Julia Kovalenko
Julia Kovalenko, PhD, is an assistant professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatric psychologist at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kovalenko provides assessment and treatment for children and adolescents with a wide variety of medical conditions in inpatient and outpatient settings. Common treatment targets include adjustment to diagnosis, anxiety and/or depression related to medical concerns, non-adherence to medical regimen, pain management, and return to functional activities following medical diagnosis / treatment/hospitalization. Dr. Kovalenko completed her clinical psychology doctoral education at the University of Houston, clinical internship training at Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Kovalenko is passionate about disseminating evidence-based mental health information and recently started professional social media accounts to make sure research-backed information is easily accessible to everyone via a platform that most people now rely on for news and information. If you are interested in pediatric psychology, feel free to follow @dr.juliakovalenko.
Marina Zhukova
Dr. Marina Zhukova earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Child Psychology from the University of Houston in 2023. Before joining the GENESIS lab, she completed a doctorate in Clinical Psychology and Psychophysiology at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia, where she studied the effects of psychosocial deprivation. At GENESIS, she continued the research on the impact of early adversity on human development, securing funding for independent projects that contributed to her dissertation.
As the principal investigator, Dr. Zhukova led studies on language development and the cross-generational effects of institutionalization, aiming to better understand psychosocial needs of people with a history of institutionalization, balancing her research with clinical work. She completed her residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School, where she developed an interest in acute care, focusing on crisis intervention for highly vulnerable patients requiring short-term, high-impact solutions. Her postdoctoral fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, further honed her expertise in child and pediatric psychology in inpatient settings.
With over 10 years of clinical experience across pediatric hospitals, psychiatric inpatient units, primary care, community health, juvenile detention, and outpatient settings, Dr. Zhukova is now an Assistant Professor at Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School.