Members

LAB DIRECTOR

Kristin Pauker, Ph.D. [Email] [CV]

Kristin Pauker is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii and director of the ISP lab. She received her A.B. from Dartmouth College (2002), Ph.D. from Tufts University (2009), and completed postdoctoral study at Stanford University. Originally born and raised in Hawaii, she became fascinated with exploring how a person’s immediate environment and culturally-shaped theories about race impact basic social perception, social interactions, and stereotyping in childhood and throughout development. Her research spans both Social and Developmental Psychology and has been featured in journals including Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Developmental Psychology. She has been the recipient of several awards, including a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, a Dissertation Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, a Board of Regents' Medal for Excellence in Research, and a Board of Regents' Medal for Excellence in Teaching. Her work has been supported by a R00 Pathway to Independence Award from NICHD and multiple NSF grants. Dr. Pauker enjoys hiking, surfing, and exploring Oahu with her husband Jeff, son Sebastian, and her dog, Mochi.

*Note: If you want to request a recommendation letter from Dr. Pauker, please read the following guidelines: Rec Letter Guidelines.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Shahana Ansari [Email] [CV]

Shahana Ansari received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Tampa and an M.A. in Children, Youth and International Development from Brunel University. As a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Kristin Pauker’s Intergroup Social Perception (ISP) lab, Shahana examines the effect of social contexts on the development of race conceptions and categorizations, racial stereotyping, and racial prejudice. Shahana has particular interest in examining these questions in academic settings so as to identify effective strategies that mitigate students’ psychological barriers to academic success.

Christine Tai [Email] [CV]

Christine Tai received a B.A. in Psychology from New York University. Her interest in the development of stereotyping and prejudice led her to continue pursuing developmental research as a graduate student under Dr. Kristin Pauker. Currently, she is interested in the development of stereotypes and attitudes toward stigmatized forms of speech (e.g., accents & dialects). She also hopes to apply her research cross-culturally, in observing the role the environment plays in shaping stereotyping and prejudice.

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Salena Diaz [Email]

Salena Diaz received her B.A. in Psychology from Wilkes University and her M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Radford University. Currently she is pursuing her Ph.D. in Social Psychology under Dr. Kristin Pauker. She is generally interested in studying diversity and intersectionality, but more specifically seeks to study the experiences of multiracial and racially ambiguous individuals. Additionally, she is interested in how media and popular culture influence racial identity and the perceptions of various gender, racial, and ethnic groups.

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Anna Friedrich

Anna was born and raised in Germany. She has lived one year in California and is now an undergraduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, pursuing a B.Sc. in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. She is planning to return to Germany for graduate school and is very interested in clinical psychology, as well as developmental psychology. Besides her academic interests, Anna is part of the women's swimming and diving team at UH Manoa. She also enjoys reading on the beach and thrift shopping

Tiffany Kim

Tiffany was born in Seoul, Korea and she graduated with a B.A in Psychology from University of Oklahoma. Her long-term goals are to conduct research surrounding the integration of Eastern mindfulness based practices and Western Psychology. She is also deeply interested in the effect of childhood trauma on adult interpersonal relationships. She aspires to become a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student to further her education.

Taeja Mason

Taeja Mason was born in England and raised on the island of Oʻahu. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu. Her research interests center around the use of animal-assisted interventions, art, and music therapies within college campuses and underrepresented communities. She plans on pursuing these interests in graduate school with the hopes of one day operating her own private practice. During her free time, she enjoys watching films, creating graphic art, and spending quality time with her family and friends.

Nina Mayne

Nina was born in Mexico City, but was actually raised in Madrid, Spain! Right before she started high school however, she crossed the Atlantic and relocated to Los Angeles where she lived until 2018 when she moved to Oahu for her studies. She is currently in her fifth year and has already completed all of her requirements for her B.A in Psychology, but she recently decided to pursue a minor in Fashion Merchandising. Not only does she have an international background, but she also comes from a multi-racial family, both of these factoring into her peaked interest in cross-cultural and social psychology. She particularly enjoys researching how people respond during relocation, people’s perception of different races and their own identities, as well as intimate partner violence.

