My name is Allison Gaffey. I'm from Old Lyme, Connecticut and I'm currently a
fourth-year student in the Clinical
Psychology PhD program. I'm interested in
how stress hormones, such as the hormone cortisol, and other hormones such as
testosterone and oxytocin, modulate our
emotional, motivational, and cognitive
processes. The primary reason I ended up
here was because I was very familiar
with my current mentor professor
Michelle Worth's research in the area of
biopsychology and then also there's a
very strong collaborative tradition
within both the psychology departments
at Notre Dame and also the university as
a whole and that really helped to foster
research opportunities and was
attractive as well. As a clinical student
I can especially attest to the excellent
training that I've received through that
area. There's also an incredible asset of
having a very strong quantitative
program which has offered us the
opportunity to acquire additional
advanced training in those methods.
I intend to pursue a career conducting
research at ideally a medical school
because they'll offer the appropriate
types of resources pertinent to the
research portfolio that I've cultivated.
I received the National Science
Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award which carries with it funding for
three years during my graduate studies
as well as a host of other opportunities.
The year after I won three other
students in the department followed my
example and were able to also secure
that award so I was thrilled for them.
It's wonderful!
