Principal Investigator: Dr. Peter Arnett

Dr. Arnett received his Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison under the mentoring of Dr. Joseph Newman. He subsequently completed two years of post-doctoral training in Clinical Neuropsychology at the Medical College of Wisconsin under the supervision of Drs. Stephen Rao & Thomas Hammeke. He is currently a Professor in the Psychology Department, and the Director of the Neuropsychology of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Sports-Related Concussion and programs at Penn State University. Dr. Arnett is Past-President of the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN).

CV Link: Dr. Peter Arnett's CV

Career Highlights:

—President, National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN) (2020)
--Program Co-Chair for the 2010 International Neuropsychological Society (INS) Mid-Year Meeting
--NAN Fellow
--NAN Nelson Butters Award for Research Contributions to Clinical Neuropsychology
--NAN Presidential Commendation for Outstanding Service to Clinical Neuropsychology
--Editor, NAN Bulletin, 2015 to 2017
--Herndon Award for the Outstanding Article in the International Journal of MS Care Article, 2013
--INS Board of Governors elected member, 2014-2017
--Author of over 160 peer-review research articles and book chapters
--Author of over 250 scientific presentations
--Grant funding from National Multiple Sclerosis Society, NIH, NINDS, NIMH
--Editorial Boards for Neuropsychology, JINS, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, JCEN
--Chair of 24 completed doctoral dissertations
--Chair of 22 completed undergraduate honors theses
--Edited book entitled, Secondary Influences on Neuropsychological Test Performance published by Oxford University Press in 2013. P. Arnett (Ed.).
--Edited book entitled, “Neuropsychological Perspectives on Sports-Related Concussion.” Published by the American Psychological Association in 2019; P. Arnett (Ed.). —INS Career Mentoring Award, 2021 —Penn State Psychology Department Faculty Mentor Award, 2021

Google Scholar Link to Full Publications List: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UhOWuTsAAAAJ&hl=en

ResearchGate Link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Arnett

Current Graduate Students

Garrett Thomas

Garrett joined the lab in Fall 2019. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Bowdoin College in 2017 where he was involved in athletics and conducted an independent study assessing the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on mood, stress, and burnout in injured student-athletes. Following his time at Bowdoin, Garrett joined the Depression Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researching novel treatments for individuals with depressive symptoms, including adapted Cognitive Behavior Therapy in individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI and depressive symptoms. More recently, Garrett completed his Master’s Thesis in 2020, which involved evaluating the impact of depression and anxiety on neurocognitive performance in college athletes at baseline. This paper was recently published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. More broadly, Garrett is interested in researching mental health outcomes following TBI and how these symptoms, along with other secondary factors, may influence performance and impact recovery timelines. Garrett recently defended his dissertation and is currently completing his pre-doctoral internship at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Megan Bradson

Megan joined the lab in Fall 2020. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Penn State University, where she was a research assistant in the PSU Sports-Related Concussion Lab and completed her honors thesis in the PSU Neuropsychology of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Lab. After graduating from Penn State in 2018, Megan worked as a postbaccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Pain and Integrative Neuroscience Research Branch. She is excited to return to Dr. Arnett’s lab, but this time, as a graduate student! Megan is broadly interested in combining neuropsychological and neuroimaging techniques to better understand how modifiable factors (e.g., health, psychosocial) interact with biological and neuropsychological processes that increase susceptibility to cognitive dysfunction and poor outcomes in MS and sport-related concussion with the ultimate goal of finding targets for intervention. Megan’s master’s thesis examined coping style as a moderator in the relationship between pain and depression in persons with MS, which was recently published in Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. Megan was recently selected to participate in the Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Mentorship program at the Kessler Foundation, an opportunity sponsored by the National MS Society.

McKenna Sakamoto

McKenna joined the lab in Fall 2022. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of San Diego in 2019. Afterwards, she worked with Dr. Victoria Merritt at the VA San Diego Healthcare System as a neuropsychology research coordinator. In this role, McKenna conducted research on military traumatic brain injury and published several peer-reviewed papers on cognitive intraindividual variability, health-related quality of life, and coping and self-efficacy in veterans with a history of TBI. McKenna is interested in examining the relationships between cognitive, psychiatric, neurobehavioral, and functional outcomes after TBI to inform interventions. As a graduate student, she looks forward to researching these constructs in athletes with a history of sport-related concussion and individuals with a history of traumatic and hypoxic brain injury due to intimate partner violence. For her master’s thesis, McKenna looked at depressive symptoms as a moderating and mediating factor on the relationship between performance-based and self-reported cognitive functioning in collegiate athletes who sustained a sport-related concussion. This research was also recently published in Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology.

