On a hike in Whistler, British Columbia

I was born in Moscow, Russia and moved to the US with my family when I was a teen. However, I spent most of my life in Canada, where I did my doctoral and postdoctoral training.

I completed my PhD in clinical psychology at McGill University in the lab of Dr. Gillian O'Driscoll. My doctoral research focused on dopamine signaling in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in relation to executive function and cortical morphology. During my doctorate, I also contributed to studies of dopamine transmission in individuals at high risk for addiction. This work was done at the Montreal Neurological Institute. As part of my clinical training, I completed an APA and CPA accredited internship at the Eating Disorders Program of the Douglas Institute.

Upon completing my PhD in 2012, I went on to work on clinical trials in ADHD in both research and clinical capacities at the adult ADHD Research Program directed by Dr. Lily Hechtman at the McGill University Health Centre. Rewarding as this was, I found myself longing for the excitement of being a full-time academic.

So I went on to do my postdoc with Drs. A. Jon Stoessl and Catharine A. Winstanley at the University of British Columbia, where I have spent 5 productive years (and an additional year as a Research Associate) studying, decision making, reward cues, gambling and placebo effects in healthy and clinical groups.

In August of 2020 I joined the Department of Psychology at West Virginia University as an Assistant Professor in the area of Behavioral Neuroscience.

In my free time, I like exploring the great outdoors on foot, on skis or on my bike. In pre-pandemic times, I also used to enjoy dancing Argentine tango, salsa and west coast swing.