Meet Our Team
Graduate Students
Elli Cole
Graduate Assistant, MS
Elli (She/Her) is a fifth-year doctoral student in the SCENE lab. Elli's research interests lie in investigating the relationship between early adversity, chronic stress, and the development of internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression. She is interested in exploring the potential biological, psychological, and environmental factors that contribute to the etiology of these disorders. Through her research, she hopes to identify effective prevention and intervention strategies that can help individuals who have experienced early adversity and chronic stress to reduce their risk of developing internalizing disorders.
email: elcole2@uncg.edu
Chelsea Crayton
Graduate Assistant, BS
Chelsea (She/Her) is a second-year doctoral student in the SCENE lab. Before joining the SCENE lab, Chelsea completed her B.S. in psychology and sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a two-year IRTA postbac fellowship at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Her research interests sit at the intersection of psychology, biology, and sociology. Specifically, she examines the connection between HPA axis reactivity and contextual stressors (i.e., discrimination) as pathways towards physiological dysregulation and depression symptomology. She is also interested in the psychometrics of stress measurements, how cumulative life stress shapes the stress responses, and the overlap of internalizing psychopathology such as the link between depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. Through her research, she hopes to identify accessible intervention points that could help practitioners and individuals alike address the impact of stress on physical and mental health.
email: cbcrayton@uncg.edu
Samuel Agbeh
Graduate Assistant, BA
Sam (he/him) is a first-year doctoral student in the SCENE lab. He received a B.A. in psychology and a cognitive science minor at Northwestern University. Since his undergraduate studies, he has worked as a research coordinator in the Psychiatry Department at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Sam's research interests focus on examining how different types of stress exposures as well as environmental and socioeconomic factors impact the development of internalizing disorders (i.e., depression and anxiety) in young adult. Specifically, Sam is interested in investigating the specific risk factors that shape variability in stress severity and expression of symptoms across different internalizing disorders. Further, he is also interested in examining the relationship between chronic stress and substance use. Through his research, Sam hopes to aid in the development of effective prevention strategies, interventions, and treatment plans for individuals facing diverse mental health challenges.
email: agbeh@uncg.edu