Faculty

Dr. Donohue (Meghan Rose) is a clinical psychologist and Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry.  She completed her undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Georgia State University and her clinical internship/residency at Northwestern University (Lurie Children’s Hospital).  Dr. Donohue’s research focuses on the development of moral emotions (empathy, guilt) and prosocial behaviors in early childhood, and how disruptions in these emotions and behaviors contribute to the development of psychopathology.  She uses in vivo observational paradigms, parent-child interactions and EEG/ERP techniques in her research.

Kirsten Gilbert is a licensed clinical psychologist. She completed her undergraduate at Stanford University, her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Yale University, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University and Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Gilbert’s research examines how ‘too much self-control,’ in the form of heightened performance monitoring and ‘overcontrol’ develop in young children. She is interested in understanding when overcontrol may be adaptive or may contribute to psychopathology, (e.g., anxiety) in young children and adolescents. Kirsten also studies the development of reward processing/positive emotional functioning in young children exhibiting overcontrolled tendencies. Kirsten uses behavioral, EEG/ERP techniques, and parent-child observational data in her research.

Laura Hennefield is an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine.   She completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at Washington University in St Louis in 2015. Dr. Hennefield’s research focuses on knowledge acquisition in preschool-aged children, with an emphasis on social and cognitive constraints that affect the learning process. Her current projects focus on the development of optimism in preschoolers, including how optimism affects how children learn from and about the world around them, and how a lack of optimism may contribute to psychopathology in early childhood.

Dr. Hoyniak is a clinical psychologist and Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her Ph.D. at Indiana University and her clinical internship/residency at Western Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Hoyniak’s research focuses on the development of sleep problems in early childhood, exploring how early sleep problems contribute to later risk for both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. She uses a combination of psychophysiological (e.g., actigraphy, EEG/ERP) and observational (both in-lab and in-home) data collection in her research.

Dr. Sylvester is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine. He completed M.D. and Ph.D. (neuroscience) degrees in 2009, a general residency in psychiatry in 2012, and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry in 2014, all at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Sylvester uses computer games and neuroimaging to study attention in youth with anxiety disorders.

Dr. Vogel is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Washington University School of Medicine.  She completed both her M.D. and Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience in 2013 at Washington University School of Medicine.  She then completed a general psychiatry residency in 2016 and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship in 2018, also both at Washington University School of Medicine.  Currently, Dr. Vogel studies the development of emotion dysregulation, reward, and how these influence clinical outcomes using behavioral and neuroimaging methods.

Dr. Whalen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her PhD in Clinical-Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014 and a T32 Postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University under the mentorship of Drs. Joan Luby and Deanna Barch. Dr. Whalen’s research broadly examines the complex relationships between physical and mental health in young children. Specifically, she is interested in identifying factors that contribute to the cooccurrence of mental and physical health problems in young children. She utilizes ecological momentary assessment, actigraphy, and ERPs in her work.