Plyfaa Suwanamalik-Murphy

Born in Thailand and raised in San Francisco, Plyfaa is currently an undergraduate at UC Davis, majoring in Cognitive Science. She is interested in pursuing research in either cognitive neuroscience or cognition and plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology. Generally, Plyfaa is fascinated by perception and how the visual/external world influences this. She plans on delving further into investigative techniques that take on a cognitive neuroscience approach and explore her interests during her undergraduate years. In her free time, Plyfaa enjoys listening to music, biking, and backpacking in national parks.

Kristina Tenorio

Kristina was born on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. Currently, she is an undergraduate student pursuing her B.A. in Psychology and Russian. Her general interest is in understanding how early childhood experiences affect the development of multicultural children. She also wants to study the important role parents have in mitigating the effects of social pressures experienced in early childhood. To further her education, she plans to attend graduate school to study child and adolescent development and then work with children in clinical settings. Kristina loves catching sunsets, making arts and crafts, and going on spontaneous adventures with her close friends and family.

Lani vongsy

Lani was born in O'ahu but raised in Washington. She is currently a junior Psychology major at UH Manoa minoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She hopes to continue her studies in graduate school with a focus on research psychology. She is currently in Naval ROTC at UH Manoa and plans to commission into the Navy in the field of psychology after graduate school. A main interest of hers is on the development of sexuality and gender in youth. In her free time she loves to catch the sunset, going to farmers markets, and hanging out with friends at China Walls.

ISP LAB ALUMNI

Former Graduate/Postdoctoral Students

Victoria Narine, Ph.D. [Email] [CV]

Victoria Narine received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from UH Mānoa in 2021. She has a B.A. from the College of William and Mary and a M.A. from the New School for Social Research. Victoria's research interests include implicit gender bias and stereotype threat associated with gender. She's especially interested in women's experiences in male-dominated occupations and environments, such as S.T.E.M. and athletics. Victoria is now a Research Statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Elizabeth Brey, Ph.D. [CV]

Elizabeth Brey was a postdoctoral fellow in lab from 2016-2020. She received a PhD in psychology from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focused on the causes and consequences of children’s group-level biases. How do young children learn stereotypes about different groups despite living in egalitarian communities? How do children’s group-level stereotypes affect negatively stereotyped children? As a postdoc, she was funded by a postdoctoral NSF grant and a NRSA from NIH, where she examined how children use nonverbal information to make group level judgments about other children. Elizabeth is now working as an Applied Research and Evaluation Advisor at Education Northwest.

Chanel Meyers, Ph.D. [Email] [Website]

Chanel Meyers received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from UH Mānoa in 2018. She graduated from Western Oregon University and was born and raised in Hawaii. He research examines how increasing diversity in society shapes intergroup processes across contexts and groups. Using a social-cognitive approach, Chanel examines how contexts and social norms influence cognition, behaviors and social interactions, with a focus on racial diversity, race-related norms and social perception. Chanel completed a postdoc at York University working with Dr. Kerry Kawakami and is now an Assistant Professor at University of Oregon.

Ashley Morris Biddle, Ph.D. [Email]

Ashley Morris received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UH Mānoa in 2017. She has a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.A. from UH Mānoa. Her research focuses on social-cognitive development of preschool-aged children. Specifically, she is interested in how children learn to seek information from the world around them (e.g., parents, peers, media). She has worked on projects about parent-child conversations about autobiographical memory, early development of infants at risk for developing autism, and Native Hawaiian parental beliefs about young children's learning. Her future research plans include looking at how parent-child conversations may work together with media to encourage children to engage in science topics. For more information, please click here. Ashley is currently a faculty member at Leeward Community College.

Cara Bellwood Ray, Ph.D. [Email]

Cara Bellwood Ray received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UH Mānoa in 2017. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Whitworth University and M.S. in Psychology from the University of Oregon. Generally, she is interested in how attending college affects the developmental stage of emerging adulthood. Cara is currently an Instructional Associate at Linfield College.

