Lab Members

Principal Investigator

Dr. Dana A. Hayward

Dana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta. She completed her PhD at McGill University (Montréal, QC), investigating the purported uniqueness of social attention, and her postdoctoral fellowship at Concordia University (Montréal, QC), researching the link between brain morphometry, neural activity, and behaviour.

Graduate Students

Aurora (Yujie) Zhao

First year PhD student

Undergraduate Students

Honours Students

Richa Acharya

Asees Kaur

Mya Gaudet

Hannah Kraus

Hi there! My name is Hannah and I am a fourth-year student in my first year of the Honors Psychology Program. I am working on a short form media and attention project with Nadia and the experience has been great. This is my second year in the lab and I am excited to continue expanding my knowledge and skills.

Megan Loepelmann

Nadia Skofenko

Hi! My name is Nadia. I am in my third year of BSc in Psychology with Specialization. This is my first year with the VASP Lab and I am excited to learn more about social cognition research techniques. Outside of research, I love spending time obsessing over music and alternative fashion.

Mikkeli Sinongco

Brooke-Lyn Van Teeling

Independent Research Students

Breagh Cotton

Ava Nakonechny

Hello! My name is Ava, and I am a third-year psychology student. It is my second year at the lab and my first year as an independent study student. I am working towards a two-year research certificate focusing on gaze behaviour in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism. I am assisting on three projects within the VASP lab: campus belonging, ADHD event segmentation, and a change detection study. I am very excited to be a part of this team, learn more about research, and expand my knowledge about attention. Outside the lab, I enjoy spending time with family and friends and reading a good book!

Kanzah Rabbani

Erika Vanden Berg

My name is Erika and I am currently a 3rd BSc Psychology student doing an independent study in Dr. Haywards lab. My focus in the lab is on campus belonging and creating inclusive spaces on campus for neurodivergent individuals. My goal is to pursue a career in Occupational Therapy specializing in Animal Assisted Therapy. Outside of school I enjoy spending time in nature, reading, and doing volunteer dog walks!

Volunteer Research Assistants

Madison Oslund

Sharen Anna Manuel

Hi, I’m Sharen, a recent Bsc Psych graduate! In the VASP Lab, I’m researching the relationship between social anxiety and visual attention. This is my first year in the lab and I’m so excited to see what it brings! 

Lab Alumni - Graduate students

Rafael Almeida, MSc

Helen Ma, MSc

Ruby Prinsen

YanFei Song, MSc (Medical School, McGill U)

Lab Alumni - Undergraduate students

Danielle Adedun (graduate student, Clinical Psychology, U Regina)

Huda Al-Shamali (graduate student, Psychiatry program, U Alberta)

Daria Antoszko

Kezziah (KC) Ayuno

Sam Bardestani

Yasmine Bendahmane

Kaitlynn Braulio

Mackenzie Caddy

Megan Campbell

Arianna Cook (graduate student, Psychology, U Alberta)

Bren Cordova

Grace Christiansen

Andy Croome

Jamie Cundal (Medical school, U Saskatchewan)

Mariam Dar

Gurvinder Dhaliwal

Raman Dhaliwal (graduate student, Psychiatry program, U Alberta)

Olivia Dul

Maesha Elahi

Zeinab Elhassan

Zhirui Gao

Hope Giardina

Evlin Glyson

Sana Gulab

Jingru (Helen) Ha (MPH, now Medical school, U Calgary)

Patrick Harvey (programmer)

Mackenzie Heal (graduate student, NMHI, U Alberta)

Devon Heath (graduate student, School & Clinical Child Psychology program, U Alberta)

Emma Heidebrecht

Pui Yan Emily Ho

Amara Hussain (graduate student, Counselling Psychology, Yorkville U)

Sarah Janssens

Nimrit Jhinjar

Phebe Joshua

Harjas Jouhal

Saumya Kapoor

Livleen Kaur (summer student)

Sukhmani Kaur Saggu

Jenna Lafond

Maddie Lesage

Cassie Li

Zoe Liston

Cyndy Liu (medical student, U Alberta)

Ricky Liu (medical student, U Alberta)

Victoria Mackie (graduate student, Counselling Psychology, Yorkville U)

Priyal Mahajan

Chanelle Martens

James McKinnon

Habeebah Mohammad

Liam Nolet-Mulholland

Julia Muir

Ally Nelson

Mel Ouelette

Don Oulette

Mae Pacificar

Akhilesh Parmar

Jasman Parmar

Shikang Peng (member of Dr. St Jacques ME lab)

Jane Pham

Ashwath Puchakatla

Zhichun Qi

Yueyi Qiu (graduate student, the University of Hong Kong)

Omnia Rajab

Tiana Ranta

Suha Rehman (dentistry school, U Alberta)

Tiffany Reidel

Ana Simonette Salaveria

Saeeda Saeed (Medical School, U Toronto)

Milan Shah

Sara Sylvestre

Daniela Teodorescu (graduate student in computing science, U Alberta)

Lavi Thachuk

Khrystyna Topolnytska (Mitacs summer student)

Davin Valera

Shuier Wei

Justine Wiebe

Andrea Ybanez

Claire Yiptong

Collaborators

Dr. Craig Chapman (U Alberta; kinesiology) Dr. Kyle Nash (U Alberta; psychology)

Dr. Anthony Singhal (U Alberta; psychology) Dr. Peggy St. Jacques (U Alberta; psychology)

Dr. Alona Fyshe (U Alberta; psych/comp sci) Dr. Heather Brown (U Alberta; education)