Emily began her doctoral studies at Northwestern University in the fall of 2021. She is a biological anthropologist interested in understanding human brain development through an evolutionary lens. Specifically, she is interested in understanding how early life stress impacts various brain regions during early childhood and the evolutionary implications it may have for cognitive, behavioral, social, and physiological development. Emily has joined the PEACE lab with Dr. Suor at UIC to understand further how early life adversity and parenting practices can impact cognitive processes such as executive function, learning, and memory to shed light on the potential adaptive outcomes of stress early in childhood. Her interests include life history theory, stress acceleration, cognitive development, parenting practices, brain metabolism, brain energetics, and the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). Emily received her B.A. in anthropology from the University of Alabama in 2018, and M.A. in bioarchaeology from the University of Central Florida, and an M.A. in biological anthropology from Northwestern University in 2023.