Celeste Santivasci

Celeste joined the Arnett Lab in Fall of 2024. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ohio State University in 2019. Following graduation, she worked as a project coordinator on a randomized controlled trial investigating interoceptive awareness in Active-Duty Service Members and Veterans on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Before joining the Arnett lab, she also pursued her master’s degree at the University at Buffalo, completing a thesis that explored the associations between personality and disease worsening in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). During her time there, she conducted research examining additional factors impacting outcomes in persons with MS and contributed to the development and validation of a novel auditory test of processing speed. Celeste is interested in incorporating factors such as affectivity and cognitive reserve into her research, and examining the roles they play in MS. Furthermore, she looks forward to broadening the scope of her research to include sports related concussion populations, and investigating the ways personality, affectivity, and cognitive reserve may impact post-injury cognition and return to play.

Graduate Student Alumni

Kaitlin Riegler

Kaitlin joined the lab in Fall 2017. She received her Bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University in 2013. Before joining the lab, Kaitlin worked for three years at Princeton University as the project coordinator for the NCAA-DOD Concussion, Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) consortium longitudinal clinical study. While at Princeton, she also worked as a project coordinator for the Big 10-Ivy League Academic Alliance “Epidemiology of Concussion in Ivy League/Big 10 Sports” project. She completed her Master’s Thesis in 2018. This project involved validating a subset of symptoms from the ImPACT Post-Concussion Symptom Scale (PCSS) as a screener for depression, and was subsequently published in the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. More recently Kaitlin has published a paper in Neuropsychology examining differences in neuropsychological test performance between depressed and non-depressed concussed athletes. She completed her minor project in 2020 focusing on fatigue and cognitive functioning in Multiple Sclerosis, and this paper was recently published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. More generally, Kaitlin is interested in identifying risk factors for prospectively sustaining a concussion and psychological factors impacting clinical recovery time and return to baseline neurocognitive functioning post-injury. Kaitlin received the Phi Sigma Sigma’s Laura Treanor Memorial Scholarship for 2020-2021, and was also a recent winner of a Pennsylvania Psychological Foundation (PPF) Education Award. Kaitlin completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System - West Haven and is currently completing a clinical neuropsychology post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton Neuropsychology and the Sports Concussion Center of New Jersey.

Erin Guty

Erin joined the lab in Fall 2015. After receiving her bachelor's degree from Princeton University, she worked at Harvard University, researching the cognitive and social cognitive deficits experienced by individuals with schizophrenia through the use of clinical neuropsychological evaluations and MRI scans. Erin is currently working on projects evaluating the factors that relate to deficits in cognitive and emotional functioning following concussion. She is primarily interested in the underlying mechanisms of cognitive deficits in individuals with neural dysfunction and the factors contributing to individual resiliency and vulnerability to such deficits with the ultimate goal of finding targets for intervention. She completed her minor project in 2018 focusing on the use of a memory measure, the AWL, to detect negative affective bias as a way to potentially identify depression symptoms. Erin's poster entitled, "Executive Functioning in College Students with Chronic Post-Concussion Symptoms" won first place in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Category at Penn State's 2018 Graduate Exhibition. Erin was also awarded the Ellen V. Piers scholarship in fall, 2019 and in spring of 2020 received Penn State’s Research and Graduate Studies Office (RGSO) award to support her dissertation research. She also received the 2021 Wisniewski Family Enhancement Fund Award from the Penn State Department of Psychology. Erin completed her clinical internship at the Charleston Consortium and is currently doing a clinical neuropsychology post-doctoral fellowship at the Maryland VA Healthcare System.

Liora Greenberg

Liora is a seventh year graduate student specializing in cognitive and affective neuroscience. After earning a masters degree at Vanderbilt University, and subsequently working as a staff clinician in Penn State’s Psychological Clinic, Liora developed an interest in clinical neuropsychology. Her primary research interest focuses on the neuropsychological effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Liora’s master’s thesis examined the impact of mTBI on processing speed and individual reaction time components using drift-diffusion computational modeling. Her minor research project explored mTBI and symptom duration in a college sports setting. Liora plans to investigate this topic further in her dissertation, studying post-traumatic headache, as well as the relationship between genetics and clinical recovery from sport concussion. When not in the lab or clinic, Liora enjoys spending time with her family, eating (plants!), and being a Suzuki mom. Liora recently defended her dissertation and also completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Buffalo VA Medical Center.

