Our Team

Elena Grigorenko, Ph.D.

Elena Grigorenko, Ph.D. has a wide interest in a number of areas in psychology, genetics and neuroscience. Correspondingly, she has (co-)mentored students in various graduate programs (linguistics, statistics, psychology, genetics, education and neuroscience) and several undergraduate majors in universities in the Russian Federation and United States. Most of her projects are highly collaborative and interdisciplinary, involving scientists from various fields and various countries. She has served as editor-in-chief and board member for a number of professional journals and engaged in reviews for various federal and private funding agencies from different countries around the world. Grigorenko appreciates and values diversity in people’s expertise, approaches and perspectives. She views such diversity as the foundation for all of the lab’s teaching, learning and research activities.

Jenny Flick, B.S.

Jenny Flick is dedicated to the Genesis Lab as the lab manager. Additionally, she serves as the Project Manager for a study on learning disabilities in the juvenile justice system and provides crucial support to the Individual Differences in Response to Stress study. With a background in administrative work and psychology, Jenny brings extensive experience in research coordination, project management, organizational leadership, and scientific inquiry to the team.

Jenny holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Houston, where she honed her analytical skills and developed a deep understanding of research methodologies. Outside of work, Jenny enjoys spending time with her dogs, listening to good music, painting pottery, and knitting, finding inspiration and balance through creative pursuits.

Oxana Yu. Naumova, Ph.D.

Oxana Yu. Naumova earned a Ph.D. in genetics in 2008 from the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics (VIGG), Russia. Naumova’s main scientific interests are in the field of human population genetics and epigenetics. Her ongoing research focuses on understanding the role of dynamic interactions between the genome/gene pool and environment genetic in the development of genetic diversity of populations and psychophysiological phenotypes of individuals. She has authored or co-authored more than 30 publications in the field of gene geography, paleogenetics and epigenetics. Currently, Naumova is a senior researcher at the VIGG and an assistant professor at the University of Houston.

Lisa Chinn, Ph.D.

Upon earning her Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 2019, Lisa joined the GENES:IS Lab as a post-doctoral associate. She is now Research Assistant Professor at UH, and she directs an Office of Naval Research sponsored project on individual differences in response to stress. Her research focuses on infants’ knowledge about their own bodies, effects of early adversity on development, EEG, and cognitive control. Lisa also received a B.S. in psychology from the University of Oregon and an M.S. in cognitive neuroscience from Tulane University.

Galina Khafizova, Ph.D.

Galina Khafizova is a postdoctoral fellow in the GENESIS lab. Galina earned a Ph.D. in genetics in 2022, studying the consequences of horizontal gene transfer between organisms. Khafizova’s main scientific interests are related to the genetics-environment interactions. Her current research focuses on the various outcomes of adverse traumatic events and dysfunctional early childhood environments. She also studies the effects of prenatal stress on progeny, unravelling the underlying molecular mechanisms. In her free time, Galina enjoys baking, traveling, learning new languages, crafting, and painting with watercolors.  

Pavel Dobrynin, Ph.D.

Pavel Dobrynin is a postdoctoral fellow in the GENESIS lab. He has developed practical skills in a wide range of disciplines: molecular biology, DNA sequencing and microbiology. He also has experience with different kinds of phylogenetic, population and demographic analyses. He works with various annotation procedures: gene annotation, gene selection, gene families’ expansion and contraction, functional gene annotation and repetitive annotation, and SNP and CNV analysis. 

Connor Cheek, Ph.D.

Connor Cheek, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the GENESIS lab. He received his B.S. in Physics from the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma in 2017, and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Houston in 2023. Connor is an academic data scientist, and uses machine learning to predict developmental outcomes using biological indicators. His current research interests are in the development of machine learning pipelines to effectively identify genetic markers and model their association with academic and cognitive skills. 

Jessica Garcia, M.A.

Jessica Garcia is a student in the clinical child psychology Ph.D. program. She graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2014 with bachelor’s degrees in both psychology and criminal justice, and she completed her master’s in clinical psychology from Loyola University Maryland in 2016. Broadly, she is interested in the etiology of externalizing disorders in childhood and adolescence, with a primary focus on the sociocultural factors that affect their development and presentation. Clinically, she is passionate about working with kids and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as those involved in the juvenile justice and foster care systems. She is currently completing her predoctoral internship at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston within their Developmental/Assessment Track.

Shira Mattuck, M.A.

Shira is a student in the child track of the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. She is interested the role of parenting and experiences of racial and ethnic discrimination in the etiology and course of externalizing behavior problems and callous-unemotional traits in children and youth. Shira completed her master’s degree in clinical psychology at Columbia University-Teachers College and her bachelor’s degree in psychology at McGill University. 

Vanesa Lerma, M.A.

