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CLEAR – Eisenlohr-Moul Lab

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CLEAR Lab Faculty

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.

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).

CLEAR Lab Staff

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.

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.

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.

Grace Caldwell MD, MHA

Psychiatry Volunteer

Grace Caldwell is a recent medical school graduate with academic interests in neuropsychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. After finishing her undergraduate studies in leadership and psychology at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, Grace went on to complete her M.D. through Saint James School of Medicine. In 2020, Grace joined Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul's CLEAR lab as a psychiatry volunteer interested in exploring the neurobiological influences on mental health and acute suicidality throughout the menstrual cycle.

Kathleen Duffy BS, RN

Visiting Clinical Research Coordinator

Kathleen Duffy joined the CLEAR Lab in December of 2018 to work alongside the team in investigating the acute risk of hormones on suicidality. She graduated Loyola University Chicago with a degree in Nursing with a concentration in mental health. Her research interests focus on anxiety and its effects on physiological adaptations and responses.

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.

Viviana Rojas Madrid

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Viviana is a fourth year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. She joined as a CLEAR lab volunteer the summer of 2020. She will receive her B.A. in Psychology in June 2021. Viviana is interested in continuing her education in the field of clinical psychology, and specific interests include trauma and menstrual hormones interactions with stress responses.

Jennifer Milhiser BS

Volunteer Post-Bac Assistant

Jenn joined the CLEAR Lab in the summer of 2020 to gain experience in a research setting while applying for graduate programs. She graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a B.S. in psychology and is currently working in the non-profit world.

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.

Alyssa Kania BS

Graduate Research Assistant

Alyssa is currently a fourth year medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. She completed her undergraduate degree in Behavioral Neuroscience at Northeastern University and has a background in both clinical and basic science research in women’s health. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Alyssa worked on studies that focused on the future health risks of women who have undergone pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia or gestational diabetes. While in the Laboratory for Aging and Infertility Research at Northeastern, she worked on the derivation of oocyte support cells from human embryonic stem cells as an alternative to conventional hormone replacement therapy. Alyssa is applying for her residency in the field of Psychiatry, and is currently interested in the fields of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Consult-Liaison Psychiatry, and Women’s Mental Health.

Sabina Raja BS

Senior Research Specialist

Sabina joined the CLEAR Lab in January 2020 and is now working as the Clinical Trials Team Lead/Senior Research Specialist on the team. She received her B.S. in psychology with a concentration in behavioral neuroscience, a B.S. in molecular and cellular biology, and a minor in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2018. She is interested in research investigating the cyclical, biological, and neurobiological factors contributing to psychopathological symptoms related to depression and acute risk for suicide.

Husna Sajid

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Husna joined the lab in June 2019 to work with Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul on an NIH funded clinical trial investigating the acute neurobiological risk for suicide. Husna will receive her B.S in Neuroscience from UIC in the Spring of 2020. She is interested in the menstrual cycle and how it relates to mood disorders such as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).

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.

Katja Schmalenberger MS

Graduate Student Affiliate
Ph.D. Candidate in Medical Psychology
Heidelberg University, Germany

After completing her master's program in clinical and cognitive psychology at Heidelberg University, Germany, in 2015, Katja Schmalenberger spent four months interning in Dr. Tory Eisenlohr-Moul's laboratory in the Center for Women's Mood Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since that time, she has mentored my work and PhD project at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Heidelberg University and we have been collaborating closely on various projects. In joint research, they are focusing on improving the reliability and validity of the new DSM-5 diagnosis premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and on investigating the prevalence, underlying mechanisms and consequences of cyclical changes in cognitive functioning. Their work together has led to several high-impact publications, numerous other works in progress, joint conference contributions, and another three-month research visit to the laboratory in the Center for Women's Mood Disorders in North Carolina.

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.

CLEAR Lab Collaborators

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

Crystal Schiller PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mitchell Prinstein PhD

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

Jessica R. Peters PhD

Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Brown University

Jennifer Gordon PhD

Assistant Professor
University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, CA