Meet The Team!
Investigators- michigan State University
Anne Bogat, PhD
Dr. Bogat is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at MSU. Her research focuses on understanding how pre- and postnatal stress affects the bond between mothers and their children. She is also interested in how various stressors affect child development. Curriculum Vitae
Alytia Levendosky, PhD
Dr. Levendosky is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at MSU. Her work examines the effects of familial risk and resilience factors on mothers and children, with a special emphasis on the quality of the mother-child relationship. She is particularly interested in prenatal stress and how that affects psychological and physiological functioning of both the mother and child. Curriculum Vitae
Joe Lonstein, PhD
Dr. Lonstein is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at MSU whose research examines the effects of stress on peripartum anxiety and depression, and how motherhood impacts brain neurochemistry and function. Curriculum Vitae
Amy Nuttall, PhD
Dr. Nuttall is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at MSU. Her research examines how parents and children cope with stress and how these experiences shape development. Much of her work has focused on the transition to parenthood and early parenting and child development. Curriculum Vitae
Investigators- University of Michigan
Maria Muzik, MD, MS
Dr. Muzik is a Professor in Psychiatry, Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Michigan. She is a perinatal psychiatrist with expertise in women’s mental health, focusing on pregnancy and postpartum. Her research focuses on the study of stress, trauma, and mental illness in the context of childbearing, its influence on parenting and the developing parent-infant relationship, and how to support families in overcoming adversity. Curriculum Vitae
Cecilia Martinez-Torteya, PhD
Dr. Martinez-Torteya is a Clinical Psychologist and a Clinical Associate Professor in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry. Her research is focused on the intergenerational transmission of trauma and protective factors at the individual, family, and community levels that promote resilience, with particular interest in culturally diverse and marginalized populations. Clinically, she is interested in dyadic and trauma-informed intervention with perinatal and early childhood populations, parenting interventions, as well as Spanish-language services. Curriculum Vitae
Project staff
Smita Bhoopatiraju, M.A.
Smita is the Project Coordinator for the Michigan State University site. Some of her tasks include managing the lab, supervising research assistants and staff, and conducting participant interviews. She is passionate about helping mothers and families, and will be applying to clinical psychology Ph.D. programs to further her interests in maternal mental health, child development, and the mother-child relationship.
Olivia Oates, B.A.
Olivia is the Projector Coordinator for the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and Detroit sites. She enjoys working with the families and seeing how the children of the participants grow and change over the years.
Asha Hill, B.S.
Asha is the Lead Interviewer for the University of Michigan at the Detroit location. She has been on the project since 2021 and loves working with the women and children. Her future professional plans are to obtain her Master of Public Health Degree and to become an anesthesiologist.
Carmen Harrison, M.A.
Carmen is the Recruitment Coordinator for the University of Michigan Detroit location. She has over 20 years of experience working in various aspects of public health and higher learning specifically, community health education, research, program management, recruitment, and development. She finds it deeply rewarding to engage with the communities in the Detroit Metro area and work with the women who help us learn more about stress and the impact it has on them and their families.
Graduate Students
Alexandra Ballinger, M.A.
Alexandra is a 6th year doctoral student in the clinical science program. She has had various roles on the Prenatal Stress Study including interviewing and data management. Her research interests are in the intergenerational transmission of attachment, trauma, and psychopathology. In particular, she is interested in women’s adjustment during the peripartum period.
Matthew Marvin, B.A.
Matthew is a graduate student in the MSU Clinical Science program. His responsibilities on the Prenatal Stress Study include data management as well as coding heart rate/fetal monitoring and mother-infant interactions. He is interested in how the dynamics of the early parent-child relationship provide the scaffolding for children’s psychological development.
Joohee Lee, M.A.
Joohee is a first-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program at Michigan State University. Her responsibilities for the Prenatal Stress Study include data management, heart rate cleaning, and conducting Diagnostic Infant and Preschool Assessment (DIPA) interviews. Her research interests are early life adversity, early parenting, and parent-child relationships. She is specifically interested in understanding how parenting can buffer the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on children's emotional, behavioral, and social adjustment.
Kara Cochran, PhD
Kara graduated with a B.S. in Biopsychology from Tufts University in 2015 and received her PhD from Michigan State University in 2023. She was one of the original graduate assistants on the Prenatal Stress Study. Her research interests include the intergenerational effects of stress and trauma. Her dissertation examined the effects of mothers’ experiences of interpersonal trauma on emotion regulation and early parenting. She is currently a Women’s Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Atrius Health.
Jade Kobayashi, PhD
Jade received her PhD from Michigan State University in 2021. Some of her responsibilites for the Prenatal Stress Study included grant planning/writing, developing research study materials, protocols, and scripts, observational coding, and training research assistants. She is currently a licensed clinical psychologist running an independent private practice in New Orleans. She practices individual and couples therapy with a focus on attachment, trauma, and neurodiversity.
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Nicola Bernard, PhD
Nicola received her PhD from Michigan State University in 2019. Some of her responsibilities for the Prenatal Stress Study included grant writing, developing study materials and protocols, conducting laboratory visits, and data management. She is currently a licensed psychologist running a private practice in Ferndale, Michigan. She also supervises graduate students, reviews articles for several journals, and is serving on a dissertation committee as a content expert.