FERN Lab at UVM

Happy New Member Monday! Owen is a 1st year doctoral student in the neuroscience program doing a rotation in the lab 🧠🌿

He graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a B.S. in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. At LUC, he worked with Dr. Margaret Guy, using EEG to study how the infant brain responds to stress, while concurrently working with Dr. Jordan Grafman at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, exploring novel electrophysiological stimulation techniques to aid in cognitive recovery following TBI. He is interested in human cognition, specifically how it develops longitudinally, and the various factors that may impact typical cognitive development. Outside of the lab, Owen enjoys spending time outdoors, running, backpacking, and snowboarding❄️🏂

We had so much fun rallying around mental health with Rally at the women’s basketball game last weekend!! We’ll be attending two more games this month, so please swing by our table to meet us, play some games, and grab coloring sheets and other resources! We will also be at Mental Health Advocacy Day organized by and you can find the registration on their website if you’d like to meet us there 🧠🌿

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Today is World Mental Health Day! Through sharing research and resources, the FERN Lab is proud to be involved in mental health awareness and advocacy. Show yourself and your community some love and care this weekend, as we close out the first full week of October and Mental Illness Awareness Week 🌿🧠

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Here is another new member monday from our lovely PhD student Anna!

"Hi, my name is Anna and I’m a first year student the clinical psychology PhD program! I’m interested in studying mechanisms of resilience following exposure to traumatic stress in childhood and adolescence. I’m super excited to be a new member of FERN lab!

Outside the lab, I love spending time outdoors, creative writing, running, and baking fun desserts (especially now that it’s fall!)"

We are looking forward to this weekend which brings our next farmers market! We hope to see you there, so come say hi and check out the coloring pages, games, and mental health resources we’ll have with us 🧠🌿

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Our team is going to be at some community events this week! We can’t wait to meet everyone and raise awareness about mental health 🧠🌿 We hope to see you all there!!

June is coming to a close, but we at the FERN Lab know pride is not limited to one month of the year! Here are some LGBTQ+ resources, and we wish everyone a very happy pride 🏳️‍🌈🌿

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The summer FERN Lab team is gearing up for our upcoming events! This Saturday we’ll have a booth at the Waitsfield Farmer’s Market and we can’t wait to see new faces!! Don’t forget to check out our newsletter for more information about what we’re up to 🧠🌿

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A final congratulations to our amazing grads: Emma, Jen, and Rachel! The FERN Lab is so proud of you all and can’t wait to see what incredible things you do! Go change the world! 💚🌿🧠

Check out these photos from SRCD 2025 🧠🌿 Dr. Alexis Brieant led talks on ways to mitigate climate adversity and the impact of cohesion across urban and rural contexts. Our Lab Manager, Emma, presented a poster!

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As they all turn the page on this chapter of their lives we could not be more proud of them!!

We’re back with another study spotlight! This time our very own Dr. Brieant is featured with this article examining developmental trajectories of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology.

Make sure to sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t already to stay up to date on everything happening in the lab! 🌿💚