Please see below for Graduate Students | Research Assistants
 

Dr. Nathaniel Herr Lab Director

Nathaniel Herr is an Associate Professor of Psychology who joined the Psychology Department at American University in 2012. Dr. Herr received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and received postdoctoral training and a faculty appointment at Duke University Medical Center. His research focuses on the etiology and effects of interpersonal dysfunction, emotion regulation difficulties, and identity disturbance particularly among adults or emerging adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
 

 

Ramya Ramadurai

Ramya Ramadurai, MA, is a 5th year doctoral candidate in the Interpersonal Emotion Lab interested in the intersection between racial or identity related trauma and affective and interpersonal difficulties. She is passionate about using findings from this work to adapt behavior therapy interventions, in particular Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, to be more culturally responsive. She further is interested in leveraging digital mental health interventions and single-session methodology to improve the accessibility and scalability of treatment for marginalized communities.

Ramya graduated Boston University in 2016 and worked at McLean Hospital for her post bac as a research assistant in the Cognition and Affect Research and Education (CARE) Lab.

Her research has used novel methods to study the relations between affective challenges and both identity and interpersonal relationships. She has further led projects both in IElab and at the DC VAMC studying how apps may be useful augmentations to group therapy as well as exploring processes within virtual group therapy.

Since 2023, Ramya has been a research fellow at UMass Boston in the Center of Evidence Based Mentoring, under the supervision of Dr. Jean Rhodes and Dr. Alexandra Werntz, studying engagement and implementation of a technology-enabled peer-mentoring intervention. In this work she has served as a consultant to community sites, helping to address issues related to effectiveness, low engagement, and attrition. She has further supported efforts to develop cultural humility trainings, to support antiracist mentor training processes.

Currently Ramya is a research extern at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center supporting research that leverages digital technology to improve the scalability of cognitive assessments for those recovering from stroke. Previously, Ramya has been an extern at Childrens National Hospital and the DC VAMC, and has received intensive DBT full-model training as well as training in addressing comorbid physiological problems like Functional Neurologic Disorder, Pain, and Insomnia.

Ramya is currently on internship at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital.

Email: rr4748a@american.edu

Ramya Ramadurai Research Gate

Kelly Klein

Kelly Klein, MA, joined the lab as a PhD student in 2021 after earning her BS in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University in 2019. At Penn State, she contributed to research and clinical assessment in the Laboratory for Personality Psychopathology and Psychotherapy Research. Following that, she worked as a counselor and clinical research assistant at McLean Hospital's residential DBT program for adolescents, where she provided skills coaching and led DBT groups. She also contributed to the research of the coinciding research group investigating treatment outcomes, family dynamics, and suicidal thoughts & behaviors among adolescents with BPD features.

Kelly's current research explores transdiagnostic mechanisms in BPD—such as identity disturbance, emotion dysregulation, irritability, and NSSI—and their impact on emotional and interpersonal functioning in young-adults. She is also interested in investigating daily life outcomes, the maintenance of close relationships, and physiological correlates with ambulatory methodology. For the past two years, Kelly has worked as an intramural research fellow within the Emotion and Development branch at NIMH where she's broadened her program of research to explore these mechanisms across mood and anxiety disorders as well. She has gained extensive experience in longitudinal methods and analytic approaches, managing the collection of EMA data in a longitudinal study on adolescents with depression and anxiety. Kelly plans to continue this research in the coming year. Currently, Kelly is a clinical extern at the Wake Kendall Group and received foundational DBT training through behavioral tech, and she previously completed a clinical rotation at the Polytrauma Clinic at the DC VAMC

Email: kk3081a@american.edu

Kelly Klein Research Gate

Ella Sudit

Ella Sudit, MA, joined the lab as a PhD student in 2022. She received her BA in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis in 2019. At WashU, Ella worked in the Emotion Regulation and Relationships lab where she completed her honors thesis and the Early Emotional Development Program (EEDP) at WashU Med School. After graduating, she continued working full time at the EEDP studying emotional development and psychological disorders in childhood and adolescents as well as volunteering at the Emotion and Mental Health Lab at WashU, collaborating on research about emotion differentiation and MDD using EMA technology.

Ella’s current research focuses on how emotion processing ability-particularly Emotion Differentiation-impacts mental health trans-diagnostically across the lifespan. In her work, Ella emphasizes using authentic methods of measurement like ecological momentary assessment and daily diary to consider how identities, relationships, and environment influences these processes. She specifically is interested in researching intra- and inter- personal emotion processing in close relationships such as romantic couples, close friendships, and parent-child dyads.

