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CLEAR – Eisenlohr-Moul Lab

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CLEAR – Eisenlohr-Moul Lab
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Tory Eisenlohr-Moul PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology
  • Associate Director of Translational Research in Women’s Mental Health
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UIC, and holds an additional courtesy appointment in the Department of Psychology. She is a licensed clinical psychologist with specialized fellowship training in the pathophysiology, assessment, and treatment of hormone-related psychiatric disorders-- particularly premenstrual disorders.

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Tory Eisenlohr-Moul

Melissa L. Wagner-Schuman MD, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  • Co-Director, Women's Mental Health Clinical Services
Dr. Melissa Wagner-Schuman was born and raised in Wisconsin and completed most of her training in the Milwaukee area. She went to undergrad at the Milwaukee School of Engineering and graduated with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She continued her education at the Medical College of Wisconsin where she received her MD in 2012 and received a PhD in Neuroscience in 2010. During the last several years of medical school she became interested in psychiatry, particularly at risk youth, and developed interventions to help prevent or limit adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

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Melissa Wagner-Schuman

Hafsah Tauseef MS

  • Graduate Research Assistant
Hafsah graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a M.S in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling in 2018. Hafsah then gained extensive training under Drs. Susan Girdler and Crystal Schiller in the psychopathology and pathophysiology of reproductive mood disorders at the UNCCH Center for Women’s Mood Disorders, exploring estradiol variability, stress, and affect in perimenopausal women and peripubertal girls. Additionally, she explored the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention and social support for women with high stress.

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Hafsah Tauseef

Rafia Ali BS

  • Graduate Research Assistant
Rafia is currently a third year medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. She received her B.S. in biological sciences and a minor in sociology from University of Illinois Chicago. Rafia previously worked with the Women’s Mental Health Research Program at UIC and has a background in clinical research in women’s health and psychiatry. She is interested in mood and anxiety disorders and their relationship to women’s health.

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Rafia Ali

Viraja Alluri

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant
Viraja is a Sophomore at UIC pursuing a B.S. in Bioinformatics with a Minor in Finance. Viraja joined the CLEAR lab in the summer of 2019 to work with Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul and her staff on the CLEAR-2 and CLEAR-3 NIMH-funded studies. She is a pre-med student and member of the UIC GPPA Medicine Program.

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Viraja Alluri

Jordan Barone BA

  • Graduate Research Assistant
Jordan came to UIC in 2018 as an MD/PhD student in UIC’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). Currently, Jordan is completing the PhD phase of her dual-degree training under Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Prior to joining the CLEAR lab, Jordan graduated from Vanderbilt University with double majors in Neuroscience and Child Development, then completed a post-baccalaureate research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), studying sex differences in brain development across puberty. Jordan’s research interests focus on identifying biological predictors of psychiatric symptom change across the menstrual cycle, such as neuroactive steroids, changes in the GABA-A receptor, and other potential biomarkers.

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Jordan Barone

Gabriela Guzman MS, BA

  • Clinical Research Coordinator
Gabriela joined Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul’s CLEAR Lab (Claryifing Endocrinology of Acute Risk) in April 2021 as a Clinical Research Coordinator to assist on research investigating acute neurobiological risk of depression and suicidal behaviors. She received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Spanish from the University of Illinois at Chicago in May 2017 and received an M.S. in Biotechnology at Rush University to further pursue a career in research. 

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Gabriela Guzman

Sarah Owens MS

  • Graduate Student Affiliate
Sarah is a current graduate student pursuing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sarah first began working with Dr. Tory Eisenlohr-Moul during her collaborations with Dr. Mitch Prinstein on projects examining puberty, social stress, and suicide in adolescents. Sarah earned her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from UNC Chapel Hill in 2017. Since then, Sarah and Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul have collaborated on a review examining menstrual cycle fluctuations in transdiagnostic suicide risk factors and numerous projects examining within-person cycle fluctuations in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Sarah recently received a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31) from the NIMH to complete her dissertation study examining menstrual cycle fluctuations in suicidal ideation and related social risk factors in chronically suicidal adolescents, under the mentorship of Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul and Dr. Prinstein.

