Professional Bio

Olivia is a first-year graduate student working with Dr. Koraly Pérez-Edgar and Dr. Rina Eiden. In 2023 she graduated from Buffalo State University with a bachelor's in psychology and a certification in child advocacy studies. Here she completed an honors thesis under Dr. Pamela Schuetze, focusing on prenatal substance exposure and harsh parenting’s role in autonomic regulation in early childhood. Following graduation, she completed a year of post-baccalaureate work within Dr. Jamie Ostrov’s Social Development Lab at the University at Buffalo, where she conducted interviews with pre-school aged children regarding self-regulation and academic readiness, and lead collection of biological specimens, primarily to test acute and chronic stress. Olivia is interested in the mechanisms by which prenatal and early life stressors impact physiological regulation in infancy and early childhood, and how socio-environmental factors, such as parenting, play a role in these associations.