People
Meet Our Team
Senior Lab Members
Jamil Zaki
Lab Director
Jamil received his BA from Boston University, his Ph.D. from Columbia University, and postdoctoral training at Harvard University. When he’s not writing about empathy for work, his hobbies include writing about empathy for fun, compulsive hiking, and perfecting a Michelin star oatmeal recipe for the SSNL’s very particular lab kids.
Kylie Yorke
Lab Manager
Kylie received her undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University with majors in Psychology and Philosophy. There, she investigated the evolutionary bases of emotion and how our social-emotional brains influence environmental decision-making. She is interested in how psychological research can help nudge pro-environmental decisions, and also works with kids in the nature based therapy space. Outside the lab, she loves to cook haphazardly, do anything active outdoors, and take impromptu road trips when opportunities present themselves.
Rui Pei
Postdoctoral Fellow
Rui (/ˈreɪ/) received her B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University, and her PhD in Communication from University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in understanding how adolescents and young adults make social decisions in the context of psychological and neural development, as well as social and environmental factors such as social networks. Outside of lab, she spends her time rock climbing and trying to keep her houseplants alive.
Luiza Almeida Santos
Graduate Student
Luiza holds a B.A. in Psychology from Swarthmore College. Broadly, she uses a motivated emotion framework to study affective polarization and the development of politically-relevant moral convictions. Her research examines how to prevent empathic failures towards dissimilar others and, consequently, foster more productive political discussions. She applies experimental methods, natural language processing, and social network analysis to study these questions.
Luiza is a Ph.D. fellow at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Prior to arriving at Stanford University, she was a behavioral research fellow at the Kellogg School of Management and a research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania. In her free time, she likes painting, hiking with her dog, and singing badly while driving.
Eric Neumann
Graduate Student
Eric earned his B.Sc. at the Free University of Berlin. He spent his junior year as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, and the following summer as a research assistant at Harvard. His principal interests include why we tend to underestimate how social and prosocial a species we are, as well as testing interventions to reconnect us across social and moral divides. Eric loves to explore new countries, and enjoys food so long as he doesn't have to prepare it.
Catherine Garton
Graduate Student
Catherine graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in psychology and environmental science. Her research investigates how people respond to moral and political disagreements. She is especially interested in the processes that hinder humility, empathy, and tolerance around deeply held beliefs, and what might foster more harmonious communities instead. Outside of research, she will take any excuse to be in the mountains, and her achilles heel is cute, overpriced coffee shops.
Annabel Bouwer
Research Assistant
Annabel received her B.S. in Cognitive Science from University of California, Santa Cruz, where she researched links between mindfulness, attention, and emotion regulation. She is interested in how empathetic interactions influence well-being over time, and in the role of pro-sociality in emotion regulation. Outside of the lab, Annabel spends her time exploring new trails and throwing pottery.
Geshi Yeung
Research Assistant
Geshi received his B.A. in Cognitive Science and Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, he researched on the neural basis of social decision-making and used deep neural networks to model human memory. He now primarily works on the Stanford Communities Project, hoping to understand the dynamics of social networks and their relationship to neural and psychological measures of traits and well-being. Outside the lab, he enjoys singing, photography, and going on scenic hikes.
Junior Lab Members
Emily Huang
Undergraduate RA
Emily is a junior double majoring in Psychology and English. She is interested in understanding the impacts of stories on social wellbeing and social cognition, and researching how literature and other forms of narrative can be leveraged as tools for counseling and intervention. Outside of the lab, Emily enjoys drumming with Stanford Taiko and listening to movie soundtracks.
Lauren Seu
Part-time RA
Lauren recently completed her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Creative Writing at Stanford and is currently an M.S. candidate in the Community Health and Prevention Research coterminal master's program. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai`i, her exposure to a unique variety of different cultures and perspectives has driven her goals for decreasing stigma surrounding mental illness and increasing diversity in mental health care, as well as her passion for understanding other humans in order to meet them where they're at. She is very excited to be contributing to the Just Mercy project as a member of SNL. In her free time, Lauren enjoys singing, being in the water, and learning how to play guitar.
Zeina Hashem
Undergraduate RA
Zeina is a junior majoring in Psychology and minoring in Biology and Symbolic Systems. She is interested in psychopathology and the neural basis of social and emotional wellbeing. In her free time she likes to read, cook (badly) and enjoy live music.
Alma Zaki
Lab Kid
Alma recently completed her master’s degree in Toddler and is now continuing towards a PhD in little kid. Her research interests include counting to 50, writing her name and diligently drawing inside the lines. To cut loose, Alma enjoys interpretive dance, impersonating a drill sergeant, and explaining things to her junior colleague, Luisa.
Luisa Zaki
Lab Kid
Luisa recently completed her Baby Bachelor’s degree in 2019 and is now working towards her Toddler with a concentration in distraction. She excels at hugging, head-first slide acrobatics, and chocolate tasting. She is passionate about you knowing that her favorite color is blue, and equally interested in knowing what yours is.
Lab Alumni
Molly Arnn ◇ Dean Baltiansky ◇ Liza Benabbas ◇ Tyler Bonnen ◇ Rachel Calcott ◇ Ryan Carlson ◇ Mina Caraccio ◇ Lauren Chen ◇ Christina Chwyl ◇ Marissa Clark ◇ Skylar Cohen ◇ Eleanor Collier ◇ Dustin Deinhart ◇ Isabel Dibble ◇ Jacqueline Do ◇ Julia Doody ◇ Roma Dziembaj ◇ Jake Elder ◇ Virsaviya Efraim ◇ Wicia Fang ◇ Lizzie Frankel ◇ Stephen Frey ◇ Courtney Gao ◇ Sam Grayson ◇ Leor Hackel ◇ Sahar Hashemian ◇ Ngan Kim Hoang ◇ Christina Huber ◇ Brent Hughes ◇ Averylia Jacintha ◇ Preeti Kakani ◇ Samantha Kargilis ◇ Naveen Kassamali ◇ Isabella Kahhale ◇ Derek Kincade ◇ Zoe Kleiman ◇ Hanna Kuhn ◇ Layo Laniyan ◇ Matt Leipzig ◇ Yuan Chang Leong ◇ Jocelyn Lin ◇ Yvette Lugo ◇ Marissa Maas ◇ Rucha Makati ◇ Natasha Marley ◇ Emma Master ◇ Alison Mattek ◇ Christopher Middleton ◇ Aaron Mitchell ◇ Sylvia Morelli ◇ Laura Ngan ◇ Erik Nook ◇ Daniel Ogunbamowo ◇ Desmond Ong ◇ Omri Raccah ◇ Mahnaz Roshanaei ◇ Natalie Samuels ◇ Mriganka Singh ◇ Michael Smith ◇ Jae-Young Son ◇ Rebeca Soyk ◇ Chipper Stotz ◇ Alex Sweetser ◇ Amanda Szerdi ◇ Diana Tamir ◇ Valerie Taylor ◇ Emma Templeton ◇ Brittany Torrez ◇ Erika Weisz ◇ Craig Williams ◇ Sophie Wood ◇ Emily Yeh