Principal Investigator
Samuele Zilioli Ph.D.
Dr. Samuele Zilioli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at Wayne State University, Detroit. He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Sciences from Simon Fraser University.
His research focuses on the biopsychological mechanisms by which social status and racial differences affect health and behavior. To achieve this goal, he works with individuals of various ages and conducts both laboratory experiments and correlational field studies.
Graduate Students
Jacqueline Rodriguez is a fifth year Social Psychology graduate student. Jackie earned her BS honors degree in Psychology with a minor in Biological Science from Florida State University. Her research focus includes how stress influences biological and psychological processes and the resulting physical health outcomes.
Jacqueline Rodriguez MA
Elissa Kim is a second year Social Psychology graduate student. Elissa earned a BA in Psychology and a minor in Communications from Pepperdine University. Her research interests lie in studying how health markers can be linked to mediators/moderators of stress within minority communities to shine light on stress management. She hopes to learn more about older populations through the lens of the biopsychosocial model.
Elissa Kim BA
Alexis Pinela is a first year Social Psychology graduate student. She earned a BA honors degree in Psychology from the University of Southern California. She then worked as a project coordinator at the San Diego State University Social-Health and Affective Neuroscience Lab. Alexis’s research focuses on bidirectional pathways linking inflammation and psychosocial processes, with special interests in risk & resilience factors, chronic stress, and intragroup dynamics.
Alexis Pinela BA
Lab Manager
Dan Saleh received his BS from Wayne State and has been working as the lab manager since 2016. Dan has more than 10 years of experience coordinating large NIH projects targeting community samples from Detroit. Currently, he is the project coordinator of The Heart of Detroit Study.
Daniel Saleh BS
Data Manager
Julian Bruinsma graduated from Wayne State University with a BS in psychology and a minor in public health. They build, maintain, and organize databases for the lab. They are currently earning their Masters of Science in Information Science from the Wayne State University School of Information Sciences with a specialization in data analytics.
Julian Bruinsma BS
Project Coordinator
Postdoctoral Fellow
Kristin Davis is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Wayne State University, Detroit. She received her Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health from Penn State University. Her research focuses on behavioral and immunological mechanisms underlying racial and socioeconomic disparities in cardiometabolic health.
Kristin Davis PhD
Lab Alumni
Ledina Imami received her Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology at Wayne State. After graduating she completed a post-doc in the lab of Dr. Christopher Agnew at Purdue University. She is now a Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology at Wabash College.
Ledina Imami PhD
Yanping Jiang received her Ph.D. in Health Promotion, Education, & Behavior at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on understanding the psychological and biological mechanisms underlying the effects of psychosocial stressors on mental and physical health. After completing her postdoc in the lab, she joined as faculty the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers University.
​
Yanping Jiang PhD
Katherine Knauft was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biopsychosocial Health Lab and is now working at Baylor University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Miami University. Her research explores the physiological, psychological, and social pathways connecting stressful experiences to health.