Heather Zezeck, M.A. [Email]

Heather Zezeck received her M.A. from UH Mānoa in 2017. Heather examines social influences on educational achievement with two specific interests: the relationship between sense of belonging and college retention and the impact of psychological stressors on the predictive validity of standardized tests.

Megan Carpenter, Ph.D. [Email] [Website]

Megan Carpenter graduated with her Ph.D. from the UH Mānoa Social Psychology Program in 2015, and served as a research coordinator with the ISP Lab from 2014-15. Megan’s research interests center around interpersonal relationships, attraction, and perceptions of gender norms. Megan is currently an Assistant Professor at St. Lawrence University.

Colleen Carpinella, Ph.D.[Email]

Colleen M. Carpinella was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Intergroup Social Perception Lab from 2014-15. Broadly, she is interested in how intersecting social identities (e.g. race and gender, gender and partisanship) bias person perception. Colleen is now a Market Research Director at Ipsos Healthcare.

Amanda Williams, Ph.D. [Email]

Amanda Williams was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the ISP Lab from 2013-14. To date her research has focused on (1) the development of (implicit) social cognition and (2) visual attention during person perception. Amanda was a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol and now is a Data Analyst at the Waterloo Region Police. For more information please click here.

Other lab affiliates

Jessica Delos Reyes

Jessica was a RA in the ISP lab from 2020-21. She is currently pursuing a Psy.D. at Biola University.

Maile Griffin

Maile was a RA and honors student in the ISP lab from 2019-21. Maile won an honors prize for her honors thesis and is currently pursuing a MSW at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Michelle Lac

Michelle was a RA in the ISP lab from 2019-2020. She is currently in the Ed.S. program at Lewis and Clark College.

Leah Morse

Leah was a RA in the ISP lab from 2017-2019. She is currently pursuing a M.S. in Counseling Psychology at Chaminade University.

Angelica Leon

Angelica was a RA in the ISP lab from 2017-2018. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. program in social-organizational psychology at teacher's college, Columbia University.

Deja Thomas

Deja was a RA in the ISP lab from 2017-2018. She is currently working as a survey analyst at Public Policy Institute of California.

Maria Garay

Maria was a RA in the ISP lab from 2016-2018. She is currently a Ph.D. student at Tufts University.

Marina Matsui

Marina was a RA in the ISP lab from 2016-2018. She is currently a clinical psychology graduate student at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.

Kayla Uyeda

Kayla was a RA in the ISP lab from 2016-2017. Kayla received her Masters of Science in Mental Health Counseling at Chaminade University in 2020.

Sakaria "Sai" Auelua-Toomey

Sai was an honors student in the ISP lab from 2015-16. Sai was selected as a 2017 Luce Scholar and is a Ph.D. student in Psychology at Stanford.

Nicolyn Charlot

Nicolyn was an honors student in the ISP lab from 2014-15, and won an Honors Thesis Prize. Nicolyn got her Ph.D. in 2022 at the University of Western Ontario.

Adrienne Chong

Adrienne Chong was the lab manager for the ISP lab from 2014-15. Adrienne got her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2022 at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Kesha Unciano

Kesha was a RA in the ISP lab from 2014-15. Kesha received her M.A. in Communicology in 2017 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Jamie Tagomori

Jamie was a RA in the ISP lab from 2013-15. Jamie received her Ed.S. in 2018 from Chapman University.

Victoria Floerke

Victoria Floerke was the lab manager for the ISP lab from 2012-13. She received her Ph.D. in 2020 from Tufts University.

PROSPECTIVE PH.D. STUDENTS AND UNDERGRADUATES

We are looking for highly motivated Ph.D. and undergraduate students to get involved in the lab. Dr. Pauker will be considering graduate student applications for the upcoming year. If you are a college student home for the summer interested in working in our lab as a research assistant, please e-mail us. If you are an undergraduate student at UH Manoa interested in working in our lab as a research assistant, please fill out an application and e-mail it to us along with your resume/CV.