interrelates with human evolutionary-based traits and behavior, both positively and negatively. Andrew’s career mission is teaching meditation and mindfulness to all people, in particular, to young children. Andrew’s fun fact: he is founder of a meditation website, full with his guided meditations and various other content aimed at improving mental health for all people.
Regina Musicario
Email Regina graduated Summa Cum Laude from New Paltz in 2007, majoring in psychology with a concentration in psychobiology. After New Paltz, she worked in the cognitive neuroscience Lab of Aging and Cognition at Harvard University assisting fMRI research on memory, planning, and imagination. She also worked in the Harvard Museum of Natural History, a cool place for people who are passionate about evolution! Regina is currently the Clinical Research Coordinator at the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute where she works on a randomized clinical trial using neurofeedback to treat complex trauma, the Developmental Trauma Disorder Field Trial, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga classes, and a nation-wide training initiative on Enhancing Multidisciplinary Responses to Polyvictimization.
Kelsey Newhook
Email Kelsey joined the lab in the fall of 2016 as an undergraduate assistant. She’s majored in Psychology and minored in Evolutionary Studies and Anthropology. Her research interests include evolutionary psychology, social psychology, and forensic psychology.
Rebecca Newmark
Website Email Rebecca joined the lab in Fall 2011 after graduating from Binghamton University in 2009. Her research interests lie in evolutionary psychology, with a particular focus on mate selection and oxytocin. She is now in a PhD program in social psychology at Loyola University in Chicago.
Shay O’Leary
Email Shay joined the lab in the fall of 2014. She majored in psychobiology before graduating from SUNY New Paltz in 2015, and her interests are in physiological psychology, cognition, and developmental psychology.
David Paschal
Email David is an undergraduate who joined the lab in the Spring 2023 semester. He is majoring in psychology and has a minor in biology and evolutionary studies. He is interested in studying human behavior.
Jenny Patel
Email Jenny joined the lab in the Spring of 2019. She graduated in the Spring of 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology at SUNY New Paltz and in the May of 2022 with a Master’s degree in Psychological Science at SUNY New Paltz. She served as a co-lab supervisor in her final year of the graduate program. Her research interests include general evolutionary theories and cross-cultural psychology. Jenny completed her thesis in the May of 2022 that involved looking at the role of culture, parenting and attachment styles in predicting social estrangements. Currently, she is working as an Institutional Research and Reporting Specialist at Manhattanville.
Ashley Peterson
Email Ashley joined the lab in the spring of 2010, after graduating from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in biology. Her research interests lie in personality and individual differences from an evolutionary perspective. She is currently working on a project with Glenn Geher investigating the relationships between Mating Intelligence, Personality, Sociosexuality, Life History Strategy, and preferences for certain sexual acts.
Melvin Philip
Email Melvin was a graduate student in Dr. Geher’s Evolutionary Psychology Laboratory. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior PhD Program at Binghamton University, working in Dr. David Sloan Wilson’s laboratory. His research examines human behavior and cooperation from a cultural evolutionary perspective, with a focus on studying the core design principles for the efficacy of groups in businesses.
Julie A. Planke
Email Website Julie joined the lab in the Fall of 2016 as a first year MA Psychology student. After completing her BA and MA at SUNY New Paltz she continued as a visiting researcher in the lab, co-supervising from 2018 to 2020. During her time at New Paltz, she worked as an adjunct lecturer, as well as a Manager of Information Systems at a local non-profit organization. Julie’s background is in developmental psychology, but currently, she is in the Educational Psychology PhD program at The Ohio State University. Julie is now a Graduate Research Associate at the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy working with Dr. Laura Justice. Julie is now studying intervention practices designed to make the preschool-to-kindergarten transition seamless and productive for all children. Within this domain, Julie’s work examines the critical role of the teacher-child relationship in young children’s academic and socioemotional outcomes.
Nate Postol
Email Nate joined the lab in the summer of 2014 after completing an EvoS seminar class. He majored in psychology at SUNY New Paltz and his interests include nature connection, primatology, and mental health psychology.
Nicholas Primavera
Email Nick joined the lab in the fall of 2016. He is a psychology major and is minoring in sociology. He is also a volunteer firefighter for the town of Milton. His research interests include risk-taking behavior and general evolutionary psychology.
Brianne Rawlins
Email Brianne joined the lab in the fall of 2015 as an undergraduate student. She majored in psychobiology. Her interests include evolutionary psychology in general, physiological psychology, and social psychology.
Clare Redden
Email Clare joined the lab in the spring of 2021 as a Visiting Scholar. She earned her B.A. from Vassar College, and has worked in documentaries for the past six years. She is pursuing her M.A. in clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include trauma, resilience, and evolutionary mismatch.