Vanesa Lerma is a Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student specializing in Neuropsychology and Child Psychology at the University of Houston. She received her B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from St. Edward’s University in 2016 and her M.A. in General Psychology at New York University in 2018. Her primary research interest is to study how genetic information can be integrated with neuropsychological and neuroanatomical data to comprehensively understand neurological conditions, especially novel neurogenetic and neurodevelopmental disorders. She is also interested in intra-operative brain mapping and investigating how genotype may impact post-neurosurgery outcomes. Her clinical training goal is to gain well-rounded experience with individuals across the lifespan, but she is especially interested in working with children. As a Latina Mexican immigrant, she is drawn to serve minority individuals who lack access to neuropsychological services due to language and cultural barriers.

Emily Daly, MSc

I am a second-year Clinical Psychology Ph.D. student specializing in Clinical Neuropsychology. I received my B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavior from the University of Notre Dame and my MSc in Developmental Psychology and Psychopathology from King’s College London. My research interests include behavioral genetics, learning disorders, and using large data sets to examine educational achievement. Recently, my poster “Reading Ability as a Predictor of Educational Achievement in Science in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” was accepted to the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading 2024 conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. It has been an honor to work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Education & Training Evaluation Commission to investigate the role of reading on achievement.

Matthew Hyland, B.S.

Matthew Hyland is a student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program, focusing on Clinical Neuropsychology. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience and psychology. In addition to his studies of neuropsychology, Matthew is broadly interested in multimodal neuroimaging and functional connectivity, epigenetics, psychometrics, mechanisms of learning and English as a second language.

Katherine Crabb, B.S.

Katherine is a first-year Clinical Psychology PhD student on the child track. She received her B.S. in Psychology from Texas A&M University in 2023 and joined the lab as a research assistant after graduation. Her interests include autism spectrum disorder and adverse childhood experiences, particularly within various cultural and environmental contexts. She is currently part of the team working on an Office of Naval Research sponsored project on individual differences in response to stress. Additionally, she is leading a meta-analysis associated with the larger ONR project.

Suravi Sarkar, B.S.

Suravi is a first-year clinical neuropsychology graduate student in the GENESIS lab. She received her bachelor’s degree from Rice University, majoring in Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Psychology. She is interested in studying how behavior and affect impacts cognitive performance like language and working memory.

Ilia Markov, M.A.

Ilia Markov is a Ph.D. student in the Developmental, Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience program, who joined the GENESIS lab in 2020. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Linguistics from Chelyabinsk State University and his Master of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Houston. His interests include language origin and evolution, predicting patterns in typological linguistic data and working with assessments of different language domains. He has worked on projects such as the Bilingual English Language Learners Assessment (BELLA) and currently works in the Individual Differences in Response to Stress (IDRS) project team, as well as on his doctoral dissertation looking into correlations between genetic and linguistic diversity on the continent of Africa.

Hechmi Kilani, B.A.

Hechmi Kilani received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Houston and is now a Ph.D. student in the Developmental, Cognitive, and Behavioral Neuroscience program. He is interested in the effects that digital media and technology have on child development, particularly early development. Hechmi is also keen on working with undergraduate students and mentoring them to gain research experience and prepare for their own graduate school experiences. His current projects include our Bilingual English Language Assessment (BELLA) study, which is a tablet-based assessment administered to preschoolers. He values cultural differences and has an interest in studying development from a cultural lens as well. Indeed, Hechmi is contributing to the team effort of translating BELLA into Arabic, while considering the complex cultural context of the middle east and north Africa.

Leandro Ledesma, B.S.

Leandro (Leo) Ledesma is a third-year student in the DCBN program. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Houston in 2021. Leo works on various projects within the lab and has interests in EEG related research and coding (specifically in R). He is currently the US project manager of the KBB study where he is investigating the prevalence and characteristics of developmental disabilities in rural Zambia.

Ksenia Kharitonova, M.A.

Ksenia joined the lab in 2023 as a graduate student in the Developmental, Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience program. She has a BA and MA in Linguistics from Chelyabinsk State University with a focus on the pragmatics of speech. Her area of interest includes language adaptations, individual differences in language acquisition and literacy development. She is currently working in the Individual Differences in Response to Stress (IDRS) project team, as well as on her Master’s thesis on gender differences in literacy development of children in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Brittany Miller, B.S.

Brittany Miller is a student in the Developmental, Cognitive, Behavioral Neuroscience Ph.D. program. She graduated from Prairie View A&M University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2023. Her interests include neuroimaging, gender differences in cognitive performance, academic achievement in English as a second language (ESL) learners, and autism spectrum disorder. She is currently working on a project that examines individual differences in response to stress. Brittany is the undergraduate recruiter and manager for the GENESIS lab.