Faculty

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Dr. Allison Jack, PhD (she/her)

Principal Investigator

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Allison Jack, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at George Mason University. She received her BA in Psychology and English at the College of William & Mary, followed by a PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Virginia and postdoctoral training at the Yale Child Study Center via an NIMH T32 training grant. Her background includes training in child psychopathology, social cognitive neuroscience, and imaging genetics, with specialization in neuroimaging and assessment of autism. Her published work includes peer-reviewed articles on autism and brain function in Brain, Human Brain Mapping, Scientific Reports, Cerebral Cortex, and the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, among others. She has a particular interest in autistic women and nonbinary people, who are understudied and under-represented relative to boys and men on the spectrum. Currently, she co-leads a National Institutes of Health Autism Center of Excellence Network focused on understanding why some autistic people are diagnosed late or not at all.

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Dr. Goldie Mcquaid, PhD

Co-Investigator

Dr. Goldie McQuaid is research faculty in the Mason Department of Psychology. Before joining the JackLab, she received her Ph.D. in Theoretical Linguistics from Georgetown University, followed by post-doctoral training in developmental neuroimaging at Georgetown University Medical Center and the Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute at George Washington University. She is a 2020-2022 Fellow in the Society for Neuroscience Neuroscience Scholars Program. Her research focuses on sex, gender, and the transition to adulthood in autism, with a particular focus on how alexithymia and camouflage impact well-being in autistic adults. Currently, she holds a National Institutes of Health K01 award that will allow her to conduct research related to emotion processing, gender identity, and risk for anxiety and depression in autistic adults.

Students

  • Janelle Applewhite, M.Ed.

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Janelle Applewhite is a PhD student in the Applied Developmental Psychology program at George Mason University. She received her BA from The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago and M.Ed. in Special Education from James Madison University. Her research interests focus on sex/gender differences in autism presentation, autism and comorbidities, and camouflaging in autism. As a 2020 Fulbright Scholar, she aims to develop and implement measures/interventions for underrepresented individuals and families with neurodevelopmental disorders in Trinidad and Tobago.

  • Emily Gerson, MA (she/they)

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Emily Richard is pursuing her PhD in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Allison Jack. She completed her undergraduate studies at the George Washington University, where she graduated Cum Laude and with Special Honors in Psychology (concentration: Cognitive Neuroscience). Following her undergraduate work she took the position of Senior Research Assistant under Dr. Gregory Wallace in the Lab of Autism and Developmental Neuroscience. There she utilized structural MRI and behavioral measures to investigate both subclinical eating disorder traits and autism spectrum disorders, as well as eating behaviors in autism. She hopes to contribute to understanding of the female experience of autism and neural mechanisms thereof. In her free time, Emily loves teaching violin to young children and going on adventures with her husband and two Australian Shepherds.

  • Hannah Adams, BA (she/her)

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Hannah Adams is a first year Applied developmental psychology PhD student under the mentorship of Dr. Allison Jack. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of Missouri Kansas City. After graduation Hannah started a research assistantship at the Kansas University Medical Center in the developmental pediatrics department. There she worked on multiple projects including: differences in self-determination in people with developmental/intellectual disability, including across genders; the efficacy of a virtual parent/provider and child interaction training; and piloting a course for medical students on different facets of care for persons with disabilities. She hopes to continue her work in the lab on gender differences in autism. In her free time Hannah likes to cook, read, and play with her corgi, Gus.

  • Joseph (Joey) Boyle, BS (he/him)

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Joseph is an accelerated MA student in the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience program working under the mentorship of Dr. Allison Jack. His research interests revolve around the "limbic" cerebellum and its role in social reward processing, with a particular focus on sex and gender differences in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

    Joseph is also a 2022-2023 NSF NRT summer Fellow through the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions (CASBBI), where he works to develop and optimize individualized treatment plans for people with Parkinson's disease and improve messaging among their treatment team.

  • Dan Kingsley, BA (he/him)

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Dan Kingsley graduated Magna Cum Laude in Spring 2021 at the University of Northern Colorado with his Bachelor's in Psychology. He is now pursuing his MA in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Allison Jack. He is interested in the neuronal bases of autism spectrum disorders, and the effects of being autistic on learning. Dan loves playing lighthearted video games and listening to music.

  • Maria Theresa Pachtman, BS (she/her)

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Maria Theresa Pachtman is a first-year Master's student in the Applied Developmental Psychology program in Dr. Allison Jack's lab. Maria Theresa received the Associate of Science Degree in Psychology from Northern Virginia Community College in May 2019. In May 2021, she received the Bachelor of Science in Psychology with Developmental and Clinical concentrations from George Mason University. During her time at Mason, she was an undergraduate research assistant (RA) in Dr. Thalia Goldstein's Social Skills, Imagination, and Theatre (SSIT) lab. The primary research skills she acquired in the SSIT lab included performing qualitative research data analysis, transcribing subject interview videos, and training new undergraduate RAs. Her current research interests focus on Autism Spectrum Disorder, especially the care and parenting of children with autism. In the future, she plans to continue her studies in the PhD program in Clinical Child Psychology.

  • Colin Weiss, BA (he/him)

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Colin Weiss graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the George Washington University, and specializes in data gathering and literature reviews. His preferred topics of interest include the neurology of autism and how differences in function both within the spectrum and outside of it come to exist. Previously, Colin has worked as a research assistant at GWU’s Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, and at the consulting firm ICF International, where he helped build the Self-Sufficiency Research Clearinghouse, a major research database informing matters of family self-sufficiency. He has also aided the Organization for Autism Research (OAR) in preparing their Guide to Safety, part of their “Life’s Journey through Autism” series of informational guides.