Vania Rolon
Website Email Vania has been on the run ever since she left her small city in Bolivia. She first completed her B.A. at SUNY Plattsburgh, followed by her M.A. at SUNY New Paltz. She is currently completing her PhD in Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London under a studentship with David Schmitt. Vania’s interests include mating strategies, sex differences, the suppression of female sexuality by both sexes, and heterodoxy in academia. She hopes to one day become a professor and pass down her enthusiasm for evolutionary psychology and psychological statistics down to her students, the way her mentors did with her.
Miriana Ruel
Email Miriana joined the lab in spring of 2019. She is majoring in psychology. Her research interests include child development, specifically attachment theory, and play and education through an evolutionary lens.
Aliza Santos
Email Aliza joined the lab in the Spring of 2020 for her last year at SUNY New Paltz. She is majoring in Psychology with a minor in Evolutionary Studies. Her research interests include child and adolescent development, educational psychology, evolutionary mismatch, and looking at interpersonal behaviors from an evolutionary perspective.
Marissa Schettino
Email Marissa joined the lab in Spring 2023 after taking evolutionary psychology and seminar in positive evolutionary psychology. She is a senior, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in sociology. After graduating she plans to pursue her master’s degree and ultimately her PhD.. Marissa’s interests include social psychology, cultural psychology, cognitive neuroscience and of course, evolutionary psychology.
Andrew Shimkus
Email Andrew joined the lab in the fall of 2013. He graduated from the University of Tampa with a BA in Psychology and a minor in philosophy. His interests include emotional intelligence and mate selection. He is now a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Hartford.
Constantina Stekas
Email Constantina joined the EP lab in the Spring of 2014 as an undergraduate assistant. She majored in Psychobiology with a minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies before graduating from SUNY New Paltz in 2015. Her interests include mating behavior, evolutionary psychology, and the psychology of women.
Briana R. Tauber
M.A. 2014
Website Email Briana joined the lab in Fall 2012, after graduating SUNY New Paltz in the Spring of 2012 with a BA in Psychology (minoring in Evolutionary Studies). Her interests lie in sexual selection and mating intelligence. Briana was the assistant to the Evolutionary Studies program from Fall 2012 to Spring 2014.
Chris Tripoli
Email Chris worked with the lab as a research assistant in 2014, collaborating on a literature review and an empirical project, as well as writing a guest blog for Glenn’s Psychology Today column. In May of 2021 he received his PhD in Behavior, Cognition, and Neuroscience from American University. His work there combined comparative and ethological approaches to behavior and cognition; for instance, his dissertation investigated whether rats behave altruistically. He ultimately hopes to become a professor and researcher of ethological and cross-species approaches to behavior.
Grant Trouton
Email Grant joined the lab in Fall 2011, after graduating from The College of William and Mary in the Spring of 2011 with his BS in Biology and Psychology and a mathematics minor. His research interests span current topics evolutionary psychology.
Nicole Wedberg
Website Email Nicole joined the lab in the summer of 2014. She graduated from California State University of Fullerton with a BA in Psychology in 2013, and then spent a year doing volunteer research at SUNY Albany in evolutionary psychology. Her interests include mate selection and evolutionary mismatch. Nicole completed the MA program in Psychology at SUNY New Paltz and served as the assistant to the Evolutionary Studies program and the EP at NP lab supervisor.
Jeremy Weintraub
Email Jeremy Weintraub is a graduate student at SUNY New Paltz. Jeremy received his B.A. from Stony Brook University, majoring in Political Science. His research interests include evolutionary approaches to Political Science, altruism, mating, and morality.
Aron G. Wiegand
Email Aron earned his BA in Psychology with a biology minor from the American University in Washington DC. He earned his MSc in Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology from the University of ST. Andrews (UK). Aron also studied genetic evolution and neuroanatomy at the University of Edinburgh. His academic interest includes biopsychology, behavioral neuroscience, and evolutionary studies with primary focuses on the origins of communication, higher-order/symbolic thinking, and memory.
Jeysa Williams
Email Jeysa Williams joined the MA program at SUNY New Paltz, and EvoS lab in Fall 2013. She graduated with her BA in psychology from Binghamton University with research experience in human memory and cognition, clinical psychology, and environmental neuropsychology. Her research is focused on social-personality psychology, with a particular focus on evolutionary psychology, prosocial cognition, and mating intelligence. Outside interests include the legal field, writing, language, and the more physical challenges of CrossFit. Jeysa was both a columnist for BU Pipe Dream, and cofounder of the Binghamton Chapter of Active Minds.