Spring 2026

• Congrats to Clinical Psychology Student, Kelly Barry, who passed the EPPP! Rockstar! 
  

Fall 2025

• LEED welcomes two new doctoral students: Joshua Litwin (Clinical Psychology) and Brookelyn Mayfield (DCBN)!
• Congrats to Clinical Psychology Student Dr. Xinge Li for successfully defending her dissertation "EEG-based Neural Correlates of Emotional Face Processing and Socioemotional Risk in Prematurely Born Toddlers." Way to go!  
• Congrats to DCBN student, Haley Laughlin, for successfully defending her MA Thesis "Neural Indictors of Visual Attention in Prematurely Born Toddlers." We are so proud! 
• Livia Merrill and LEED publish a paper: "Maternal Childhood Maltreatment Is Associated With Young Children's White Matter Microstructure; Evidence for Intergenerational Neurobiological Embedding of Early Life Adversity?" in Developmental Psychobiology.
• Dr. Bick and PALS Team present new findings on ERPs and face processing in toddlers born prematurely at the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP) conference in San Diego, CA!
• LEED receives UH funding to study emotion regulation and psychopathology risk using innovative wearable EEG and ANS devices. We are excited to conduct this new line of work in 2026!

Spring 2025

• Science writes an article over a massive study linking a child's social environment to white atter structure.  Dr. Johanna Bick (director of LEED)  was quoted in this article! Article can be found by the following link: https://www.science.org/content/article/early-experiences-shape-brain-s-communication-superhighways-affect-cognition
• Congratulations to some of our former former research assistants, Megan Chan & Aila Khan for getting into medical school! 
• So proud of our research assistants who got to present their own research posters at UH's Undergraduate Research Day! Great job Aila Khan, Ashlie May, Ifrah Ahmad, and Tyler Banks!
• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development welcomes new research assistants. Welcome to the team Jana Saidy, Leslie Gonzalez, Jonas Amaya, and Ramaisa Saleem!
• Congratulations to Dr. Livia Merrill, for successfully defending her doctoral thesis!
• Haley Laughlin and LEED publish a paper on "Social and Economic Correlates of Prenatal Depression in Rural Bangladeshi Women" in the Maternal and Child Health Journal. 
• Dr. Bick and the PALS team presented new ERP work at this year's Society for Research in Child Development Conference (SRCD) Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Child Clinical Psychology Doctoral student, Kelly Barry, has passed her Clinical Psychology COMPS Exam!
• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development welcomes new research assistants. Welcome to the team of Tyler Banks!

Fall 2024

• The Brain PALS team celebrated everyone’s hard work in data collection with a team lunch before the holidays.
• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development learned a lot at the FIT'NG 2024 Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Congratulations to Haley Laughlin, she did such an incredible job on presenting her flash talk.
• The Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development had a great time at the FLUX 2024 conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Congratulations to Livia Merrill, Andrea Ortiz Jimenez, and Anna Galvan for getting their posters accepted!
• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development welcomes three new research assistants. Welcome to the team of Zisan Orak, Ifrah Ahmad, and Samantha Taraby.
• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development welcomes the newest addition to our team! Marguerite Knudtson, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student. 

Summer 2024

• LEED welcomes new summer volunteers, April Aragon, Ashlie Mai, and Leslie Perez!
• Child clinical psychology doctoral student, Xinge Li, has successfully proposed her doctoral dissertation!
• Congratulations to Livia Merrill, Andrea Ortiz-Jimenez, and Anna Galvan for getting their posters accepted into the annual Flux conference.
• Congratulations to Haley Laughlin for being invited to be a presenter at the FIT'NG conference in September.
• LEED had a great time hosting a neuroimaging training for special guests from Bangladesh and Sam Houston University.
  

Spring 2024

• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development welcomes new volunteer intern, Holden Frick
• Livia Merrill’s paper “Age-Dependent Associations Between RSA Reactivity, Affective and Cognitive Regulation and Psychopathology Risk in Young Children Exposed to Varying Level of Socioeconomic
  Disadvantage” has been accepted for publication in the Developmental Psychobiology
• Livia Merrill has won a CLASS summer fellowship
• Xinge Li has successfully matched with an internship program.
• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development interviewed applicants for the Developmental, Cognitive, and Behavioral (DCBN) and the clinical psychology program! We had a great time meeting everyone. Our graduate students and staff had prepared amazing presentations about the studies we have done and the current projects they have been working on.

Fall 2023

• Shutian is moving on to a new opportunity. We wish her the best!
• The Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development learned a lot at the FLUX 2023 conference in Santa Rosa, California. Congratulations to Xinge Li, Kelly Barry, Haley Laughlin, and Anna Galvan, they did such an incredible job presenting their posters
• Laboratory of Early Experience and Development was able to connect with parents and inform them about who we are and talk to them about our work at Discovery Green during Toddler Tuesdays.

Summer 2023

• Laboratory of Early Experiences and Development had a great time hosting a week long neuroimaging training for special guests from Bangladesh and Sam Houston University.
• Congratulations to Dr.Rebecca Lipshutz for successfully defending her doctoral thesis. 