Meg Cadden

Meg joined the lab in 2013. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Bates College in 2011, and after graduation, worked as a research assistant at the Memory Disorders Research Center (VA Boston Healthcare System). She is currently engaged in various projects examining cognitive and emotional functioning in multiple sclerosis (MS). Her master's thesis examined predictors of employment status among individuals with MS and her minor project explored the relationship between stigma, depression, and disease progression in individuals with multiple sclerosis. She received the 2015 Scott and Paul Pearsall Scholarship from The American Psychological Foundation (APF) to conduct her minor project. Her primary research interest is the interface of emotion and cognition in neurological disorders. She is exploring this topic further in her dissertation by examining how cognitive reserve moderates aspects of this complex relationship. In 2018 she was awarded the Benton Meier Neuropsychology Scholarship from APF to help fund her dissertation! She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and is currently doing a clinical neuropsychology post-doctoral fellowship at MGH/Harvard.

Cristina Roman

Cristina joined the Arnett Lab in summer 2014. She received her Bachelor's degree in Psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Cristina is currently engaged in projects aimed at examining structural and functional brain changes in MS and how they relate to cognitive functioning and depression. She hopes to further examine the neural subtrates of MS through diffusion weighted imaging, volumetric analyses, and resting state functional connectivity. Her long-term objective is to develop a research program built on a symbiotic relationship between research and practice by utilizing neural substrates as diagnostic tools and treatment guides for individuals recovering from neurological and psychological disease. Cristina completed her pre-doctoral internship at The Charleston Consortium Internship Program, a joint endeavor of the Medical University of South Carolina and the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Brown University, and will move on to the Kessler Foundation in summer of 2021. Cristina received an INS SLC Research Award for her INS submission for the 2021 conference, which is a distinction that recognizes her submission as one of the best research submissions at the INS Annual Meeting by a student or trainee. Congratulations, Cristina!

Jessie Meyer

Jessie completed her clinical internship at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and recently accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. During her time at Penn State she served as the project coordinator for the Sports-Related Concussion Program and worked on several projects related to evaluating current methods of assessing the effects of sports-related concussion on cognitive and emotional functioning. Her dissertation research evaluated the effects of head trauma on cognitive functioning in victims of intimate partner violence. Jessie completed her post-doctoral internship at the Cleveland VA. Jessie Currently works as a clinical neuropsychologist with Summa Health in Akron, Ohio.

Victoria Merritt

Victoria completed her clinical internship at UCSD/VA during the 2016-2017 year and is currently there for her postdoctoral fellowship. Victoria's dissertation research examined the relationship between genetic factors and neuropsychological outcome following sports-related concussion. Her dissertation won the Outstanding Dissertation Award at NAN! Throughout graduate school, Victoria served as the Program Coordinator for the PSU Sports Concussion Program and has been an active member of neuropsychology professional organizations. Victoria is currently a Research Health Scientist a the VA San Diego Healthcare System, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. She is a past winner of NAN’s Early Career Award, and received a Career Development Award (CDA) through the VA.

Dede Ukueberuwa

Dede recently received a postdoctoral fellowship in the neuropsychology of trauma and resilience in the Operation Mend Clinic at the UCLA Semel Institute and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. Her clinical research investigates emotional and functional consequences of traumatic brain injury in military veterans. Dede's work at Penn State focused on using neuropsychological assessment and structural and functional neuroimaging to study emotional and cognitive factors in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Dede founded the PSU chapter of the Association of Neuropsychological Students in Training and serves on a committee for the National Academy of Neuropsychology. She completed her clinical internship at VA Ann Arbor Healthcare/University of Michigan, and her postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at UCLA. She is currently on the faculty at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Gray Vargas

Gray completed her clinical internship at the VA Maryland Healthcare System and is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuropsychology at the Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. Recently, one of her studies on depression after concussion was covered by the Huffington Post! She has given talks and presented several posters at the annual INS and NAN conferences. She won best Student Poster at NAN in 2012 and first place in Social and Behavioral Sciences for her poster presented at the Penn State University Graduate Research Exhibition 2009. Gray has over 20 publications and numerous conference presentations.

Amanda Rabinowitz

Amanda Rabinowitz is an Institute Scientist and Director of the Brain Injury Neuropsychology Laboratory at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (MRRI) in Philadelphia, PA. After completing her clinical clinical internship at Brown's Alpert School of Medicine, she went on to complete two post-doctoral fellowships—an NIH National Research Service Award at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Brain Injury & Repair, and a T32 fellowship in the MRRI/University of Pennsylvania training program in Translational Neuroscience and Neurorehablitation. Her current research focuses on the pathophysiology and management of concussion and traumatic brain injury (TBI). She studies psychosocial and cognitive contributions to acute and long-term outcomes from moderate-severe TBI through the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) sponsored Moss Rehab Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS), for which she is a co-investigator. She has a particular interest is the assessment and management of sports-related concussion, which she studies in collaboration with the MossRehab Concussion Center