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Sarah Owens

Anisha Nagpal BA

  • MD/PhD Student MSTP, Graduate Program in Neuroscience
Anisha came to UIC in 2020 as an MD/PhD student in UIC's Medical Scientist Training Program. Currently, Anisha is completing the PhD phase of her dual-degree training under Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Prior to joining the CLEAR lab, Anisha graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a major in Public Health Studies, concentrating in biostatistics. Anisha's research interests are in exploring the pathophysiology of reproductive mood disorders and computational neuropsychiatry.

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Anisha Nagpal

Jaclyn Ross PhD

  • Postdoctoral Researcher
  • Department of Psychiatry, UIC
Jaclyn is a postdoctoral researcher within the UIC CLEAR Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Tory Eisenlohr-Moul. Her research centers on 1) the role of the menstrual cycle (and ovarian hormone fluctuations) in both interpersonal symptoms and suicidality, 2) the application of DBT skills in yielding symptom improvement in the premenstrual phase among hormone-sensitive patients. Her clinical interests include the use of cognitive behavioral therapies in treating mood, anxiety, and trauma disorders, as well as Borderline Personality Disorder/emotion dysregulation, couples conflict and sexual dysfunction. Jaclyn applies techniques from the following therapies: cognitive-behavior therapy, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy, exposure therapy, cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure, integrative behavioral couples therapy, and sensate focus therapy.

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Jaclyn Ross

Tolu Salako MS

  • Graduate Research Assistant
Tolu is a first-year medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. She received her B.S in Biological Sciences, B.S in Health & Society, and her B.A in Psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She then completed her M.S in Biomedical Science at the University of North Texas in 2019. Tolu is currently interested in pursuing a career in psychiatry with a focus on mood and personality disorders and is excited to be a member of Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul’s team. While at Southern Methodist University she partnered with the University of Glasgow in Scotland for a study on ‘fMRI neurofeedback on brain state during listening to music’ in the neuroscience department. Tolu was also a research lab assistant in the Treatment of Anxiety and Depression Research Center while at Southern Methodist University.

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Tolu Salako

Katja Maria Schmalenberger PhD

  • Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Clarify the Endocrinology of Acute Risk (CLEAR) – Eisenlohr-Moul Lab
  • Department of Psychiatry
Katja is a postdoctoral fellow within the UIC CLEAR Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Tory Eisenlohr-Moul. She is a recipient of the Walter Benjamin Research Fellowship from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). Her research centers on 1) the role of the menstrual cycle (and ovarian hormone fluctuations) in psychiatric symptoms and suicidality, 2) executive functioning and cardiac vagal activity as underlying mechanisms of cyclical symptoms, and 3) the reliable and valid assessment of PMS and PMDD.

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Katja Schmalenberger

Elizabeth Wenzel MA

  • PhD Student, Behavioral Neuroscience Program
  • Graduate Student Affiliate, CLEAR Lab and Women's Mental Health Research Program
Elizabeth began her doctoral studies in the Behavioral Neuroscience Program in the Department of Psychology in the fall of 2018. She is a member of Dr. Pauline Maki's laboratory within the Women's Mental Health Research Program at UIC and thus collaborates with the CLEAR Lab and Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul. She is interested in studying phenotypes of mood and anxiety disorders in women in the context of behavior and biomarkers such as neuroactive steroids, inflammatory markers, etc. Her interests particularly include periods of hormonal fluctuation (i.e. pregnancy). Elizabeth received her B.A. in Psychology and Neuroscience from Carthage College in 2018.

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Elizabeth Wenzel

In addition to her primary affiliation at the UIC Women’s Mental Health Research Program, Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul remains affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Women’s Mood Disorders, where she maintains online resources for the Carolina Premenstrual Assessment Scoring System, a standardized computerized protocol for the diagnosis of DSM-5 PMDD that she created, coded, and validated with her colleagues at UNC in 2015.

Several key collaborators:

Susan Girdler PhD

  • Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Susan Girdler

Crystal Schiller PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Crystal Schiller

Mitchell Prinstein PhD

  • John Van Seters Distinguished Professor
  • Director of Clinical Psychology
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Mitchell Prinstein

Jessica R. Peters PhD

  • Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
  • Brown University
Jessica Peters

Jennifer Gordon PhD

  • Assistant Professor
  • University of Regina
  • Regina, Saskatchewan, CA
Jennifer Gordon