Spring 2023

• DBCN student, Shutian Shen, successfully defended her master’s thesis.
• Leed welcomes new undergraduate research assistant to the team; Megan Chan
• Congratulations to Shutian Shen, Xinge Li, Kelly Barry, Haley Laughlin, and Anna Galvan for getting their posters accepted into the annual Flux conference.
• Congrats to our graduate students, Kelly Barry and Parsa Taheri. They did a great job presenting their posters at this year’s Society for Research in Child Development conference (SRSD) from March 21-23.
• Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student, Rebecca Lipschutz, had her manuscript accepted for publication in Development and Psychopathology.
• Child Clinical Psychology Doctoral student, Xinge Li, has passed her Clinical Psychology COMPS Exam!
• LEED welcomes two new undergraduate research assistants to the team; Alia Khan and Maya Flores

Fall 2022

• LEED’s WOMBS (Women's Experience and Baby Brain Study) study has officially stopped collecting data and is now moving on to analyzing the data they have collected.
• Johanna Bick, Livia Merrill and Andrea Ortiz Jimenez attend the International Society for Developmental Psychology (ISDP) in San Diego. Livia and Andrea did a great job presenting their posters at the conference.
• Livia Merrill and Andrea Ortiz Jimenez's posters were accepted to the 2022 ISDP
• Xinge Li, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student, presented a poster at the 2022 FLUX Conference.
• LEED welcomes the newest additions to our team!Kelly Barry, Clinical Psychology Doctoral student, Haley Laughlin, DCBN student, and Parsa Taheri, DCBN student.
• Undergraduate Research Assistant, Juan Pablo Guardia, has completed his SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) internship with LEED Lab this summer. Working with 2 different LEED projects PANDA, and WOMBS, furthering his understanding in research.

Summer 2022

• LEED’s PANDA (Preschool, Neurodevelopment and Adjustment)  study and has officially stopped collecting data and is now moving on to analyzing the data they have collected.
• Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student, Xinge Li, defended her master's thesis
• DCBN Student, Livia Merrill, defended her master's thesis.
• DCBN Student, Livia Merrill, passed her Qualifying Exam and entered doctoral candidacy!

Spring 2022

• DCBN Student, Livia Merrill, was awarded the Anh Lac Tran Scholarship.
• Congratulations to Anna Galvan on her promotion as a Research Technician 1.
• “University of Houston writes an article on a pilot study that was conducted by researchers in the UH College of Pharmacy and UH Department of Psychology.  Johanna Bick(director of LEED) and Brian Biekman(LEED graduate student) were a part of this collaboration. Article can be found by the following link: https://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2022-news-articles/march-2022/03152022-syrian-refugees-mental-health-salim-bick.php “
• LEED Lab welcomes 3 new research assistants into the team; Anna Galvan, Mariana Ramos- Celedon, and Juan Pablo Guardia.

Fall 2021

• Shutian Shen's poster was accepted at ISDP's annual meeting.
• Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student, Xinge Li, gave an oral presentation at the fNIRS Virtual Conference.
• LEED had fun explaining how to measure brain function with EEG and FNIRS with kids at The Mayor’s Back to School Festival.
• Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student, Rebecca Lipschutz, received the Cullen Graduate Student Success Fellowship (CGSSF) help fund her dissertation research on prenatal stress and infant development!

Spring 2021

• LEED receives pilot funding from UH Division of Research to examine how prenatal stress and other risk and protective factors shape brain development even before birth! This study is a collaboration with Magda Sanz-Cortez and Stephen Kralik at Baylor College of Medicine.
• DCBN Student, Livia Merrill, presented a poster for the Society of Research in Child Development conference.
• Brian Biekman was awarded the Clinical Case Presentation Award as part of UH’s clinical program’s Diversity Day.
• UH interviewed Bick and Rebecca Lipschutz about the Harvey Mom Study and how Hurricane Harvey impacts child development.

Fall 2020

• LEED welcomes new DCBN program graduate student, Livia Merrill!
• LEED receives funding from NIH to collaboratively examine how a remotely delivered early parenting intervention can support healthy self regulation and brain development in toddlers born extremely preterm! This is a collaboration with Susan Landry and Dana DeMaster at UTHealth
• LEED receives funding from NIH to collaboratively examine prenatal stress influences biomarkers of health and brain development. This is a collaboration with Kjersti Aagaard and Suter at Baylor College of Medicine.

Fall 2019

• LEED welcomes two new graduate students: Shutian Shen (DCBN program) and Xinge Li (Child Clinical Psychology Program)!

Summer 2018

• Bick was quoted in the New York Times on the developmental impact of traumatic separation from parents in migrant families. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/migrant-children-separation-anxiety.html
• LEED study featured on NPR’s “The Pulse: “Does a mom’s stress affect her offspring for generations?” https://whyy.org/segments/does-a-moms-stress-affect-her-offspring-for-generations/
• LEED featured on Houston Public Media about New Hurricane Harvey Study on maternal stress and child development. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2018/05/30/288260/stress-and-the-storm-how-researchers-hope-to-help-pregnant-women-dealing-with-disasters/

Spring 2018

• LEED is interviewed by ABC 13 about a new study on how Hurricane Harvey related stress may impact pregnant mothers and their babies. https://abc13.com/uh-studying-stress-of-hurricane-harvey-and-pregnancy/3080136/

Fall 2017

• LEED launches the "Hurricane Harvey Mom Study" to examine how prenatal stress from a natural disaster influences maternal well being and infant outcomes. This study is a collaboration with Suzanne King at McGill and Douglas Mental Health Center.
• LEED welcomes graduate students Rebecca Lipschutz (Child Clinical Psychology Track) and Brian Biekman (Clinical Neuropsychology Track)!
• The Laboratory of Early Experience and Development at UH is open for research!