Mills Cognition Lab Members

Director

Dr. Christie Chung is an Assistant Professor of  Psychology at Mills College. She received her Honours BSc as a Psychology Specialist from University of Toronto, her MA and PhD in Applied Cognitive Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, and postdoctoral training in Behavioral Neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT). When Dr. Chung is not busy thinking about how memory changes with age, she enjoys baking, traveling around the world, going to the gym, playing music on her piano, and singing (PlayStation karaoke games!).

Research Assistants

Sara Harris graduated with honors from Mills College in May 2009 with a Bachelor of Art in Psychology, Research. She is interested in various aspects of cognitive psychology and neuroscience such as memory, learning, decision-making, as well as social cognition and media psychology. Her hobbies include exercising, watching movies, reading, and spending time with friends and family. In the future, she hopes to further her knowledge of psychological research at the graduate level. Until then, she is very excited about working with the Mills Cognition Lab.

Jennifer Johnson is a Fall 2008 Mills graduate in Psychology. Before pursuing graduate studies, she is excited to research memory and aging. She also has special interest in emotion, early relationships, and physical health and well-being. She hopes to move to Barcelona next summer to study Spanish. In her spare time Jennifer likes to play tennis and attempt to do pull-ups.

Ziyong Lin has been an undergraduate student at Mills College since August, 2008. She is working on her double-major in psychology and music. Ziyong joined the Cognition Lab in the summer of 2009. She went back to China and helped Dr. Chung collect data for the positive effect project. Since she is interested in both music and psychology, she is trying to find a way to combine these two fields. In her spare time, she enjoys playing flute and studying ancient Chinese poetry.

Ekaterina Mahinda graduated from Mills in December 2008 with a degree in Psychology. She is interested in women's health issues. Ekaterina would like to focus her studies on the correlations between people's health and their cognitive processes such as memory and learning. She hopes to enter a PhD program in clinical psychology. She loves to read, cook and spend time with family and friends.

Frishta Sharifi has graduated from Mills College, in 2008, with a BA in psychology and a minor in women studies. Her goal is to enter a PhD program in clinical-cognitive psychology or neuro-psychology. She is very interested in research in humans' physical health and its relations to cognitive aging. In the field of women studies, Frishta is interested in exploring the conflicts that modern day women (in particular women of the east) experience in terms of reconciliation of their faith/traditions with the necessities of modernity. In her free time, she is busy with personal training and teaching group exercise classes in a gym.

Lou Ann Smith Berardi graduated from Mills in 1952. She then obtained her General Secondary Teaching Credential at SFSU and Master of Arts at UC Berkeley. Lou Ann worked in education for 45 years, the last 17 as the Skills Assessment and Development instructor for Loyola High School and College Preparatory in Los Angeles. She is now retired and is working to encourage seniors to write their stories and memoirs.

Sarah A. Wong, BA, graduated from Mills College with a Bachelor of Art in Psychology, Research and a minor in Asian Studies in May, 2008. While initially vowing that neuroscience just wasn't for her, through her work with Dr. Chung's Cognition Lab, Sarah developed an interest in the connection between attachment theory and emotional memory in cognitive behavioral and neurocognitive brain activity. (Turned out she liked brains/psychological research too much.) While she is currently working full time for City Hall of San Francisco, she hopes to pursue further graduate studies in cognitive psychology with an emphasis on lifespan development and integrative cultural studies and eventually wishes to travel to Japan and the vastness of Asia for further research opportunities.

Past Members

Rue Avant is a first year doctoral candidate at Mills College, majoring in Education Leadership. She is a teacher and coach. She received her MA in Museum Studies from San Francisco State University, and her BA, magna cum laude, in History from California State University, Northridge. Her focus is minority students and women and the analysis of trends in literacy rates, college graduation rates and the arts and developmental learning. Rue looks forward to work at the Cognition Laboratory and is especially interested in the design of the behavioral studies and data analysis.

Ana Ruth Tejada Castillo, BA

May Chen (visiting student) is an undergraduate at Wellesley College, working towards a degree in Cognitive Science with a minor in Computer Science. Unable to pull herself away from the world of academia, May joined the Cognition Lab winter of 2009. She is particularly interested in perception and information processing in the brain. In her free time, she likes to draw, travel and hang out with friends.