Currently, Ella is completing a clinical rotation at the DC VAMC Mental Health Clinic and previously worked as a Pediatric Psychology Extern at Children’s National Hospital in the Oncology, Hematology, and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. In addition, she is currently a peer supervisor at American University's Gray Community Clinic where she supports student clinicians engaging in CBT and is conducting Neuropsychological assessments within the Eating Disorder's Clinic at Children's National Hospital.

Email: es0511a@american.edu

Ella Sudit Research Gate

Paloma Zabala

Paloma Zabala Rossy, BA, joined the lab as a PhD student in 2023. She graduated with her BA in Psychology from The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill in 2021. While at UNC, Paloma worked in the Peer Relations Lab assisting with behavioral coding of qualitative social media data and working with Spanish-speaking adolescents and their families. After graduation, Paloma received the Post-Baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) Fellowship and spent two years working in the Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. She primarily worked on the Neurobiology of Suicide research protocol, collecting data, administering neuropsychological assessments, running magnetoencephalography (MEG) and fMRI scans, with participants on a continuum of suicide risk. Paloma is currently on externship at the DC VA in the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center, an intensive outpatient program, conducting group therapy with veterans.

Paloma is interested in examining traits commonly seen in borderline personality disorder. Specifically, Paloma is interested in interpersonal factors including protective social support and the risks associated with rejection and exclusion, as well as identity disturbance, and suicidality, and how these factors relate to multicultural research such as ethnicity/race and culture. Paloma has conducted her Master’s Thesis on cultural values as potentially protective factors against social rejection and hopes to continue this line of research in future work.

Email: pz5978a@american.edu

Paloma Zabala Research Gate

Elsa Baumgartner

Elsa Baumgartner, BS, joined the lab as a PhD student in 2024. She graduated with her BS in Psychological Science from the University of Mary Washington in 2022. During her undergraduate studies, she used neuroimaging (e.g., EEG) to examine emotional reactivity and health outcomes in the context of romantic relationships. After graduation, she worked as a research coordinator at the Syracuse VA Medical Center, where she gained experience conducting clinical research with high-risk populations experiencing suicidality, mood disorders, and relationship difficulties.

Elsa’s research examines the etiology and maintenance of BPD, with a focus on how emotion dysregulation, identity disturbance, and interpersonal processes shape the disorder. She is particularly interested in how social experiences, such as support and rejection, influence aggressive responses, both intrapersonal and interpersonal, and how these patterns intersect with core features of BPD. Her work also considers how trauma contributes to the development of BPD, how romantic relationships function as a context for emotion regulation and identity formation, and how clarifying the transdiagnostic nature of BPD symptoms can advance more precise and equitable clinical interventions.

Email: eb0669a@american.edu

Jessica Qiu

Jessica Qiu, BA, joined the lab as a PhD student in 2025. She graduated with her BA in psychology and a minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies from New York University in 2022. After graduation, she worked concurrently as a research coordinator at the Center for Computational Psychiatry and the Mood and Personality Research Program at Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, she coordinated several NIMH and foundation-funded clinical trials to test novel interventions for personality and eating disorders, gaining extensive experience with collecting fMRI, fNIRS, and ecological momentary assessment data. Her current research interests include identity disturbance in the context of borderline personality disorder, emotion dysregulation, and mental health in first- and second-generation immigrant communities.

Email: jq8802a@american.edu

Jessica Qiu ResearchGate

Anna Cibrian

Anna Cibrian, BA, joined the lab as an undergraduate student RA in 2024. She graduated with her BA in Psychology and Criminology from American University in the fall of 2024; she joined the lab during her first semester as a BA/MA student and is set to graduate with her master's in psychology in December of 2025. She has been assisting in running participants for current lab studies, specifically, the IDEAS Study. Anna is currently working on her graduate capstone paper studying the prevalence of mental health disorders amongst incarcerated individuals and the treatment intervention options to be improved upon.
 

Lindsey Tarantola

Lindsey is currently a senior at American University pursuing a BA in Psychology. She has been a research assistant in the Interpersonal Emotions lab for one semester in order to explore her interest in psychological research. In the lab, she ran participants in a study focused on how people navigate and respond to different types of social interactions in online settings. Her research interests include personality psychology, interpersonal functioning, and the impact of stereotyping and prejudice on mental health.
 

Catherine Ratelle

Catherine Ratelle, BS, joined the lab as an MA student in 2025. Prior to graduate study, she spent 12 years in public and private sectors addressing mental health access and inclusion barriers, including roles as Manager at Deloitte Consulting and Senior Manager at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit. Her research interests include therapist–patient dynamics such as rupture, repair, and transference, as well as the role of therapist–client matching in treatment effectiveness for underserved populations. She is also interested in how interpersonal processes, identity, and cultural factors influence emotional regulation and therapy outcomes.