Leah Cha

Predoctoral Student, Health Psychology

Leah Cha is a fourth-year graduate student in the Health Psychology program. Her research focuses on exploring the biobehavioral pathways through which traumatic experiences shape mental and physical health across the lifespan. She is particularly interested in how these experiences influence fear-related processes and contribute to accelerated biological aging.

Enya Daang (she/her)

Predoctoral Student, Health Psychology

Enya Daang is a second-year student in Health Psychology. Her work focuses on emotion regulation and its role in physical and mental health. She studies how early family environments and current relationships shape emotional processes and social behavior to influence health outcomes. She also examines how inflammation impacts and is impacted by social and emotional experiences.

Manuel Ramirez (he/they)

Predoctoral Student, Health Psychology

Manuel Ramirez is a third-year student in Health Psychology. He is interested in how identity, stigma, and discrimination intersect to differentially affect health outcomes among minority individuals and especially how these forces affect the health and well-being of sexual and gender minorities who also identify as racial/ethnic minorities.

Iris Ka-Yi Chat (she/they)

Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Temple University

Dr. Iris Ka-Yi Chat investigates neurobiological mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of mood psychopathology, with a focus on deficits in motivation and anhedonia. To this end, her work examines reward processing abnormalities, inflammation, and their synergistic interactions. Ultimately, she aims to leverage these mechanistic insights to inform psychosocial interventions that more effectively prevent and treat these debilitating conditions.

Hugo Sanchez Hernandez (he/him)

Ph.D. in Psychology Science, UC Irvine

Dr. Hugo Sanchez Hernandez is interested in the interplay of culture and socioeconomic status (SES) in influencing the association between emotions and psychological health. He has studied the emotional experiences of status-shifting individuals (first-generation college students) as they bridge their differing SES worlds, specifically family and university environments. His work aims to inform a better understanding of how emotions are managed across the social hierarchy and address questions about the potential health and well-being in ethnic minority students transitioning to higher education.