Christopher M. Bailey

Chris graduated from Penn State University before completing an internship in neuropsychology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and then served as the chief fellow in neuropsychology during his post-doc at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Dr. Bailey is currently an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He also serves as the director of the UH Sports Medicine Concussion Center and the director of the Concussion Program for the Neurological Institute at University Hospitals. Dr. Bailey has worked collaboratively with multiple departments and specialties to update, integrate, and standardize concussion management services across a large hospital system in northeast Ohio, including developing a network of multidisciplinary concussion specialists with the goal of improving concussion identification and management on and off the sports field. Clinically, he has assisted in the neuropsychological management of concussion in all contexts, including work at all levels of sport. His current clinical roles include being the neuropsychological consultant to the Cleveland Browns, the Lake Erie Monsters, as well as multiple other universities, high schools, and youth sport leagues in northeast Ohio. Dr. Bailey has made several invited addresses at national conferences and written peer-reviewed articles and chapters focusing on sports concussion management, with a particular emphasis on understanding the factors which may influence the accuracy and validity of concussion testing and evaluation.

Lauren B. Strober

Lauren Strober graduated from PSU in 2007 and went on to complete her clinical internship at the Veterans Administration of Western NY in Buffalo. She then pursued a clinical postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at the Cleveland Clinic in which she attained an Epilepsy Foundation Behavioral Research Postdoctoral Fellowship. Upon completion of her post doctoral training, she accepted a position at Kessler Foundation in New Jersey and is presently a Senior Research Scientist in the Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Laboratory. She is a recipient of a National Institutes of Health K23 Career Development Award and is also funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) and a Patterson Trust. Finally, Lauren is a Research Scientist at Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation, a mental health consultant for the NMSS, and maintains clinical practices in New York and New Jersey. She presently lives along the Hudson in Tarrytown NY with her rescue dog, Darby.

Jared M. Bruce

Jared Bruce received his PhD in clinical psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and completed a post-doctoral residency in neuropsychology at Brown Medical School. He is currently a Professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Dr. Bruce has authored more than 100 papers and presentations. He is the recipient of the 2014 Society for Clinical Neuropsychology Early Career Award. His current research examines the cognitive and emotional aspects of health decision-making.

Megan M. Smith

Megan Smith obtained her doctorate in clinical psychology from The Pennsylvania State University in 2007. She completed her predoctoral clinical internship and postdoctoral training in clinical neuropsychology at Brown University. From 2009- 2014, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. In 2014, she returned to her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland to join the neuropsychology staff at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, where she conducts cognitive assessments with veterans and provides supervision to externs, interns, and postdoctoral fellows. Her major areas of research interest are cognition in neurodegenerative disorders and the neuropsychological correlates of depression.

Dawn Polen Silver

Dawn successfully completed her internship at the Tampa VA in Florida and then did her post-doctoral work at the Florida Atlantic University counseling center. She has advanced training in neuropsychology, with a specialty in testing for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Personality Disorders, mild cognitive impairment, depression, and anxiety. She is also trained in Florida family court mediation, and has received advanced training in sex therapy, completing all certification requirements in the state of Florida. Dr. Silver’s therapeutic areas of expertise are in psycho-education, CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), REBT (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy), MI (Motivational Interviewing), as well as Solution Focused Therapy. She has over 15 years of experience working clinically with adults; successfully treating individuals, couples, and families.

Aaron Rosenbaum

After getting his Ph.D. in 2008, Aaron served as a lecturer in psychology at Penn State for three years. In 2010, he moved to the market research industry (and to Philadelphia) where he has been for the last 5 years. His duties have involved designing surveys; managing data collection; conducting both basic and advanced business analytics (e.g., t-tests, cluster analysis, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, etc.); and constructing and presenting reports detailing project findings. He is currently serving as a Senior Project Director at MSI International. On the side, he serves as a tutor for students taking stats courses, while also working as a statistical consultant with graduate students completing theses and dissertations. He lives in Conshohocken, PA.

Fiona H. Barwick

Fiona completed her internship at the Palo Alto VA, and then completed postdoctoral fellowships at the James A. Haley Florida VA, and the Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System VA. She is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine. Dr. Barwick specializes in cognitive-behavioral treatment for sleep disorders, including insomnia, parasomnias, sleep apnea, and circadian rhythms. In addition to having a solid foundation in psychological research, theory and practice, she has specialized experience in conducting neuropsychological assessments for adults across the lifespan and teaching compensatory cognitive strategies to individuals with brain injury.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Peter Arnett

Current Graduate Students

Garrett Thomas

Read more about Garrett's recent work!

Garrett's Research

Garrett's First-Author Publications

Garrett's First-Author Oral Presentations

Garrett's Clinical Work

Garrett's Service

Megan Bradson

Read more about Megan's recent work!

Megan's Research

Megan's First-Author Publications

Megan's First-Author Presentations

Megan's Clinical Work

Megan's Service