About

PBS at a Glance

34
Tenure-track Faculty
13
Lecturers
8
Postdoctoral Fellows
347
Honors Students
2,246
Undergraduate Major Students
66
Graduate Students
25
Neuroscience and Behavior Graduate Students
360
Neuroscience Track Majors

Research

Sponsored Grants and Contracts Awarded
Past 5 Years: $27,768,125
FY2023: $5,379,663

Read about events from our department history, or check out a snapshot of our current educational programs, achievements, and leadership.

The following faculty and staff leaders provide administrative support for the department and are available to answer your questions.

Ilia Karatsoreos

Professor, Department Chair

Ilia Karatsoreos
The ultimate goal of Dr Karatsoreos's research program is to understand the factors that either promote resilience or increase vulnerability to environmental challenges.
Ilia Karatsoreos
Tammy Rahhal

Associate Chair for Teaching and Advising

Tammy
Associate Chair for Teaching and Advising
Tammy
Melinda Gonzales-Backen

Associate Professor, Associate Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Melinda Gonzales-Backen
Dr. Gonzales-Backen’s work focuses on the interface of ethnicity and adolescent development within cultural and family contexts.
Melinda Gonzales-Backen
Laura Wildman-Hanlon

Assistant to the Chair, Office Manager

Laura Wildman-Hanlon
Laura Wildman-Hanlon
Susan Young

Director of Finance and Operations

Susan Young
Susan Young
Evan Yeadon

Communications Coordinator

Evan Yeadon
Evan Yeadon
Jonathan Tominar-Lipari

Building Coordinator

Jonathan Tominar-Lipari
Jonathan Tominar-Lipari
Kelly Tierney

Human Subjects and Compliance Administrator

Kelly Tierney
Kelly Tierney
Rosa Guerra

Bookkeeping

Rosa Guerra
Rosa Guerra
Joseph Bergman

Shop Supervisor

Joseph Bergman
Joseph Bergman
Michael McDermott

Facilities Operation Manager, Website Administrator

Michael McDermott
Michael McDermott

 

Undergraduate Program

Andrew Cohen

Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies

Andrew Cohen
Dr. Cohen studies reasoning, judgment, decision-making, and computational modeling.
Andrew Cohen
Lori Astheimer

Senior Lecturer

Lori Astheimer
Dr Astheimer's research explores the relationship between attention and language processing in children and adults.

Lori Astheimer
Matt Davidson

Lecturer

Matt Davidson
My teaching interests include the development of cognitive control and executive functions, and the factors that influence mechanisms underlying these abilities in both typical and atypical cases.
Matt Davidson
Carolyn Davies

Lecturer

Carolyn Davies
Carolyn Davies
Becky Schneider

Principal Academic Advisor

Becky Schneider
Email: schneider@umass.edu
Phone: 413-545-0691
Location: Tobin 503
Becky Schneider
Erik Cheries

Senior Lecturer, Honors Program Director

Erik Cheries
Dr. Cheries runs the Infant Cognition Laboratory at UMass, which conducts studies to examine what our concepts are like in the first year of life, prior to the influence of language, culture, and formal education. His research currently concentrates on three main aspects of early knowledge
Erik Cheries
Ashley Woodman

Senior Lecturer, Program Director DDHS

Ashley Woodman
Ashley Woodman's research primarily focuses on the impact of raising a child with an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD) on parent and family well-being, as well as the impact of family processes on the social, emotional, and behavioral development of individuals with IDD over the life course. She is also interested in how people - including parents, students and community members - make meaning of disability (e.g., disability paradigms).
Ashley Woodman

Graduate Programs

Rebecca Ready

Professor, Graduate Program Director

Rebecca
Dr. Ready is the Graduate Program Director and a board certified neuropsychologist.
Rebecca
Sabrina Flagg

Graduate Administrative Assistant

Sabrina Flagg
Sabrina Flagg

Program Heads

Kyle Cave

Professor

Kyle Cave
I study various aspects of visual cognition, including visual attention, visual search visual comparison, symmetry, and bias in visual processing, using behavioral methods and eyetracking.
Kyle Cave
Nilanjana Dasgupta

Professor

Nilanjana Dasgupta
Research in our lab shines a light on unspoken assumptions about social groups, often called implicit stereotypes or biases, and the ways in which they impact people’s evaluations o
Nilanjana Dasgupta
Kirby Deater-Deckard

Professor

Kirby Deater-Deckard
Dr Deater-Deckard studies variation in human development from early childhood through adulthood.
Kirby Deater-Deckard
Katherine Dixon-Gordon

Associate Professor

Katherine Dixon-Gordon
Dr. Dixon-Gordon is a clinical psychologist and associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts. Research in her lab focuses on the role of emotional processes in the development and maintenance of psychopathology, with an emphasis on borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Katherine Dixon-Gordon
David Moorman

Associate Professor

David Moorman
Dr Moorman studies cellular and network mechanisms of motivation, learning, and executive functions.
David Moorman